Ïo Valls

Research Interests

- Public speaking
- Virtual reality
- E-learning
- Multimodal learning/communication and embodied cognition
- Gesture studies

Current Projects

- Training with virtual reality simulations. Its effects on public speaking anxiety and public speaking performance in a secondary school setting

- Embodied virtual reality to enhance public speaking skills in secondary school and university education

Journal Articles

2022

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2022). Unguided virtual-reality training can enhance the oral presentation skills of high-school students. Front. Commun. 7:910952. https://doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2022.910952

Conference Proceedings

2022

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2022, April 22-24). Embodying the virtual reality experience can help reduce public speaking anxiety and increases persuasiveness and charisma of high-school students. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Modern Research in Education, Teaching and Learning. Barcelona (Spain)

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2022, May 23-26). Unguided VR public-speaking training enhances your confidence - but does not improve your intonation. Proceedings of the 11th Conference on Speech Prosody. Universidade de Lisboa: Lisboa (Portugal).

2021

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2021). Effects of public speaking virtual reality trainings on prosodic and gestural features. Proc. 1st International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI), 214-218, doi: 10.21437/TAI.2021-44.

Oral Presentations

2022

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2022, July 7). Els efectes d'una experiència multimodal amb un entrenament de parlar en públic mitjançant la realitat virtual: Una anàlisi prosòdica i gestual. XIII Workshop sobre la Prosòdia del Català. Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona.

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2022, April 22-24). Embodying the virtual reality experience can help reduce public speaking anxiety and increases persuasiveness and charisma of high-school students. Oral presentation at the 4th International Conference on Modern Research in Education, Teaching and Learning. Barcelona (Spain).

2021

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2021). Effects of public speaking virtual reality trainings on prosodic and gestural features. Proc. 1st International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI), 214-218, doi: 10.21437/TAI.2021-44.

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2021, June 19-20). Training with embodied virtual reality helps reduce public speaking anxiety in high-school students. Online Oral presentation at the 2nd International Conference on Language Teaching and Learning 2021. The Education University of Hong Kong: Hong Kong, China..

Poster Presentations

2022

Valls-Ratés, I.,Niebuhr, O., & Prieto, P. (2022, May 23-26). Unguided VR public-speaking training enhances your confidence - but does not improve your intonation. Poster presentation at the 11th Conference on Speech Prosody.Universidade de Lisboa: Lisboa, Portugal.

Vidar Freyr Gudmundsson, Valls-Ratés, I.,& Niebuhr, O. (2022, March 2-4). The Charles - A new sensor device for measuring body language and stress in speech communication. Poster presentation at the 33rd Conference on Electronic Speech Signal Processing.Southern Denmark University: Sønderborg, Denmark.

Invited Talks

2022

Conference: "Estratègies per sistematitzar l'aplicació de l'oralitat a les aules". Organized by Servei Educatiu Terres de l'Ebre. Online Conference. June 8th 2022.

Conference: “Perdem-li la por a l’oralitat! L’aplicació d’activitats orals per fomentar l’expressivitat a l’aula”. Organized by Servei Educatiu Nou Barris. Consorci de Barcelona. Online Conference. April 19th 2022.

Conference: "How to say exactly what you want to say". Organized by Facultad de Filosofía y Letras Universidad de Granada, Granada. June 3rd 2022.

Conference: "Move the audience with your public speaking". Organized by Servei de Carreres Professionals Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Ciutadella UPF Barcelona. February 15th 2022.

Conference: "Orally presenting our research". Organized by Els Alfacs high-school, La Ràpita. January 25 2022.

Talk: "The importance of gesturing in oral communication". Organized by the project Canal de Reporters within Generalitat de Catalunya. April 26th 2022. Online talk.

2021

Conference: "Presentem oralment el Treball de Recerca". Organized by Vilafant high-school, Vilafant. November 2021.

Teaching

2022

"Orally presenting our research". 4-session course taught to PhD candidates at Universitat de Barcelona, Physics Faculty, Barcelona. July 2022.

"The strength of prosody and body when we communicate". Session in the course: “Les lligues de debat com a estratègia per a millorar la competència oral”, organized by Cefire, Ondara. June 2022.

"El miedo escénico (Stage fright)". 2-session course taught at Barcelona School of Management (BSM), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. May 2022.

"Oral skills for MA Thesis presentations". 3-session course taught to Master students at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. May 2022.

"Adapting to the communication context". 4-session course taught online to secondary school teachers, organized by the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. March 2022.

"The art of conversation". 4-session course taught online to secondary school teachers, organized by the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. February 2022.

"L2 Oral Spanish". 3-month course taught at Translation and Language Sciences Faculty for Erasmus students. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. January-March 2022.

"Oral skills techniques". Assistant Professor - 3-month course taught at Translation and Language Sciences Faculty for Bachelor students. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. January-March 2022.

2021

"Fear of Public Speaking in the Classroom". 4-session course taught online to secondary school teachers, organized by the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. November 2021.

"Non-Verbal Communication in the Classroom". 4-session course taught online to secondary school teachers, organized by the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. December 2021.

"Public speaking for Teachers". 3-session summer course taught online to secondary school teachers, organized by the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. July 2021.

"Oral skills techniques". Assistant Professor - 3-month course taught at Translation and Language Sciences Faculty for Bachelor students. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. October-December 2021.

"Catalan". Assistant Professor - 6-month course taught at Translation and Language Sciences Faculty for Bachelor students. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. October-March 2021.

2020

"Public speaking for Teachers". 3-session summer course taught online to secondary school teachers, organized by the Departament d'Educació de la Generalitat de Catalunya. July 2020.

"Catalan". Assistant Professor - 6-month course taught at Translation and Language Sciences Faculty for Bachelor students. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. October-March 2020.

"Oral skills techniques". Assistant Professor - 3-month course taught at Translation and Language Sciences Faculty for Bachelor students. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. October-December 2020.