Speaker
Description
Research on task engagement has suggested that personally meaningful and interactionally demanding tasks may influence the quality of collaborative communication and language use. At the same time, repeated task performance has been shown to support the development of communicative efficiency, collaborative regulation, and procedural control. However, relatively little research has explored how these interactional processes develop in immersive VR environments.
This presentation reports an exploratory pilot study investigating communication during repeated VR bomb-defusal tasks using the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. In the task, one participant interacts with a virtual bomb through a VR headset while another participant provides verbal instructions using a printed manual without visual access to the game environment. The task requires participants to negotiate meaning, clarify procedures, manage misunderstandings, and collaboratively solve problems under time pressure.
Vietnamese teachers of English participate in repeated task performances with different interlocutors. Audio recordings and transcripts are analyzed qualitatively using thematic and discourse analysis to identify emergent interactional patterns across repetitions. Preliminary findings suggest that repeated collaborative VR tasks may influence communicative efficiency, procedural language development, collaborative regulation, and the emergence of shared shorthand communication strategies.
The presentation discusses implications for task engagement, collaborative communication, and technology-mediated interaction in language education and teacher development contexts.
Biography
Truong Thi Thu Trang coordinates the Community of English Language Teaching Practice in Vietnam, a nationwide professional learning initiative supporting more than forty thousand educators through collaborative learning, mentoring, and the sharing of practical teaching ideas. She is also a TESOL mentor and teacher trainer at the HEW London Education Consulting Hub in Ho Chi Minh City, where she designs and delivers professional development programs focusing on pedagogical innovation, interactive classroom dynamics, and technology-integrated teaching. Trang regularly collaborates with educational organizations and teacher communities on workshops, webinars, and professional learning initiatives for English language teachers across Vietnam. Her interests include learner engagement, learner-generated content, collaborative communication, personalized learning, and creative approaches to teacher education.
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