Students’ attitudes on the use of immersive virtual reality for oral presentation preparation and the challenges

The study aimed to investigate ESL students‟ attitudes towards the use of immersive virtual reality (iVR) mobile application in preparing for oral presentation. This study involved 24 postgraduate students from a public university in Malaysia. They were introduced to a free version of the Virtual Speech mobile application using VR Box to simulate a virtual classroom for oral presentation preparation. Then, a questionnaire consisting of 30 Likert-scale items was administered to investigate their attitudes towards the use of iVR for oral presentation preparation. Next, the researcher conducted spoken interviews to further investigate participants‟ perceptions of the use of iVR in preparing for oral presentations. The findings revealed a notable lack of knowledge and familiarity among the participants when using iVR for oral presentation preparation. Last but not least, the challenges reported by the participants are associated with limited familiarity and exposure to iVR, increased anxiety, and health consequences due to the use of iVR.