Nuclear stress placement is a complex issue involving grammar, semantics, pragmatics, and information structure. This study examined the nuclear stress placement patterns in reading recordings produced by lower-intermediate and advanced adult EFL learners in China, and assessed the effects of explicit training on controlled production of nuclear stress. It was found that different types of nuclear stress presented asymmetrical difficulties to EFL learners. Production of some types showed more resistance to improvement, while others seemed more susceptible to explicit training, but with only short-term effects. Thus, EFL pronunciation teachers should give priority to those types of nuclear stress that are sensitive to explicit training and spend less time on those types that are either resistant to explicit training or that can be implicitly picked up by learners in the long run.

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Virtual reality (VR) is considered an emerging technology in language education in a previously published review article, which reviews 26 articles on VR-assisted language learning (VRALL) published between 2015 and 2018. VR technology has been developing rapidly and receiving much more attention in language learning, especially in the post-pandemic era. Therefore, following up, this paper tracks the new trends of VRALL by reviewing 38 empirical studies published between 2018 and 2022. The main findings are: (1) the scope of research on VRALL has expanded in terms of number of studies, type of participants, research focus, language and language skill, and type of VR technology investigated; (2) more cognitive and affective benefits as well as drawbacks of VRALL have been reported than before. Implications are drawn for practitioners and researchers in the field of VRALL.