Written by: Robin Couture-Matte - TÉLUQ University, Québec, Canada

Abstract: This exploratory study investigated the impact of classroom culture on the use of highimmersive virtual reality (HVR) (Kaplan-Rakowski and Grubber, 2019) with young learners of English as a second language (ESL). Classroom culture was defined as the teacher’s views of her role in the classroom, group work and learner autonomy, the students’ use of the target language and learning strategies, and the use of technologies (Gagné and Parks, 2013). Participants consisted of 24 Grade 6 ESL students enrolled in an intensive program in the province of Quebec, Canada. Students worked in teams of four with two Meta Quest 2 head-mounted displays (HMD) as they carried out four communicative tasks in the software application Rec Room. Following a qualitative case study approach (Merriam and Tisdell, 2016), interviews were conducted with the teacher. Recordings of the students’ interactions and the researcher’s observations were also used to analyse the impact of classroom culture on how students engaged with the tasks. The analysis highlights the significance of classroom culture, revealing its connection to students' attitudes, behaviors, and strategies for managing the HMDs and communicative tasks. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future research are also presented.

Keywords: Virtual reality, classroom culture, student engagement, second language learning, young language learners