A Systematic Review of Augmented Reality Applications in Language Learning

Abstract

Augmented reality (AR) is one of the emerging technologies gradually venturing into the education field. Although AR is strongly linked to subjects related to Science, Mathematics, and Technology in schools and tertiary education, there is no mention of AR in non-technical subjects, such as language. Thus, this study aims to discover the AR application trends in language learning and the language skills prevalent in AR usage. In this systematic literature review, AR-related research in language learning began in 2016 and has continued to be on the rise. Furthermore, the preferred language skills used with AR technology required lower cognitive levels, such as identifying words, understanding meanings, and spelling, and pronouncing words. Based on the gap indicating the rare usage of AR for more complex and critical language skills, such as reading and writing, this study hopes to enlighten the researchers, educators, and application developers to focus on developing AR applications for languages other than English, incorporate higher-order learning outcomes in the language learning activities, and pursue qualitative investigations.

Augmented reality technology in language learning: Ameta‐analysis

“…Previous literature has observed that the language skill commonly associated with AR technologies was a lower‐order cognitive skill (e.g., remembering and recognizing). Thus, elementary school students were suited to AR‐enhanced language learning applications, because they are developing their basic language skills (Majid & Salam, 2021). It is worth mentioning that, in this meta‐analysis, among the six articles categorized into teaching elementary school learners, five adopted AR applications to teach vocabulary, requiring lower‐level cognitive skills (i.e., remember) (Kim, 2015).…”

“…Then, researchers consolidated these four articles into a single non‐English group to ensure balance between groups for estimating effect sizes. Target language skills categories were coded based on the selected articles and not pre‐determined (Majid & Salam, 2021). If no specific language skill, but students' overall language performance was examined in the study, or more than one skill were tested, those were coded as integrated language (Hwang & Fu, 2019).…”

Bibliometric Analysis on Research Trends of Digital Literacy in Higher Education from 2012 to 2021

“…It was adopted to compute the co-authorship relations and the co-occurrence network of keywords and produce the bibliometric maps of science. Finally, both text data and bibliographic data were analyzed, synthesized and visualized in corresponding diagrams [21].…”

Interactive, Collaborative and Multi-user Augmented Reality Applications in Primary and Secondary Education. A Systematic Review

“…Some studies presented an analysis of the advantages and drawbacks of AR in generic educational settings [Akçayır and Akçayır, 2017, Radu, 2014, Diegmann et al, 2015 or have provided insights on the status of the technology as well as suggestions for future research [Cheng and Tsai, 2013, Arici et al, 2019, Bacca et al, 2014, Pellas et al, 2019. Other reviews have focused on specific subjects, such as Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) [Ibáñez and Delgado-kloos, 2018, Nielsen et al, 2016, Ahmad and Junaini, 2020 or language learning [Majid andSalam, 2021, Khoshnevisan andLe, 2018]; on specific topics such as AR-based serious games , Bartolomé et al, 2011, the evaluation of the usage of AR in schools [Dasilva et al, 2019 or the impact of AR applications in learning effectiveness [Garzón et al, 2019]. Table 1 summarises the content of some of the most recent and comprehensive Systematic Literature Reviews (SLRs) about AR in educational settings.…”