A French school group discovered that with Beyond Words, even the most reserved students finally started speaking — and sometimes didn't want to stop.
At Isaac de l'Étoile, a secondary school group in France, language teachers faced a persistent problem: a significant portion of students never spoke during class. Whether due to shyness, fear of making mistakes, or simply not having enough time, many students went through entire lessons without uttering a single sentence in the target language.
Teachers knew that speaking practice was essential for language acquisition, but with 25-30 students per class, giving everyone meaningful speaking time was practically impossible. The most confident students dominated conversations while quieter ones stayed silent.
The school deployed Beyond Words across its language departments, allowing every student to practice speaking through immersive scenarios at their own pace. Using VR headsets in the language lab and tablets in the classroom, students engaged in realistic conversations without the pressure of performing in front of their peers.
The transformation was immediate and striking. As Alain Guillard, IT coordinator, observed: teachers could finally hear even the students who never speak in class — and sometimes they didn't want to take off the headset.
The platform gave teachers a new tool to complement their classroom instruction, with analytics showing exactly how much each student practiced and where they needed support.
The impact was visible from the first sessions. Students who had never volunteered to speak in class were suddenly engaged in extended conversations through the platform. The immersive nature of the scenarios removed the social anxiety barrier that had kept them silent.
Teachers reported a fundamental shift in classroom dynamics: students arrived more confident, used vocabulary they had practiced on the platform, and were more willing to participate in traditional oral activities.
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