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English Language Learning in Immersive Environments (ELLIE) is one-day symposium intended to bring researchers, developers, and educators in relevant disciplines together and discuss the elements of effective virtual environments for language teaching, especially for conversational English.  We invite experts to discuss how to design and develop language learning tools from varying levels of immersion, from personal computers and mobile devices to Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, or Mixed Reality. National and local experts will attend this symposium to discuss the potential for immersive media to address the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs). After a keynote, the conversants will present brief Pecha Kucha style talks (20 slides 20-30 seconds each slide) about their research. The symposium is open to remote presentations from some of the nationals experts we're inviting.  We will also take time in the afternoon to try out existing PC, mobile, VR, AR, and MR language learning tools to support the discussion. The symposium will end with breakout groups to begin interdisciplinary/intercollege collaborative grant proposals.

The 2021 ELLIE Conference was a full day of discussions, presentations, and preliminary grant proposal planning on Friday April 23, 2021. This took place from 10:00 AM CT to 4 PM CT.  Space is limited, so participants Registered/RSVP here.  Feel free to contact the organizer, Dr. Aleshia Hayes Aleshia.Hayes@unt.edu if you have any questions. All attendees are encouraged (but not required) to present a 4-7 minute (Strictly enforced) perspective talk in ONE of the following target areas:

  1. ELL Challenges
  2. Immersive Media Form Factors
  3. Design of Existing Systems for Immersive Learning
  4. Immersive Learning Outcomes
  5. Learning Contexts for ELL
  6. Natural Language Processing
  7. Designing Virtual Spaces

The ELLIE Conference is hosted by the University of North Texas Simulation User Research Game Experience Lab, or SURGE Lab for short.  The SURGE Lab is run by Dr. Aleshia Hayes, Assintant Professor of Learning Technologies in the College of Information at UNT.  More information can be found on the SURGE Lab website.