Helen Zhou's primary research focuses on the science and culture of learning and teaching. She believes that learning theory can be informed by empirical studies in classrooms, and conversely, classroom practices can benefit from the advancement in learning theory. She studies how different learning environments (traditional, virtual, VR, and XR, immersive, or mixed) can best assist language and culture acquisition. Besides, Zhou investigates culture's role and sociocultural impact on multilingual users. Utilizing a post-structuralist framework and phenomenological narrative inquiry, her recent book examines the academic journeys and the emergent cohesive behaviors of Chinese international students in China and the United States. The narrative analysis attempts to understand the "why" behind the storytellers' decision-making rather than to seek solutions ("how") for specific problems.  

Zhou is currently the Editor of the Journal for Distinguished Language Studies. Her scholarly work has been published in a wide variety of academic venues, including CALL, Learning Environment Research, System: An International Journal of Educational Technology and Applied Linguistics, Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, Immersive Learning Research Network, ACM DIS, HCI International, AAAI, iLERN, The Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, and Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching.