Model of content‑language integrated learning for Arabic‑speaking students at the preparatory faculty of an engineering and technical university

Abstract

The aim of the study is to theoretically substantiate and describe a model of content-language integrated learning (hereinafter referred to as CLIL), developed for Arabic‑speaking students at preparatory faculties of engineering and technical profiles who plan to obtain a specialty related to the field of “Fisheries, Aquaculture and Industrial Fishing” at a Russian university in the future. The article presents the development of the substantive, procedural, and control‑and‑assessment components of the CLIL model, which meets the modern requirements of higher education and the professional and communicative needs of Arabic‑speaking students in engineering and technical fields. It also proposes criteria for selecting the substantive content of educational materials, making it possible to integrate the specialty language into the process of teaching Russian as a foreign language, taking into account the sociocultural characteristics of students, their communicative needs and their cognitive characteristics. The scientific novelty lies in clarifying scientific perspectives on early professional-communicative training for engineering students studying Russian as a Foreign Language who intend to continue their education at a Russian university in “Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Industrial Fishing”; furthermore, the effectiveness of CLIL technology principles and ethnomethodological tenets in developing the sub-competencies of professional communicative competence in Arabic-speaking students is substantiated. As a result of the study, modeling approaches and forecasting of the content, process and control-and-assessment components of such binary (dual-approach) educational models for different categories of learners have been developed; the components of the CLIL model instructional materials for Arabic‑speaking learners have been described – these components make it possible to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the learning materials aimed at a specific group of learners, taking into account the specifics of their ethno‑speech characteristics, cognitive abilities and sociocultural needs.