Can SVVR Help with Student Engagement in an Online EFL Writing Class? A Chinese Case Study

Although research into the educational benefits of Spherical Video-based Virtual Reality (SVVR) has gained popularity in traditional face-to-face English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) class, little is known about whether this immersive, interactive, and imaginative teaching-assisted technology could facilitate learning in online EFL settings in the post-pandemic time. The current study explored how students engaged themselves in an online EFL class facilitated by SVVR. To achieve that, one focus group interview and two semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect in-depth data of students’ perceptions of their engagement under the SVVR-supported online learning. Based on the theoretical framework of engagement, the collected data were thematically coded into three categories, namely, behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement. The findings suggested that with SVVR affordances, students engaged behaviorally, emotionally, and cognitively in the online EFL writing class, both in an independent and interrelated way. The enhanced emotional engagement of students could then support their behavioral engagement while students’ cognitive engagement could also promote their emotional and behavioral engagement. The present study thereby could not only build our understanding of the dynamic, multifaceted, and interconnected nature of student engagement, but also provide one feasible solution to teachers towards the disengagement issue in online EFL learning in the post-pandemic time.