Details

The aim of the research is to design a set of exercises using VR simulators for enhancing lexical skills of mechanical engineering students. The research set the following goals: • to identify the key psychological and pedagogical aspects of incorporating VR into foreign language education; • to analyse the theoretical foundations of lexical skills development; • to clarify the methodological aspects of VR simulator implementation; • to develop a VR-based set of exercises; • to conduct a pedagogical experiment and assess its results. The relevance is determined by the need to overcome contradictions in traditional language training at technical universities: the gap between abstract learning and professional tasks, disciplinary fragmentation, and the lack of safe language practice. The data were collected during a pedagogical experiment at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University with 19 students. The EG followed the developed VR‑based methodology using the Wrench simulator, while the CG followed traditional instruction. The study resulted in a theoretically justified and experimentally tested set of six exercises. The EG demonstrated a 14% increase in correct answers compared to 5% in the CG, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed methodology.