Our story
It started with four virtual worlds and one headset.
In 2019, using virtual reality for group language learning wasn’t a method anyone had tried. Seven years, two Erasmus+ projects and five new environments later, it’s something anyone can download.
How we got here
2019
The first VR4LL project
Funded to find out whether VR could do anything useful for language learning. It produced four virtual worlds (a space station, a tropical island, ancient Rome and an ice world) built around themes the partners cared about: space exploration, survival, cultural heritage, climate change and sustainability.
2022
It turned out to work
The app went free on the Oculus Store. Language schools adopted it internationally. It proved unexpectedly effective for learners with several kinds of learning difficulty. An external training provider built a full teacher course around it. The project was shortlisted for the British Council’s ELTons Innovation Awards and named an example of good practice.
2022
And teachers told us what was missing
Two things, over and over: let more than one person into the world at a time, and give us richer places to put them. Everything in the second project comes from that feedback.
2023
VR4LL 2.0 begins
A three-year Erasmus+ cooperation partnership in adult education, coordinated from Split, bringing together seven partners from five countries: Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Spain.
2024–25
Building and testing
Content designers wrote the learning outcomes first. Developers built minimum viable versions. Teachers from every partner took them into real classrooms and sent back what didn’t work. Then we rebuilt them.
2026
Into classrooms
More than two hundred students piloted the environments, the training course went live, and the final versions are being released free.
2023–2026
What VR4LL 2.0 produced
Three learning environments
Multiplayer worlds a whole class can enter together: a science lab, a restaurant and bar, and an outdoor survival landscape.
See themTwo escape rooms
Narrative scenarios built around chains of puzzles, designed so the class outside the headset does as much work as the explorer inside it.
See themA teacher training programme
A manual, a four-part video series and a free online course in six modules, covering everything from Guardian boundaries to assessment.
Take the courseWhat’s new since the first project
- Multiplayer: several students in the same world at once
- Shared lobbies that let classes in different places, even different countries, work together
- Characters students can talk to, with their speech shown as text on screen
- Larger environments, more detail, longer activities, more to interact with
- Built for the current Meta Quest headsets, with better graphics and performance
- Vertical movement tracking and avatar creation
2019–2022
What the original VR4LL produced
- Four virtual worlds
- A space station, a tropical island, ancient Rome and an ice world, with eight language-learning activities. One student wears the headset; classmates give instructions in the target language. Only one headset is needed.
- Teachers’ Notes
- A user manual and lesson plans: complete support for teachers taking the worlds into class.
- Recognition
- Finalist in the British Council’s ELTons Innovation Awards 2022 (Digital Innovation), and an example of good practice for the Erasmus+ National Agency and the European Commission.
The method
VR is Total Physical Response, with a whole world to respond to.
Explore the methodology, and try TPR yourselfTotal Physical Response (TPR)
Learners physically engage in VR, moving, picking up objects and gesturing, which strengthens language acquisition and memory.
Task-Based Learning
Language is acquired by completing meaningful tasks: solving mysteries, cooking meals, surviving outdoors.
Experiential and collaborative learning
Students acquire knowledge together through exploration, discussion and reflection.
Gamification
Escape-room activities involve problem-solving, time pressure and rewards, all of which increase engagement.
The partnership
Who built VR4LL 2.0
Coordinated from Split
VR4LL is coordinated by Jantar – International House Split, a language school and adult education institution in Split, Croatia, founded in 1992 and a member of the International House World Organisation since 2019.
Jantar is an authorised Cambridge English exam centre and a British Council IELTS test centre for Croatia and Slovenia. It holds an Erasmus+ accreditation for adult education, has taken part in Erasmus+ cooperation partnerships since 2019, and trains teachers from across Europe in Split, including on using VR in the language classroom.
Project details
- Title
- Virtual Reality for Language Learning 2.0
- Programme
- Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in adult education (KA220-ADU)
- Project number
- 2023-1-HR01-KA220-ADU-000151917
- Duration
- 1 November 2023 – 31 October 2026
- Coordinator
- Jantar – International House Split, Split, Croatia
- Partners
- 7 organisations in 5 countries
