Immersive virtual reality (VR) technology is becoming widespread in education, yet research of VR technologies for students’ multimodal communication is an emerging area of research in writing and literacies scholarship. Likewise, the significance of new ways of embodied meaning making in VR environments is undertheorized—a gap that requires attention given the potential for broadened use of the sensorium in multimodal language and literacy learning. This classroom research investigated multimodal composition using the virtual paint program Google Tilt Brush™ with 47 elementary school students (ages 10–11 years) using a head-mounted display and motion sensors. Multimodal analysis of video, screen capture, and think-aloud data attended to sensory-motor affordances and constraints for embodiment. Modal constraints were the immateriality of the virtual text, virtual disembodiment, and somatosensory mismatch between the virtual and physical worlds. Potentials for new forms of embodied multimodal representation in VR involved extensive bodily, haptic, and locomotive movement. The findings are significant given that research of embodied cognition points to sensorimotor action as the basis for language and communication.

沉浸式虚拟现实 (VR) 技术在教育领域正变得越来越普遍，但用于学生多模式交流的 VR 技术研究是写作和文学学术研究的一个新兴领域。同样，在虚拟现实环境中，新的具身意义创造方式的重要性也被低估了——鉴于在多模式语言和识字学习中扩大使用感觉的潜力，这一差距需要引起注意。这项课堂研究使用虚拟绘画程序 Google Tilt Brush™ 对 47 名使用头戴式显示器和运动传感器的小学生（10-11 岁）进行了多模式组合调查。视频、屏幕截图和有声思维数据的多模式分析，关注感官运动的可供性和实施的约束。模态约束是虚拟文本的非物质性、虚拟的脱离实体以及虚拟世界和物理世界之间的体感不匹配。VR 中体现多模态表示的新形式的潜力涉及广泛的身体、触觉和机车运动。鉴于对具身认知的研究指出感觉运动行为是语言和交流的基础，因此这些发现意义重大。