"how these 'embodied' role plays compare to avatar-less ones, in terms of your learners' experience" - very good idea, I think.  It must be a key concept of what I'm exploring.  My theory is that the online environment, especially in the form of role-play, might aid these particular learners. But the question is whether a traditional F2F role-play serves just as well!

There's a lot of common ground between our potential topics. Should be useful talking more about them. Are you considering anxiety as a conscious emotion experienced by learners?