Effects of a self-regulated-based gamified virtual reality system on students’ English learning performance and affection

Scholars have suggested English classrooms with sufficient context and fun activities to increase English performance and promote learning motivation. With the rapid growth of technology-enhanced learning, virtual reality (VR) has become increasingly popular in English learning. Using VR without a well-designed learning environment, however, may not guide students to focus on the learning content to achieve the learning goals. Hence, this study proposed a self-regulated-based gamified VR learning system to trigger students to monitor their learning process to achieve their learning goals. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed system, a quasi-experiment was conducted in a middle school in China involving three groups: students who adopted the self-regulated-based gamified VR system, students who learned with the gamified VR system, and those who learned with a conventional VR system. The results showed that the self-regulated-based gamified VR system significantly improved the students’ English learning performance regarding their English vocabulary and speaking, self-regulation, learning motivation, learning attitudes, and meta-cognition tendency. Moreover, their reflections on the self-regulated-based gamified VR system were revealed and discussed.