International Journal of Education

Amid the deepening implementation of the national educational digitalization strategy, college English instruction is increasingly confronted with contextual scarcity, insufficient practice, and low learner engagement. Virtual simulation technology, characterized by immersion, interactivity, and risk-free repetition, offers a novel remedy. Grounded in situated-learning theory, cognitive-interaction theory, and the 3-P pedagogical model, this paper reviews domestic virtual-simulation English initiatives launched recent 5 years, maps their technical configurations and prototypical patterns, and verifies their effectiveness in enhancing students’ functional English proficiency through empirical data. It further diagnoses prevailing bottlenecks such as resource homogeneity and instructors’ limited technological literacy, and proposes a four-dimensional optimization roadmap: high-quality resource pooling, pedagogical-model innovation, teacher capacity building, and institutional mechanism refinement, thereby providing theoretical guidance and practical benchmarks for the digital transformation of college English education.

Virtual simulation technology; College English teaching; Teaching model; Learning engagement; English application ability