Abstract:

This study explores the potential of an immersive three-dimensional virtual world for supporting English as a foreign language (EFL) learning in a Spanish-speaking school context. In Latin American systems, EFL is introduced early but remains difficult to master, particularly in public schools where exposure outside the classroom is limited and teaching tends to be textbook- and grammar-oriented. Within this scenario, grammatical areas that require integrating form and meaning, such as the use of adjectives and comparative adjectives in English, are especially challenging for learners whose first language is Spanish.

We report on a classroom intervention using a three-dimensional multiuser environment with one seventh-grade class in a public school in Chile, implemented within the framework of the TYMMI 2.0 project on pedagogical practices in virtual worlds. Spatial is a platform in which learners move through a virtual English Hall, manipulate objects and interact via avatars. The pedagogical focus was on the recognition of adjectives and the use of comparative adjectives in simple English sentences. A distinctive feature of the experience is that it was designed and led by a pre-service teacher in her final teaching practicum, supported by the research team.

The design was pre-experimental, with a single intact group of twenty-four students receiving a three-session intervention. A paper-and-pencil pre-test and post-test with parallel structure were administered. Analyses of learning gains were conducted and descriptive statistics were calculated for group performance; students were classified into low, medium and high-performance bands, and item-level changes in the percentage of correct responses were examined. An effect size for the pre–post difference was also estimated.

Results show a modest improvement from pre-test to post-test. The mean number of correct items increased from 4.0 to 4.7 out of 10, corresponding to a small effect size and a gain of just under one correct item on average. The proportion of students in the high performance band (7–10 correct answers) rose from 21 percent to 32 percent, while the proportion in the low-performance band (0–3 correct answers) remained stable. Item-level analysis revealed substantial gains in items targeting the morphological formation of comparative adjectives, especially one item that increased from 8 percent to 47 percent correct responses, whereas some items on basic adjective recognition showed minor declines.

Overall, the findings suggest that even a brief experience in an immersive virtual world can support specific aspects of grammar learning in EFL and illustrates the feasibility of integrating virtual worlds into English lessons in a public school setting. The study also shows how pre-service teachers can experiment with such environments during their practicum. Building on these results, future work should extend the duration and scope of immersive interventions, integrate more open-ended communicative tasks, and systematically document classroom processes through observations and learner voice. For practitioners and teacher educators, this study offers a concrete example of how a pre-service teacher can orchestrate an immersive environment around a focused grammatical target within the constraints of a public school timetable, positioning virtual worlds not as add-ons but as flexible spaces for contextualized practice, experimentation and reflection.

Keywords:

Immersive virtual worlds, English as a foreign language, Pre-service teachers.