Reducing English Speaking Anxiety and Building Communicative Competence Through Multimodal Immersive Virtual Environments: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Serial Mediation of Presence and Self-Efficacy Among Chinese University EFL Learners.

@article{gao2026reducing,
  title = {{Reducing English Speaking Anxiety and Building Communicative Competence Through Multimodal Immersive Virtual Environments: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Serial Mediation of Presence and Self-Efficacy Among Chinese University EFL Learners.}},
  author = {Weizhen Gao and Chengzhang Zou},
  journal = {Psychology research and behavior management},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.2147/prbm.s632160},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42959228},
  note = {CC BY-NC},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Reducing English Speaking Anxiety and Building Communicative Competence Through Multimodal Immersive Virtual Environments: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Serial Mediation of Presence and Self-Efficacy Among Chinese University EFL Learners.
AU  - Weizhen Gao
AU  - Chengzhang Zou
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/23
JO  - Psychology research and behavior management
DO  - 10.2147/prbm.s632160
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42959228
AB  - Introduction  Speaking anxiety is a persistent affective barrier for Chinese university EFL learners, yet how immersive technology reduces this anxiety while simultaneously building competence remains theoretically underspecified. This study tested whether a Multimodal Immersive Virtual Environment (MIVE), through the serial mediation of presence and foreign language self-efficacy, can lower speaking anxiety and strengthen communicative competence, addressing the absence of psychologically grounded mechanism-testing in prior MIVE research.Methods  A mixed-methods embedded experimental design (quasi-experimental core with embedded qualitative strand) was used with 126 non-English major undergraduates (experimental n = 64, control n = 62) at a Chinese university, assessed at pretest, posttest, and a six-week delayed posttest across a 12-week intervention. The experimental group received MIVE-based oral English instruction (VirtuSpeak platform); the control group received traditional multimedia-assisted instruction. Group differences were tested with ANCOVA and repeated-measures ANOVA; the serial mediation of presence and self-efficacy was tested with structural equation modeling (bootstrap 95% CI, 5,000 resamples); semi-structured interviews (n = 20) and reflective journals were analyzed thematically to triangulate the quantitative findings.Results  MIVE instruction produced significantly lower posttest speaking anxiety (F(1,123) = 42.67, p <0.001, partial η² = 0.258) and significantly higher communicative competence (F(1,123) = 36.84, p <0.001, partial η² = 0.231) than traditional instruction, with communication apprehension, fear of negative evaluation, pragmatic competence, and interactional competence showing the largest gains; effects were retained at the six-week delayed posttest. Presence and self-efficacy sequentially mediated 71.2% of MIVE's total effect on anxiety and 68.7% of its effect on competence, with the presence→self-efficacy serial pathway alone accounting for approximately 22% of the total indirect effect.Discussion  By coupling a delayed posttest with a theoretically grounded serial mediation test and a four-dimensional competence measure, this study clarifies the psychological pathway, presence building self-efficacy, which in turn lowers anxiety and strengthens competence, through which immersive technology exerts its instructional effect, offering both a mechanism-based theoretical account and design guidance (prioritizing presence and self-efficacy) for immersive language pedagogy.
SN  - 1179-1578
ER  -