Learning a second language (L2) presents a significant challenge to many people in adulthood. Situated learning, as a promising learning approach that offers real-life immersion, enables a direct transfer of learned knowledge to a real‐world context through legitimate peripheral participation in a simulated problem‐solving process. Leveraging immersive Virtual Reality (iVR) technologies, we developed virtual zoo and kitchen environments as the first step to position second language learning in an authentic context in order to decrease learning costs and fostering the formation of long‐term memory. Learners can walk in the kitchen or virtually teleport along a predefined path in the zoo, observe kitchen items or animals, and point at objects/animals to hear their names in the Chinese language.

In our empirical study, individual differences in L2 performance were examined during learning of 60 Mandarin Chinese words (30 kitchen items and 30 zoo items) by comparing iVR learning in the virtual zoo & kitchen with traditional word-word paired association. The results indicate that less successful learners show a significant benefit of iVR instruction as compared to word-word paired association, whereas successful learners do not show a significant benefit of either learning condition. Built on expert modeling, body-based interaction, and digital simulations of authentic problem‐solving communities, our virtual zoo and kitchen paradigms bridge the gap between traditional language learning media (e.g., textbook and sound recorder ) and the real‐world application scenario.