Immersive language learning sounds compelling in theory. In practice, putting a 15-year-old in a VR headset and asking them to navigate a simulated airport conversation requires more scaffolding than most schools anticipate.
Eastholm Language Centre ran a 10-week pilot with 22 students aged 14 to 17. Students used VR environments for 30-minute weekly sessions simulating real-world conversations. Outside the headset, they used Monica AI and Merlin AI as browser-based companions for vocabulary lookups, grammar checks, and session reflection prompts.
What the pilot revealed
Monica AI worked well as an in-browser sidebar tool during the students written reflection exercises after each VR session. Merlin AI was used to summarize video content the students watched between sessions, which helped reinforce vocabulary from the VR scenarios.
Outcomes worth noting
- Students who completed written reflections with Monica AI showed stronger recall of scenario-specific vocabulary
- Merlin AI summaries helped students who missed sessions stay caught up without falling behind the group
- VR without the AI reflection layer produced weaker retention based on end-of-pilot assessments
Instructor Tomasz Wierzbicki noted that the VR created the emotional context for learning, but the AI tools made that context stick between sessions.