In the early ’80s—when Euan Bonner was just five or so—he and his dad would tinker with their Commodore 64, copying code from magazines into the PC so they could play games. Bonner later taught himself to code and even dreamed of one day building a virtual reality platform. That passion carried through to his university studies, where he majored in Communications with a sharp focus on media.

But it was a move to Japan to become an English teacher that finally helped Bonner see how he could meld his love of language learning with his technology fascination.

“I started to slowly realize that this passion for technology, specifically virtual reality, had applications in language education. Once I completed my master's—right about when VR started to have a resurgence in the early 2010s—it all started to come together. I saw that I could use VR to do some fascinating stuff with English language education,” explains Bonner.

Today, Bonner is a lecturer and researcher for the Language, Media and Learning Research Center at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan. His recent research focuses on California-based Immerse, a unique VR platform intent on bringing connection, interaction and tangible fluency development to online English Language Learning.

Here, Bonner shares his thoughts on how VR makes it possible for students to have meaningful language learning opportunities, even during a global pandemic.

When students put that headset on, they can practice on a level that’s just not possible online or in the classroom.

Read the full article about how VR can advance language instruction by Wendy McMahon at EdSurge.