Communication strategies in a multimodal virtual communication context

Abstract

Using VEC3D as a platform, this study examines the influence of task type on the use of communication strategies (CSs) in a 3D virtual environment that enables English as a Foreign Language learners to employ multiple communication modalities. A curriculum based on a communicative, interactive, task-based, and computer-mediated approach to CSs and language acquisition is developed and implemented in conjunction with a comprehensive framework for analyzing CS use in this innovative virtual environment setting. Analysis of the data provides information about learners' use of various CSs during synchronous computer-mediated communication. The findings shed light on how task type influences learners' use of verbal CSs, including gambits/fillers, appealing for assistance, paraphrasing, borrowing, avoidance, and all-purpose words, as well as non-verbal CSs in the form of haptics, kinesics, paralanguage, and object communication, as means of avoiding communication breakdowns during virtual events. The results reveal that role-play tasks elicited more CS use from learners than open-ended discussion tasks.