Teaching Professional Foreign Language Discourse via IT Tools

The chapter “Teaching Professional Foreign Language Discourse via IT Tools: Through the Example of WebQuest Technology” is devoted to the description of the didactic tools development based on the Internet technologies (IT) and the integration of the problem-based learning into the educational process for the formation of professional foreign language discourse in non-linguistic students. The author presents the experience of using IT, in particular the web-quest technology, in practice for the purpose of creating a professional foreign language discourse that allows students to master professional knowledge and develop relevant skills in the field of professional communication. In the chapter the web-quest technology is considered to be one of the most appropriate IT tools for the successful formation of professional foreign language discourse in students with non-linguistic major, since the format of the technology allows the teacher to manage the student work at all stages. In addition, the integration of the web-quest technology into the educational process solves one of the key tasks of modern education, i.e. the increase in the volume of students' independent work, due to which the process of metacognition develops the self-regulation of the personality. The chapter pays great attention to the historiography of problem-based learning from the very origins to modern times, its transformation and types, which depend on the didactic goals being set during the learning process. At the end of the chapter, the author presents the experience of technology integration in the pedagogical process and the results of the experiment.

Implementing English-Taught Programmes in Higher Education in Spain

The acceptance of English as the lingua franca of the academic world has triggered the flourishing of different approaches to promote the learning of English as a foreign language in higher education. Under the umbrella of supranational regulations (as in the case of Europe), the promise of linguistic gains runs parallel with the necessity to attract international students, to promote the international and institutional profile for the universities, and to enhance employability for graduates. At the university of Córdoba, studies or courses taught through a foreign language are part of a larger university policy, and the decisions were based on clear definition of content and language learning outcomes and human and material resources available. This chapter describes the implementation of bilingual programs at this university, offering a picture of the challenges and problems that emerged and of the initiatives that were adopted.

Practical Implementation of Integrative Bilingual Teaching/Learning at a Technical University

The value and importance of the integrative bilingual teaching/learning foreign language and engineering is building bridges between cognition and communication, finding ways for establishing a dynamic balance between them in the mind of an engineering student. This explains the choice of study exercises and activities, related to mental operations and psychological patterns. The chapter discusses the peculiarities of solving problems, other active exercises, and gives some practical recommendations. Here also is the eternal problem of CLIL-like integrative education: How much language? How much content? Concerning language material, it is determined by some basic volume, demand driven by professional duties and interests. All the suggested ideas were tested at a Russian technical university for years. The difficulties, findings, and results of the pilot projects for bachelors and masters are discussed.

On Integrative Bilingual Teaching of a Foreign Language and Engineering at a Technical University

Integrative bilingual teaching/learning of foreign language and engineering disciplines at a technical university provides a good opportunity for students of the personal growth both in cognitive and communicative aspects, which contributes to their better positions in the labor market. To put this opportunity into practice, the educators should have clear ideas about the goal of this educational process, psychological aspects accompanying the process, conditions of its implementation, basic units of teaching/learning, means of monitoring, assessment, and control and some others. All these components of methodology are discussed in this chapter.

Content-Based EFL Teaching to Undergraduate Science Students

This chapter explores the contextual and linguistic potential of the content-based approach in language teaching. The first part of the analysis focuses on the theoretical underpinnings of this approach. The analysis of the cognitive-discursive activity of a non-native learner of a foreign language reveals the complex multi-level organization of cognitive-discursive activity. The author anticipates that context plays a decisive role in the processes of perception and understanding of a foreign language message embedded in a context. The second part of this chapter synthesizes research on learning outcomes in content-based EFL teaching of undergraduate science students. It deals with classroom-based research and participants' use of English taking account discourse factors, students' language resources, and didactic potential of the content-based teaching model. The findings demonstrated that the designed theme-based teaching framework proved to be more effective for science undergraduate students' speech skills development and acquisition of topic-related vocabulary.

The Development of a University CLIL Model Integrating Economic Disciplines and Academic English

The chapter analyses a university model designed to integrate the study of economic disciplines and English by demonstrating how content-driven CLIL evolved from a synthesis of teaching economic disciplines in English by native speaking lecturers and English for special purposes taught by language instructors. A longitudinal action research into the effects of content and language integration ensured the development of major didactic and methodological principles implemented in a sequence of four semester courses with a dual focus on content and language. The chapter comprehensively examines the benefits arising from the introductory character of university CLIL disciplines and the two-level approach to the acquisition of academic domain-specific language skill in a collaborative interaction of all the participants aimed at knowledge construction. The model is considered an efficient intermediate stage undertaken before shifting to any form of tertiary educational context where English is used as a medium of instruction.

Shifting Towards English Medium Instruction in Higher Education

In higher education (HE), the emerging global phenomenon of English medium instruction (EMI) has brought huge opportunities for both students and teaching staff as universities are increasing the number of English-medium programmes. A number of studies have been conducted to explore EMI policies and practices, implications for pedagogy, as well as challenges for educators and students, including learners' academic skills, learning styles, level of content knowledge, academic practices, and varying ethical standards. Some issues under analysis are considered to be the main problematic questions faced in multilingual and multicultural classrooms. As noted by Dearden, the change in the learning and teaching language may deeply affect not only students but teachers as well. The current study seeks to answer the research questions of how university teachers conceptualize EMI and what possibilities and challenges this practice offers.

The Symbiotic Energy of [Complex Content]+[Foreign Language]

This chapter addresses academic disciplinary literacy, the ability to use disciplinary discourse to formulate and learn discipline-specific ideas correctly, and also use condoned ways of languaging to share disciplinary knowledge eloquently. Disciplinary literacy also concerns L1 content education; however, the existence of “foreign language” within the EMI/CLIL instructional milieu further amplifies this challenge. This chapter addresses this challenge by evolving traditional EFL-models of language-learning into an “EMI/CLIL-concept-language-complexity model,” which correlates complex disciplinary concepts with complex disciplinary discourse with complex foreign disciplinary discourse. Using this three-dimensional model, translanguaging materials were designed so to make “foreign language” a conduit that seamlessly chaperones students through disciplinary knowledge coded in L1-BICS, L1-CALP, FL-BICS, and FL-CALP. Translanguaging materials are presented plus case-study results confirming not only students' comprehension of disciplinary concepts but also their assimilation of complex disciplinary discourses.

Modern Linguodidactics as a Scientific Foundation for FLT in Russia

The development of linguodidactics as a science, its object, subject, research tasks, and axiological senses are justified by synthesizing the reflexive analytical and empirical components of methodological knowledge in foreign language teaching. As this science accumulates multiple knowledge, it is proved to study both the interaction of phenomena such as language, consciousness, culture, society, and processes of teaching a foreign language, mastering this language as part of educational process, using the language as a means of communication, (self)-knowledge, and (self)-development. Emphasis is placed on both describing linguodidactics research areas through addressing its notion “professional language personality” and interpreting content-specific and innovative features of the contemporary sociocultural model of students' linguistics education and its essential structural elements, including the value of this education, its purpose, content, and methods, as well as students' communication activities, their involvement in the system of social relations, and educational outcomes.

Lawyer's ICC as a Result of Integration of Linguo-Didactics, Linguoculturology, and Jurisprudence

In terms of the current complicated socio-cultural and economic situations in the global communication system, achieving international cooperation becomes a challenge for Russia. A lawyer carries out legal regulations of interstate disputes with peaceful measures in the process of foreign language professional communications. One of the most important factors of successful international activity in the legal sphere is to master lawyer's intercultural communicative competence (ICC), as knowledge of foreign linguocultural features of verbal and non-verbal lawyers' behavior contributes to mutual understandings in professional interactions. The structure and content of a lawyers' ICC indicates its integrative nature, which enabled the authors to recognize an ESP approach in the intercultural context as a modern and perspective variant of integrated foreign language teaching for future law bachelors. This study offers methodological recommendations to implement an ESP model aimed at the development of lawyer's intercultural communicative competence.