FOREIGN LANGUAGE TRAINING OF EASTERN EUROPEAN HUMANITARIAN COLLEGES STUDENTS USING CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING (CLIL) METHOD

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of using the method of content andlanguage integrated learning (CLIL) in the process of foreign language training of humanitarian collegesstudents in several Eastern European countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia). Based on theanalysis of scientific and methodological literature, the authors found out that during the last decade theCLIL method has been rapidly spreading in the European educational space in three main forms: so called«hard», «soft» and «partial immersion». In Eastern Europe, the «hard» form of CLIL is the mostwidespread, because, according to educators, it is better able to implement the idea of integrating learningin a certain discipline and a foreign language. At the same time, practical teachers are aware that only abalanced combination of foreign language and non-philological content can give the best educationaleffect. In pedagogical practice, the CLIL method is often used by teachers of special (non-philological)disciplines who possess high level of foreign language training. However, the latter often subconsciouslypursue only one goal of learning - language, evaluating the overall success of students mostly from theperspective of success in a foreign language. Therefore, it is more logical to train a subject teacher whowill have a high level of competence in the foreign language field than a foreign language philologist whohas additional subject specializations. The authors found out that as of today, in contrast to most EUcountries, there are not many accredited programs in humanitarian colleges in Eastern Europe that arefully focused on the training of CLIL teachers. Humanitarian colleges offer only select courses, which are often elective ones. Although practicing and prospective teachers (who are interested in developing theirprofessional competences in CLIL) have access to courses offered by national and international postgraduate teacher education institutions, but this is clearly not enough. Thus, the authors come to theconclusion that the strategy of adequate systematic training of CLIL teachers does not yet have a cleardefinition in humanitarian colleges of the studied countries (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia).Under such conditions, the authors recommend starting with an assessment of existing competencies andclarifying the needs of a teacher interested in systematic work using CLIL method. This assessment canbe based on the requirements described in the Recommendations of the European Commission on thetraining of such specialists, the Table of Competencies of the CLIL teachers, reflections of the teachersthemselves, feedback from students, educational institutions administrations, other interested parties.