Effects of stress on second language speech performance in real and virtual public speaking environments

The present study investigated the effects of a real and a virtual public speaking environment on second language (L2) speech production. Participants were all undergraduate native Cantonese speakers with English as their second language. Each participant was asked to give a five-minute English speech while alone in an empty room that served as the baseline, also referred to as “Placebo TSST”. Each participant was assigned randomly into either a “Vivo (real) TSST” group, where members were required to give an impromptu speech in front of a real audience
(an evaluator), or a “VR (virtual) TSST” group, where members were required to give a speech in a virtual environment to simulate public speaking. The heart rates and self-reported state anxiety levels of participants were significantly higher for the two TSST sessions as compared to the baseline. More importantly,
the L2 speech performance of participants dropped in the two speech sessions, with the panel of native English speakers reporting poorer results for second speech session (TSST Session) as compared to the first speech session (Placebo Session). Results indicate that a virtual L2 public speaking environment can elicit
similar physiological, psychological, and behavioral responses as a real L2 speaking situation. Results further suggest that the virtual reality technique can be used as a training tool (a) to enhance the L2 performance of speakers and (b) to alleviate their L2 speaking anxiety.