Pornpimol Sukavatee

Jintavee Khlaisang

Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Abstract

This study investigates how task-based language teaching (TBLT) enacted in a metaverse environment supports Thai EFL undergraduates’ oral communication and how students experience such learning. Addressing concerns about Thai graduates’ low English proficiency and limited opportunities for meaningful speaking practice, the study embeds TBLT cycles in gamified metaverse-based environment. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was employed with 67 non–English-major undergraduates from Thai public universities selected through purposive volunteer sampling. Metaverse-based oral tasks were implemented for four weeks, with oral communication tests to assess range, accuracy, fluency, coherence, and pronunciation. The tests were administered before and after the intervention, followed by semi-structured interviews with 33 students. Paired-sample t-tests showed significant gains in overall oral communication with improvements across all five dimensions and the largest effect for lexical range. Thematic analysis indicated that the tasks in the gamified metaverse environment promoted genuine language use and reflection. In addition, the avatar-mediated “safe space” reduced anxiety and built confidence, and cross-institution interaction together with promoting authentic collaboration, although the issues of platform stability, connectivity, and screen fatigue posed some challenges. The findings suggest that carefully designed gamified metaverse-based TBLT can enhance both linguistic performance and affective readiness for communication. Future research should employ larger and more diverse samples, longer interventions with delayed post-tests, and comparative designs, such as metaverse vs. non-metaverse TBLT or gamified vs. non-gamified tasks, to clarify boundary conditions and support wider implementation.

Keywords

Gamification, higher education, metaverse, oral communication, task design