ISSN 0798 1015 HOME Revista ESPACIOS ! ÍNDICES ! A LOS AUTORES ! Vol. 38 (Nº 25) Year 2017. Page 12 Possibilities of using integrated learning in teaching English in a non-linguistic college Posibilidades de utilizar el aprendizaje integrado en la enseñanza del inglés en una universidad no lingüística Irma Igorevna MOLCHANOVA 1; Alena Yuryevna NIKITINA 2; Yury Anatoljevich ERMOSHIN 3; Natalia Vladimirovna ALONTSEVA 4; Tatiana Sergeevna RUZHENTSEVA 5 Received: 09/03/2017 • Approved: 15/04/2017 Content 1. Introduction 2. Methods 3. Results 4. Discussion 5. Conclusion References ABSTRACT: In the current conditions, apart from high-quality professional education, a crucial component of a specialist’s competitiveness is the knowledge of a foreign language (further on – FL). Because of this, during the training of higher educational institutions’ students, learning a FL requires considering professional specifics and its orientation on actualizing the professional activity tasks. Hence, methods of teaching a FL as a science are faced with the aim of searching for the optimal ways of reaching a sufficient level of FL knowledge for professional goals. Therefore, the aim of present article is to discuss the specifics of various methods of teaching a FL for professional communication and the possibilities of using them in a non- linguistic college. In the context of present study, integrated learning is defined as learning, in which the focus is shifted from isolated teaching of a FL for professional communication to integration of learning the language with studying special disciplines. Analysis of theoretical developments and conduction of an experimental study showed that teaching a FL for professional communication on the basis of the CLIL methodology is efficient for students of a non-linguistic college. Keywords: content-based instruction, content and language integrated learning (CLIL), foreign-language immersion, traditional professionally-oriented learning, the ESP method. RESUMEN: En las condiciones actuales, aparte de la educación profesional de alta calidad, un componente crucial de la competitividad de un especialista es el conocimiento de una lengua extranjera (LE). Por ello, durante la formación de los estudiantes de las instituciones de enseñanza superior, el aprendizaje de una LE requiere considerar las especificidades profesionales y su orientación en la realización de las tareas de la actividad profesional. Por lo tanto, los métodos de enseñanza de una LE como una ciencia se enfrentan con el objetivo de buscar las formas óptimas de alcanzar un nivel suficiente de conocimientos de FL para los objetivos profesionales. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de este artículo es discutir los detalles de varios métodos de enseñanza de una LE para la comunicación profesional y las posibilidades de utilizarlos en un colegio no lingüístico. En el contexto del presente estudio, el aprendizaje integrado se define como aprendizaje, en el que el enfoque se traslada de la enseñanza aislada de una LE para la comunicación profesional a la integración de aprender el idioma con el estudio de disciplinas especiales. El análisis de los desarrollos teóricos y la conducción de un estudio experimental demostró que la enseñanza de un LE para la comunicación profesional sobre la base de la metodología CLIL es eficiente para los estudiantes de un colegio no lingüístico. Palabras clave: enseñanza basada en contenido, aprendizaje integrado de contenidos y lenguas (CLIL), inmersión en lenguas extranjeras, aprendizaje tradicional orientado profesionalmente, el método ESP. 1. Introduction Content-based second language instruction, content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and foreign-language immersion are the leading and the most efficient directions of optimizing and intensifying students’ foreign language learning for professional goals. They are widely used in the universities of the developed countries worldwide. Unfortunately, teachers FL for professional communication in the national non-linguistic higher school are not familiar enough with the essence of these three related approaches, which prevents their efficient introduction. Such discussion should begin with content-based second language instruction, because it is the most suitable approach for teaching a foreign language in non-linguistic colleges. One of the first studies of learning a language and communication in it with regard to the content of other study disciplines was a monograph by D.M. Brintion, M.A. Snow and M.B. Wesche (Brintоn, et. al. 1989). The authors define such learning by understanding this terminological collocation as a combination of certain content of disciplines with the aims of FL learning. This method of FL learning provides simultaneous acquisition of knowledge on a certain (non-linguistic) discipline and speaking skills and abilities related to the studied language and communication in it. The program of FL learning is tightly linked, or is even directly based, on the program of learning a certain (non-linguistic) discipline; therefore, the sequence of acquiring the language/speech content corresponds to the demands of the successive learning of the non-linguistic discipline’s content. Students’ (and partially teacher’s) attention is focused on acquiring the extra-linguistic information of a certain (non-linguistic) discipline by a FL. Development of purely speaking skills and abilities occurs as a by-product of this process in general. Therefore, in the majority of specialized educational institutions, “learning through content” eliminates the gap between learning a language and learning special (e.g., professional) disciplines, which require learning the language for the communication in their field. FL learning based on the content of special disciplines should not be confused with professionally-oriented learning, which is well-known by the national FL teachers in non-linguistic colleges. If the students read texts on their specialty in a foreign language, and the reading is followed by exercises about lexical and grammar material from the read text, as it often happens in the textbooks for learning a FL for professional goals, it is professionally-oriented learning, but not the content-based learning. Content-based learning includes only such types of activity that are specific only for the professional content, which has to be taught by using a FL. Such professionally-oriented types of educational activity model the professional activity to some extent, instead of just being based on its content. This includes students’ brainstorms and discussions about professional questions, discussion of cases, students’ presentations of the professional nature, project work and other types of educational activity, which are performed on the studied language, rather than on the native one. One concept close to the concept of learning a language on the basis of the content of special disciplines is content and language integrated learning (CLIL). The difference consists only in the fact that CLIL is defined as a wider concept. The term CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) was introduced in 1994 by David Marsh, a researcher in the field of multi-language education, in order to name the method of teaching and learning general-education subjects (or their separate parts) in a FL. 9 (Cоntent аnd Lаnguаge Integrаted Leаrning (CLIL) аt Schооl in Eurоpe) The following definition of CLIL is currently the most common one in the national applied linguistics: it is a didactical method, which allows developing students’ foreign-language linguistic and communicative competence in the same educational context, in which their basic knowledge and skills development occurs (Kochenkova 2012).