Abstract:

Augmented Reality (AR) is an emergent technology that is revolutionizing the educational environment (Lee & Park, 2020). By adding virtual objects into the real world, AR allows the user to experience both the real and the virtual environment, interacting with both in real time. AR has the potential to increase student motivation and engagement, to enhance collaboration among stakeholders and memorization of contents as well as to improve learning outcomes (Chen et al., 2020; Pegrum, 2021). Despite the plethora of advantages that AR has demonstrated in a number of disciplines, its implementation in the language classroom is still limited and it requires further investigation (Parmaxi & Demetriou, 2020).

Although AR offers the opportunity for the creation of linguistically and culturally authentic domains, the majority of educators are unfamiliar with this emergent technology. Therefore, the role of teachers as designers and facilitators it is still a critical factor (Parmaxi & Demetriou, 2020). In many cases, educators do not possess sufficient knowledge of the technology, they are not equipped with the technical expertise associated with the design of materials and they are not trained to deal with possible technical issues that could arise when AR is implemented in the classroom (Zhang et al., 2020). Regarding the target languages, English and Chinese are the most explored, and although less commonly taught languages are being investigated, the implementation of AR for the Teaching of Italian as an Additional Language (TIAL) is limited to one empirical study (Cervi-Wilson & Brick, 2018).

Against these backdrops, the researcher implemented an Action Research study, focussing on the perceptions of IAL teachers in Argentina. The investigation aimed to highlight the perspective of educators when engaged in the process of designing and implementing AR activities for adolescent students through a mobile AR tool, in a context where economic and technological resources can be limited. Data collected are presented and initial findings of the pilot study are discussed.

In line with other researches (Chen et al., 2020; Taşkıran, 2019) the analysis showed that according to the perceptions of teachers, AR has the potential to enhance student motivation, since it enables the delivery of language and cultural contents with an engaging and meaningful approach for adolescent students. However, although teachers’ positive attitudes towards AR implementation, the research highlighted the need of long-term, ongoing technical training for teachers, since it is crucial to support an effective integration of technology in classroom. Moreover, the initial findings highlight the need for an open-source, code free, mobile AR platform specifically designed for language teachers. Becoming equipped with skills and tools to integrate AR in teaching and learning, educators can indeed customize this emergent technology and avoid the situation where AR learning design is mainly managed by information technology specialists, that ignore students’ needs and have a limited understanding of effective pedagogies.

Keywords:

Augmented Reality, Mobile learning, Italian Language Learning, Teacher Perspective.