Description of the Methodology

There will be three main groups of participants.

Before starting the experiment, it is important to get the approval of the Institutional Review Board (IRB). They are the body that reviews all the terms of an experiment, to ensure that there are no conditions under which human subjects might be subjected to acts which violate basic human rights, such as undergoing physical or mental harm. Depending on the type of experiment, it can become increasingly difficult to get their approval, as they ask that every step be explained in full detail, and when using newer technologies, such as VR, it can become quite a task to have to explain the workings of such a device to someone who has little to no knowledge of anything computer related.

Once the IRB has approved your test, it is time to start recruiting participants. The best way to do so on campus, is to target “convergence points”, where a lot of students from the population you wish to study congregate. In my specific case, I had flyers hung in the Asian Student Center, as well as in as many ESL courses as possible.

Once the participants are flowing-in, the he first step of the experiment itself can commence. This step involves sifting through the people who wish to take part in the experiment, to check that they indeed satisfy the basic criterion which are sought after for the experiment to be able to be conducted. In my case, I wanted to see if participants could learn Phrasal Verbs (PV) more effectively under certain conditions. Obviously for this to be tested I first needed to recruited participants who did not know said PVs, so that I could then teach them to them.

This was accomplished with the aid of a short Pre-Test, which includes a self-report of their TOFEL score (which would help us determine what level of English corresponds to which level of knowledge, or lack thereof, of Phrasal Verbs). The self-reported TEOFL scores were also a “quick-fix” method of avoiding the red-tape involved in gaining access to student’s actual TOEFL scores. If you make sure to inform the students that they have nothing to gain from being dishonest, it potentially might make them more inclined to report their actual TOEFL scores, therefore avoid the previously mentioned headache of having to dig them up out of the system. The second, and most important, part of this Pre-Test is a list of about 40 PVs given in succession. For each one, we first ask the student to define the meaning of the PV itself, and then based on either the meaning they believe it to have, or a context they might have heard it, to use it in a sentence.

Preliminary results of this questionnaire are turning out to be very promising, as these initial participants seemed to be either very low proficiency and knew almost none of the PVs (which is exactly what I was looking for), or intermediate, and would know some of them, but still erroneously describe the majority of them. Further analysis will be needed to determine if the type of PV was a factor in which ones they were able to define and use, or not.

Phrasal Verbs can be split into two main categories: literal and figurative. This is because some of them can be understood by the analysis of its two distinctive parts, such as Get Into: To access; while other meanings have little connection with the two parts, such as Pig Out: to eat a lot, and not “exit like a pig” perhaps.

Once the potential candidates have been determined, they should be split into three groups of at least 40 students (Control, Experimental, Full) and each of these groups would be split into two groups of 20, to form higher/lower proficiency subgroups. These minimum numbers are determined by the G.Power.

The first group would be the Control Group, they would receive no VR time at all, and would only rely on the drill activities, as well as fill-in-the-blank test materials used later, on all groups.

The second group would be the Experimental Group, which would be exposed to the Instructional Video, as well as fill-in-the-blank test materials.

Finally, the last one would be the Full Group, which would be exposed to the instructional Video, as well as be given activates to be performed in VR, and finally given access to fill-in-the-blank test materials.

To make the study viable, it is necessary to reduce the differences between each group to the strictest of minimum variables we wish to examine, which in the specific case of this study would be the introduction of a VR headset used in practicing the PV actions. The Instructional Video given to the Full and Experimental Groups would be one showing a person performing the target PVs within the same VR context that the Full Group will eventually be practicing in. This is to attempt to determine if there is any significant improvement in actually feeling like you are in the role of the one performing the action, or just watching someone else perform it.

The Post-Test: Right after the VR TPR portion of the experiment is over for the Full Group, the Instructional Video is over for the Experimental Group, and the drill activities are over for the Control Group, we would ask the students of all groups to complete a standard fill-in-the-blank test to determine their immediate “take-away” from the experimental conditions.

Delayed Post-Test: Approximately two weeks after the Post-Test, we will ask all the subjects to return to the lab for a final examination that will help determine if they are still able to recall some of the PV that they were taught, as relying on just the Post-Test results can be skewed by ones ability to retain information in the “short-term” memory, whereas we would like to see results that translate to the “long-term” memory, and therefore show improvement in overall acquirement of the PVs.

The entire session of each student’s VR TPR will be recorded to view at a later time and seek improvements upon the experiment conditions. It is possible that a few “test-run” subjects might be used to calibrate the equipment and test the activities in-situ before getting to the actual participants to ensure a smooth process.