Immersive virtual reality supports Tang poetry learning among primary school students

The present study explored the instructional effectiveness of immersive virtual reality (VR) technology in facilitating primary school students’ learning of Tang poetry. Using the ADDIE instructional design model, this study developed an immersive virtual reality (VR) learning environment to improve students’ achievement, concentration, engagement, and classroom interaction. A quasi-experimental design was adopted for this research, with 166 sixth-grade students from two primary schools in Guiyang, Guizhou Province recruited as participants. Participants in the experimental group received VR-supported instruction, while those in the control group received traditional classroom teaching. To eliminate the impact of baseline heterogeneity between groups and enable a robust comparison of learning outcomes across the two conditions, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was applied, with pre-test scores set as the covariate in the model. The empirical results indicate that participants in the VR learning condition obtained significantly higher post-test scores in achievement, engagement, and classroom interaction than their counterparts in the control group. Regarding concentration, although participants in the VR group exhibited a tendency toward improvement, the ANCOVA results did not detect a statistically significant main effect of group assignment; thus, this result should be treated with caution. Intervention effect sizes differed across dimensions: modest effects were seen for achievement and classroom interaction, whereas a substantially larger effect was observed for engagement. These findings demonstrated the application potential of immersive VR in Chinese classical literature instruction, extending the scope of immersive technology application beyond the STEM field and providing empirical evidence for integrating immersive VR into primary school language education to support abstract literary content instruction.