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In:Research at the Intersection of Second Language Acquisition and Sociolinguistics: Studies in honor of Kimberly L. Geeslin
Edited by Megan Solon, Matthew Kanwit and Aarnes Gudmestad
[Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics 43] 2025
► pp. 317–343

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Chapter 12
Theoretical, methodological, and computational perspectives on immersive virtual reality in variationist SLA

Insights from user experience

 | University of Zurich
 | University of Zurich
Published online: 26 June 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.43.12wir
Abstract
This study contributes to the methodological debate regarding the development of innovative data collection methods such as immersive virtual reality (VR) technology to investigate second-language (L2) learners’ acquisition of sociolinguistic variation. Questionnaire data were collected from 32 L2 German learners (first-language English) regarding their VR user experience. We home in on participants’ subjective judgements of system usability, workload, VR sickness, spatial presence, and satisfaction. Quantitative analyses revealed that the VR tasks did not disadvantage learners in terms of their user experience as a function of individual differences in age, L2 varietal proficiency, or exposure. We conclude with potential ways to exploit the strengths of VR in the expanding field of variationist SLA.
Article outline
  • Background
    • Task design and administration in variationist SLA
    • Applying VR to data collection in variationist SLA: What are we missing?
    • The present study
  • Method
    • Participants
    • VR tasks
    • User experience battery
    • Biodata, proficiency, and exposure battery
    • Data analyses
  • Results and discussion
    • Overall user experience
    • Individual differences in user experience
  • Discussion and future directions
    • Theoretical perspectives
    • Methodological perspectives
    • Computational perspectives
  • Conclusion
  • References
References (63)
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