Investigating Reported Social and Affective Strategy Use by EFL Learners in Virtual and Real Learning Environments

Recently, research on computer-assisted language learning has been growing. However, little research is conducted to explore the strategic social interactions of students who learn English as a foreign language (EFL) in a virtual world. The purpose of the study was to investigate how 52 EFL college students engaged and interacted socially in virtual and real spaces. This paper endeavors to address the issue from the theory of language learning strategies. The results reveal that the learners engaged more in a virtual learning environment compared to those in a real English communication class. Moreover, the avatar-embodied virtual world elicited more strategic social interactions for the female EFL students than the ones in a real space, which gave rise to active use of English for communication.