communication-strategies
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- PaperLanguage Teaching Research9 Jul 2026
Embarking on Virtual Exchange for English as a Multilingua Franca Context: Comparing Virtual Reality and Non-Virtual Reality Approaches to Enhance Second Language Speaking Fluency
Van Huynh Ha Le, Denchai Prabjandee, Punwalai Kewara
This study compared explicit and implicit communication strategy instruction combined with low-immersion virtual reality (VR) versus non-VR approaches to enhance L2 speaking fluency among 159 Vietnamese undergraduates in an English as a Multilingua Franca (EMF) context. The explicit+VR group achieved the greatest fluency gains, while both VR groups surpassed the non-VR group in confidence, perceived language skills, and transcultural competence. The results introduce Emergent-Dialogue Virtual Exchange, a pedagogical model leveraging unscripted VR communication to bridge classroom learning and global English use.
Original abstract
Many learners of English as a foreign language struggle to develop second language speaking fluency because of limited opportunities for authentic communication with linguistically diverse English users in English as a multilingua franca context. This study aims to address this problem by investigating the effects of communication strategy instruction, an approach believed to facilitate communication in English as a multilingua franca contexts. This study compared two approaches of communication strategy instruction, explicit and implicit, combined with low-immersion virtual reality. Over 11 weeks, 159 Vietnamese undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions: Explicit + virtual reality, Explicit + non-virtual reality, and virtual reality Implicit. Data sources were video recordings of pre-, post-, and delayed speaking tests, as well as learners’ reflections. The data were analyzed using the ELSA Speech Analyzer to measure second language speaking fluency and qualitative content analysis to explore learners’ perceived affordances and challenges of virtual reality implementation. Results showed that the Explicit + virtual reality group achieved the greatest gains in second language speaking fluency, whereas both virtual reality groups (explicit and implicit) outperformed the non-virtual reality group in confidence, perceived language skills, and transcultural competence. On the delayed test, although no significant difference was found between the two virtual reality groups, all three groups showed improved second language speaking fluency, with both virtual reality groups still outperforming the non-virtual reality group. The study introduces Emergent-Dialogue Virtual Exchange, a new pedagogical model grounded in unscripted, spontaneous communication via virtual reality. Emergent-Dialogue Virtual Exchange positions low-immersion virtual reality as a scalable, contextually responsive space for English as a multilingua franca communication. These findings underscore the pedagogical potential of combining communication strategy instruction with virtual reality to support fluency, adaptability, and intercultural competence in the English as a multilingua franca context, bridging the gap between the classroom and the complex realities of global English use.
- PaperRELC Journal24 Jun 2026
Communication strategies in task-based interaction: An ELF-aware perspective
Yingruo Hu, Eun Sung Park
This study examines how English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) interlocutors employ communication strategies during task-based interaction, finding that strategies such as co-creating messages, deconstructing complex information, and adaptive self-repair support intelligibility, adaptability, and multilingual-multicultural awareness. The analysis highlights strategic competence as an interactionally enacted resource for collaborative meaning-making and underscores the pedagogical value of tasks that promote these interactional processes.
Original abstract
This study examines how English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) interlocutors employ communication strategies during task-based interaction and how these strategies relate to ELF-aware communicative orientations of intelligibility, adaptability, and multilingual–multicultural awareness. Ten university students learning English as an additional language completed a closed information-gap task. Interactional data were video-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through a combination of distributional analysis and interactional analysis, and complemented by stimulated recall to examine learners’ strategic awareness. The findings show that, beyond commonly reported strategies, participants frequently engaged in co-creating messages, deconstructing complex information, and adaptive self-repair. These strategies enabled learners to collaboratively clarify meaning, adjust their linguistic production in response to interactional demands, and draw on shared multilingual resources. The analysis illustrates how these strategies support three ELF-aware communicative orientations: intelligibility through collaborative clarification and reformulation, adaptability through self-initiated monitoring and adjustment, and multilingual awareness through the use of shared linguistic resources. The findings highlight strategic competence as an interactionally enacted resource that supports collaborative and adaptive meaning-making during task-based interaction, and underscore the pedagogical value of tasks that promote these interactional processes.