Sociology

Business

Neuroscience

Qualitative research

Sample (material)

Perception

Test (biology)

Willingness to communicate

Enthusiasm

Mathematics

Social science

Medical education

Biology

Human–computer interaction

Likert scale

Statistics

Data collection

Mathematics education

Machine learning

Marketing

Developmental psychology

Paleontology

Psychology

Chemistry

Virtual reality

Language proficiency

Computer science

Thematic analysis

Chromatography

Focus group

Medicine

Social psychology

Qualitative property

Computer Assisted Language Learning

This study reports the results of a mixed-methods investigation on the impact of a virtual reality (VR) tool on Iranian EFL learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) and oral proficiency. Twenty upper-intermediate EFL learners were divided into experimental and control groups role-playing as museum guides with and without Google Expeditions VR tool, respectively. Data collection comprised the participants' video-recorded oral performance, willingness to communicate scale, and focus group semi-structured interviews. Independent and paired sample t-test measures were used to investigate the groups' differences in terms of their WTC and oral proficiency development. Thematic analysis was also adopted to explore the participants' attitudes and perceptions toward the use of Google Expeditions in language classrooms. Quantitative findings showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in terms of oral performance and were more willing to communicate at the end of the experiment. The thematic analysis of the qualitative data indicated that the VR tool enhanced the participants' general knowledge, motivation, enthusiasm, cultural awareness, and confidence.

The effect of Google Expeditions virtual reality on EFL learners’ willingness to communicate and oral proficiency