Reconceptualization of the context in language learning with a location-based AR app

Abstract

In many English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts, learning is often limited to decontextualized classroom learning, and students suffer from lack of interaction and authentic opportunities for language learning. One of the recent emerging technologies, context-aware augmented reality (AR) technology can mitigate this problem for EFL classrooms. In the present study, 40 college students created scenes of gamified digital stories on a location-based AR app and shared them with other students. This study investigated how the students used the physical context and properties in their scenes and how the technology facilitated language learning. Data were collected from student learning outcomes, post-surveys, and reflection papers. The results showed that the students employed context in three different ways, a real place, a fictional setting and a blended reality, and then integrated it with their content and transformed it into a co-constructed meaning-making site. The study also discovered that the technology supported the students’ language learning in the affective, cognitive, and social domains. All elements found in the three domains were interrelated and ultimately contributed to student learning.