Objectives and Methodology

01. Project Objective

The goal of the project is to find more insights about how immersive digital environments (VR & COIL) in ESP engineering courses contribute to students’ development of disciplinary literacies, and how ESP contributes to the development of real academic and professional communicative practices.

02. Project Methodology

Data collection for IMMER-LIT will take place across six participating universities (UPC, UdL, UVic, UPM, UPCT and UAL) in engineering ESP courses that integrate Virtual Reality (VR) or Virtual Exchange (COIL). Both environments provide authentic and immersive learning experiences, though they differ in approach: COIL connects students with international peers through online collaboration to produce academic or professional texts, while VR places students in simulated professional scenarios where they interact with virtual characters to practise genres such as interviews, presentations, and meetings.

01. Research Questions

This section outlines the research questions that guide the IMMER-LIT project. These questions define the main lines of research, shape the study design, and focus the analysis on the key issues the project aims to investigate.

1. What disciplinary genres do students use in virtual environments and what processes do they follow to produce those genres?

2. What are students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the efficacy of VR and COIL for the development of linguistic and disciplinary communicative skills?

3. Do students consider that simulation activities prepare them to communicate in real academic and professional contexts?

02. Specific Objectives

This section presents the specific questions that guide the developed research. The team will explore the multiple types of communicative genres involved in VR and COIL activities within ESP contexts, the students’ knowledge and performance in these genres, and how participation in such activities can improve their communication skills.

The research team will also address how teachers and students perceive the value of these approaches, particularly in relation to preparation for academic and professional communication, levels of motivation and satisfaction, and students’ confidence to participate in real international settings, allowing for adaptations in later stages of the research and improving the obtained results.

1 . First Goal - Analyse academic and professional genres used in VR & COIL activities and relate them to the genres used by students in real academic/professional settings

Identify written, oral and multimodal genres used in VR and COIL in ESP. Are they traditional, reconfigured, or emerging genres?
What is students’ knowledge and competence of these disciplinary genres?
Describe genres & processes according to the communicative experiences of students.

2. Second Goal - Explore how VR & COIL contribute to the development of ESP students’ disciplinary literacies

Analyse oral, written & multimodal production, paying attention to students’ Digital Multimodal Composition Composición (DMC); How do VR & COIL impact the development of students’ disciplinary literacies.
Analyse the level of students’ (written & oral) disciplinary communicative competence after doing VR & COIL activities integrated in ESP courses.
Analyse ESP teachers’ and students’ perspective on the development of disciplinary communicative competences through VR & COIL activities.

3. Third Goal - Analyse how VR and COIL activities contribute to the motivation and self-confidence of ESP students

Find out students’ perceptions about the extent to which VR & COIL activities help them become better prepared for academic or professional communication.
Find out students’ motivation and satisfaction regarding the VR & COIL activities and, as a consequence, regarding ESP courses that incorporate them.
Find out students’ confidence to participate in real international situations.

03. Data Collection

The data collection instruments used in this study are built based on already validated tools and methodological insights developed in earlier research projects such as LIDISELF and ASSEMID. These will be distributed across six participating universities (UPC, UdL, UVic, UPM, UPCT and UAL) in engineering ESP courses that integrate Virtual Reality (VR) or Virtual Exchange (COIL).

The developed instruments are the following ones: