Investigating High School Students' Engagement and Presence in Foreign Language Learning Using Virtual Reality: A Quasi-Experimental Study

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group study was to determine if a statistically significant difference existed in the engagement and presence of high school foreign language learners who used virtual reality in their language learning and those who used traditional methods. This study seeks to add to the existing literature by bridging the gap of understanding related to increasing the proficiency of foreign language learners. A convenience sample of 158 high school students was drawn from a school district in the southeast of the United States. The study utilized the user engagement scale and the presence questionnaire, with a selected sample consisting of a treatment group (using virtual reality) and a control group (using traditional methods). The researcher conducted a one-way multivariate analysis of variance to assess the presence and engagement scores in the control and treatment groups. However, the results were inconclusive due to assumption violations. To overcome these limitations, future research should include performing a prolonged study, exploring different virtual reality applications, using appropriate instruments to the age group of ample used, and collecting qualitative data to better understand students' and teachers' opinions.