INTEGRATED LEARNING OR HOW TO TEACH READING PROFESSIONAL TEXTS

ABSTRACT

The paper covers teaching students to understand written professional texts in English using integrated learning technologies. The work discusses the following concepts: reading, comprehension, integrated learning. The article describes the criteria for selection professional texts, exercises to develop professional texts understanding skill and their testing. The paper specifies the ways how to conduct productive multicultural dialogue using ‘Professional foreign language’ subject as a tool. The findings can be used in theoretical and practical disciplines teaching; when writing manuals, as well as completing coursework and researches. 

АННОТАЦИЯ

В статье рассматривается обучение студентов пониманию письменных профессиональных текстов на английском языке с использованием технологий интегрированного обучения. В работе рассматриваются следующие понятия: чтение, понимание, интегрированное обучение. В статье описаны критерии отбора профессиональных текстов, упражнения на развитие навыков понимания профессиональных текстов и их тестирование. В статье обозначены способы ведения продуктивного мультикультурного диалога, используя в качестве инструмента предмет «Профессиональный иностранный язык». Результаты могут быть использованы при преподавании теоретических и практических дисциплин; при написании учебных пособий, а также выполнении курсовых и научных исследований.

Keywords: ‘Professional foreign language’ subject, secondary vocational education, professional texts, Content and Language Integrated Learning.

Ключевые слова: дисциплина «Иностранный язык в профессиональной деятельности», среднее профессиональное образование, профессиональные тексты, предметно-языковое интегрированное обучение.

Including integrated approach in secondary vocational education makes contemporary students develop various soft and hard skills. The would-be specialists must be ready to conduct productive multicultural dialogue in professional terms. 

One of the ‘Professional foreign language’ course goals is to teach students to understand written professional texts industry features and perspectives focused. The ‘text’ becomes the critical learning tool at the theoretical training stage. Students use versatile references to get relevant professional experience associated with high profiled business issues, debate serious ideas and claim their points of view. They define their own way and emphasizes patterns to achieve a breakthrough. 

Hard-worn case of selecting professional texts is on the top of the features. We offer the following criteria:

• authenticity
• professional orientation
• informative significance and novelty
• semantic completeness and obviousness of the text structure

Due to identified criteria, we have selected material for an educational and methodological manual. The guide is intended for the 4^th year students of secondary vocational education in the specialty “Information Systems and Programming”. Researchers note that comprehensive foreign language teaching creates conditions for the efficient would-be specialists training. [5, 6]

We have used the open online resource Encyclopedia Britannica [3] to search authentic professional texts for Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The term describes ‘both learning another (content) subject such as information technologies through the medium of a foreign language and learning a foreign language by studying a content-based subject’. [2] Teachers use the integrated approach to achieve the goals, which D. Coyle describes as ‘the Rule of the Four ‘C’: communication, content, culture, cognition’. [1] From a pedagogical point of view, L.N. Vavilova notes that ‘integration is an integral interconnected disciplines system, built by the world surrounding the child’. [7]

The research has integrated ‘Professional foreign language’ subject and several professional courses, such as:

• ‘Information systems code development’
• ‘Information systems testing’
• ‘Software development technology’
• ‘Software development tools’

The experiment has provided 3 stages: 

1. Preparation. The manual consists of 7 lessons, input and final control. There are selected professional texts and made exercises integrated with the above professional courses.
2. Diagnostics. This is the knowledge level input control. The test contains 5 tasks:

2.1. Read and translate the text ‘Development of Data Management Technology’;

2.2. Answer the questions to the text;

2.3. Match the word combinations (1-10) to their translations (a-j);

2.4. Find the definitions of the nouns given in the first column;

2.5. Fill in the gaps with the following verbs, paying attention to the translations of the sentences.

The evaluation criteria are:

• Excellent

The student knows the educational material deeply; accurately answers all posed questions; gives the correct definition of basic concepts; demonstrates material understanding; can justify his judgments; gives the necessary examples; refers to specific statements in the answer.

• Good

The student knows the educational material well enough; does not make serious mistakes when answering posed questions; refers to specific statements; can justify his judgments but finds it difficult to provide the necessary examples.

• Satisfactory

The student knows only the basic material; does not answer questions clearly and completely; allows inaccuracies in defining concepts; does not know how to substantiate the judgments and give examples sufficiently deeply; does not refer to specific statements.

• Unsatisfactory

The student knows separate ideas about the studied material; cannot fully and correctly answer the posed questions; makes significant mistakes in definitions that distort their meaning; inconsistently presents the material; does not refer to specific statements.

The testing results are provided on the diagram:

Picture 1.

After input control 7 lessons were completed to increase the students’ knowledge level. All exercises were based on professional texts.

3. Findings. At this stage was the final control to check the dynamic. The same assessment criteria and tasks were used but in a different context. The testing results are provided on the diagram:

Picture 2.

The research findings are relevant. Firstly, the manual integrated with the professional disciplines was made up. In addition, the system of exercises can be modified according to the features of each student due to the variety and different levels of task complexity. Secondly, the level of professional and linguistic students’ knowledge was increased. Thirdly, the assessment indicators were improved. It has been proved that the integrated learning helps students to achieve the required results according to the Federal State Educational Standard. [4] Taking the above into consideration, the integrated basis of educational activities makes a foreign language the learning goal. The demonstrated research efficacy underscores its ability to enhance professional motivation and significant personal qualities development. 

References:

1. Coyle D. ‘CLIL: Content and language Integrated Learning’ / D. Coyle, P. Hood, D. Marsh. // Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. – 170 p.
2. Darn S. ‘CLIL: Implementing a CLIL Approach – A Change of Emphasis’ URL: https://stevedarn.com/ (date of the address: 09.12.2023).
3. Encyclopedia Britannica, URL: https://www.britannica.com/ (date of the address: 01.12.2023).
4. Federal State Educational Standard, URL: https://zamur.mpt.ru/standards (date of the address: 07.12.2023).
5. Galskova N.D. ‘Modern methods of teaching foreign languages: a manual for teachers’ // M.: ARKTI, 2003. – pp. 153–162.
6. Nizamova R.A. ‘Integrating language skills into the process of the english language teaching’ / R.A. Nizamova, H.A. Mamadalieva, B.H. Matkarimova // Bulletin of science and education, 2019. # 19-2 (73). – pp. 53-55.
7. Vavilova L.N. ‘Integrated lesson: features, preparation, delivery’ // Education. Career. Society, 2017. # 3 (54). – pp. 46–51.