Application of Immersive Virtual Reality to Pragmatics Data Collection Methods - Insights from Interviews

Oct 15, 2026

This exploratory study evaluates immersive virtual reality (VR) as a tool for creating a role-play task to investigate pragmatic competence, focusing on producing the speech act of request. Two closed role-play versions were compared: a standard computer-based task with a written scenario and a VR task using a headset where participants acted in a virtual space. Five native and five non-native English speakers completed both versions and then joined follow-up interviews addressing thought processes, recall, difficulty, and enjoyment. Findings show attention to audio-visual cues in VR and stronger emotional engagement, informing VR’s value for pragmatics teaching and assessment.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background

Data Collection Methods in Second Language Pragmatics

calico journal (online) issn 2056–9017 Article Application of Immersive Virtual Reality to Pragmatics Data Collection Methods: Insights from Interviews Naoko Taguchi 1 Abstract This exploratory study investigated the usability of immersive virtual reality (VR) as a way of creating a role-play task to examine pragmatic competence, specifically the ability to produce the speech act of request. The study created a closed role-play task in two versions. One was a standard computer-based version in which participants read a written scenario displayed on the screen and produced the target speech act for the computer. The other one was a VR version in which participants put on a VR headset and produced the target speech act for the interlocutor in the virtual space. Five native and five non-native speakers of English completed both versions and participated in a follow-up interview. The purpose of the interview was to examine similarities and differences in participants’ perceptions ofthe two role-play tasks in four areas: (1) thought processes (what they were thinking during the task), (2) recall (what they remembered about the task), (3) difficulty (what made the task difficult), and (4) enjoyment (whether the task was fun). Results revealed that the participants attended to various audio-visual cues in the VR scene and used them to guide their actions. The VR version also evoked greater emotional reactions from the participants. Keywords: virtual reality; pragmatics; closed role-play. Affiliation 1Northern Arizona University, USA. email: [naoko.taguchi@nau.edu](naoko.taguchi@nau.edu) calico journal vol 38.2 2021 181–201 © 2021, equinox publishing [https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.41136](https://doi.org/10.1558/cj.41136) 182 Immersive Virtual Reality 1. Introduction Pragmatics involves a complex interplay among linguistic forms, communicative functions performed using the forms, and the context where the form-function associations are realized (Levinson, 1983; Thomas, 1989). In order to become pragmatically competent, we need to have a body of linguistic repertoire at our disposal, so we can perform a variety of communicative functions. At the same time, we need to be aware of the specifics of a social context—whom we are speaking to, in what setting, and to achieve which goals—to make appropriate linguistic choices in context. Because of the contextually grounded nature of pragmatic competence, a challenge for researchers is to collect data that closely reflect participants’linguistic manners in a social context (Taguchi & Roever, 2017). Because social contexts are the product of real-world settings, experimental data elicited through a researcher-made instrument are often criticized for their lack of correspondence to real-life language use (Nguyen, 2019). On the other hand, although naturalistic data collected in real-life settings have ecological validity, generalizability of the data is limited due to the small sample size and large variation across participants and data collection settings (Taguchi, 2018). This study explores a possible solution to this dilemma by examining an alternative way to collect data on pragmatic competence. Considering the pros and cons of experimental and naturalistic data collection methods, this study adopts virtual reality (VR) technology to create a role-play task. Virtual reality provides an immersive experience where participants can situate themselves in a realistic context and interact with people in the virtual space. By administering the standardized VR instrument to a group of participants in a systematic manner, we can collect data that are comparable across participants. In this study, interview data collected from 10 participants (both native and non-native speakers of English) provide insights into the usability of VR for examining pragmatic competence. The findings ofthe study generate implications as to how VR can serve as a useful tool for pragmatics teachin

FAQs

What pragmatic ability does the study focus on?

The study examines pragmatic competence by targeting participants’ ability to produce the speech act of request within a closed role-play task.

How do the two role-play versions differ?

One version is computer-based, where participants read a written scenario and respond to the computer. The other version is VR-based, where participants wear a headset and respond to a virtual interlocutor in the immersive space.

What did participants report about the VR role-play compared with the computer-based version?

Interview results indicate that participants attended to audio-visual cues in the VR scene to guide their actions, and the VR version also evoked greater emotional reactions.

Oct 15, 2026

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