Integration of the English language into the professional training of students of non-linguistic specialties: an interdisciplinary approach

Abstract

This article examines the issue of integrating the English language into the professional training of students of non-linguistic specialties using an interdisciplinary approach. The relevance of this topic is due to the increasing role of the English language as lingua franca in the context of globalization and the need for future specialists to develop foreign language communicative competence for successful professional activity at the international level. The aim of the study is to develop and test a model for integrating English into the educational process of non-linguistic universities based on an interdisciplinary approach. The theoretical and methodological basis of the research was the works of domestic and foreign scientists in the field of linguodidactics, pedagogy, psychology, as well as regulatory documents in the field of higher education. The empirical base consists of the results of experimental work conducted on the basis of 5 non-linguistic universities of the Russian Federation (n=378). In the course of the study, methods of theoretical analysis, modeling, pedagogical experiment, questionnaire, testing, and mathematical statistics were used. A model of the integration of the English language into the educational process of non-linguistic universities has been developed and tested, including targeted, substantive, procedural and performance-evaluation blocks. The principles of selection and structuring of the training content are defined: professional orientation, interdisciplinarity, problemativeness, situationality. The technology of integrated subject-language learning (CLIL) is proposed, implemented through active and interactive methods. A set of pedagogical conditions has been identified that ensure the effectiveness of the model: motivational support of the educational process, organization of learning within the framework of a communicative-activity approach, immersion in an authentic language environment, systematic control of the level of formation of foreign language communicative competence. The results of experimental work confirmed the effectiveness of the developed model: the proportion of students in the experimental group who reached the advanced level (B2-C1) increased by 34.7%, while in the control group the increase was only 12.5%.