Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Adam BrandtORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2026 The Authors. Interaction in Virtual Reality (VR) environments can be challenging when spatial orientation between participants is not mutually shared. In this paper, we use Conversation Analysis to explore how such fragmented ecologies impact the way that participants formulate and follow instructions during a way-finding activity. The data consist of video- and screen-recordings of three playtesters moving around for the first time in Wander, a place-based VR app which allows users to explore a virtual representation of the real world via Google Street View. We focus on sequences in which one participant provides directions to guide the others from one virtual location to another. Our analysis shows how participants expand and adapt their direction-giving practices as they come to understand the affordances and constraints of the technology. Unlike in the physical world, shared reference and spatial orientation in VR cannot be assumed, and our analysis reveals the preparative work that enables participants to give directions in this fractured ecology. We also show how participants discover potential resources for dealing with this via affordances, such as avatar-simulated embodiment. The study offers insight into how instructions are shaped by the (dis)embodied and virtual nature of the environment. It also contributes to a deeper understanding of how individuals negotiate shared perception in virtual space.
Author(s): Greer T, Brandt A, Nanbu Z
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Linguistics and Education
Year: 2026
Volume: 93
Print publication date: 01/06/2026
Online publication date: 21/04/2026
Acceptance date: 30/12/2025
Date deposited: 27/04/2026
ISSN (print): 0898-5898
ISSN (electronic): 1873-1864
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2025.101491
DOI: 10.1016/j.linged.2025.101491
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
