Virtual reality versus face-to-face practice: a study into situational apprehension and performance

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study examines the role virtual reality can play in student speech practice for oral communication courses. The study focuses on situational communication apprehension of the virtual reality practice session in relation to students who practice face-to-face and the final grade of the subsequent speech. Test and control groups practiced their informative speech presentations for either another student or in a virtual environment. Both the test and control groups filled out the Situational Communication Apprehension Measure after their session. Student grades were also collected for participants in each group after their in-class speech presentation. The test group (virtual reality practice) was found to have significantly higher situational communication apprehension than the control group. No significant difference was found for final speech grades between the test and control groups. The significance and implications of these finding are discussed as they related to public-speaking education.

KEYWORDS:

• virtual reality
• public speaking
• situational communication apprehension
• speech practice
• presence

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Desk Managers in the Communication Studies Lab for their help in collecting data. Specifically, we would like to thank Scout Beddingfield, Joseph Bober, Eimile Harrison, Katherine Kenney, Wyatt Streett, and Lindsey Tisdale for all of their hard work.

Notes

1 The terms apprehension and anxiety are used interchangeably throughout this text. When research began to ramp up in the 1960s surrounding anxiety, Nainby (2010) explains that “topics that were previously known as ‘stage fright’ or ‘speaking anxiety’ became codified as ‘communication apprehension’” (p. 21).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Pearson Education.