Adopting VR in the Classroom: Perceptions of bilingual and ESL education pre-service teachers

Virtual reality (VR) is an immersive technology that is gaining momentum in education and has led to new teaching approaches. Moreover, it has spark interest in educator preparation programs and especially in the training of bilingual and ESL pre service teachers. This article showcases a qualitative study conducted with n=27 undergraduate bilingual and ESL pre-service teachers. The study sought to determine the perception of bilingual and ESL pre-service teachers with VR and provide an understanding of VR mobile applications' experiences. All results were obtained from guided reflections made by pre-service teachers enrolled in the course theories of second language acquisition for ESL and bilingual teacher at a university located in north Texas. A content analysis was performed to analyze the reflections, and three categories were determined: strengths of VR, limitations of VR, and VR mobile applications. The findings revealed a positive perception towards the strengths of VR with 60%, including promotes student engagement (41%) and motivates students (29%). On the other hand, pre-service teachers perceived limitations of VR, including associated costs (44%) and the ability to access the internet (31%). Finally, VR mobile applications which offered VR tours were perceived to enhance learning experiences, including Google Expeditions (51%) and VR Tube (23%).