Virtual Reality in Language Learning: A Bibliometric Analysis from 2003 to 2023
Yuanlu Xiong · Journal of Education and Educational Research · 2024
Virtual reality (VR), as a computer-generated immersive environment that provides a highly interactive and simulated learning experience, has attracted great attention in the last decades. This author entered "virtual reality" and "language learning" as core keywords in the Web of Science academic paper database, limiting the search to articles published between 2003 and 2023 and English as the publication language, and obtained 430 articles. Subsequently, the author conducted a bibliometric analysis of these 430 relevant papers using the CiteSpace software. The results show that: (1) China has the largest output of literature on VR-based language learning, followed by the United States; (2) the main contributing institutions include National Taiwan Normal University, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and University of London; (3) the literature is mainly distributed in the fields of linguistics, education, and computer science; (4) the main keywords discussed include "immersive learning", "virtual environment", and "interactive experience", and (5) the VR-based language learning is expected to be combined with artificial intelligence (AI) in the future in order to promote English language learning. By systematizing the literature on VR-based language learning, this paper provides a useful overview for scholars or educators who want to further investigate this field.