Enhancing EFL profession-based vocabulary acquisition through 3D engineering animation for engineering students

Today, a majority of agricultural farms are equipped with a new type of farm machinery, tractors, which require high-quality knowledge, skills and abilities from engineers. Therefore, the ability to describe the objects, mechanisms and working schemes is a priority for future agricultural engineers. Before COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, most ESP classes were held in specially equipped laboratories, where students could study agricultural machinery and equipment on layouts. Ukrainian educators search for alternative teaching tools to enable effective distance learning of future agricultural engineers. Three-dimensional environments can be very useful to examine agricultural machinery parts. The purpose of this experiment was to test the effectiveness of 3-D engineering animation in improving profession-based vocabulary acquisition. A two-group post-test comparative pedagogical experiment was conducted with the second-year agricultural engineering students (n = 30) during the spring semester of the academic year 2022. A series of online 3-D engineering animations was adapted with the students of the experimental group to reinforce the course content and develop vocabulary skills in participants. The achievement profession-based vocabulary test with experimental and control groups was carried out. The number of participants in each group is equal (n1 = 15, n2 = 15), so the boundary value of Хb at a 5% – level of significance for N = 30 is 4.88. The statistical interpretation of the test results based on the Van der Waerden criterion shows that Xf > Hb, respectively, 8.85 > 4.88. The differences in the results obtained are statistically significant (X = 8.85 at P < 0.05), which allows us to assert the effectiveness of training engaged in the experimental group.