THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
19
EVOLUTION OF ESP AS THE METHODOLOGY OF TEACHING
FOREIGN LANGUAGES FOR PROFESSIONAL PURPOSES IN UZBEK
NON-LINGUISTIC UNIVERSITIES
Khidirova Umida Islom kizi
Karshi engineering economics institute
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14898038
Abstarct:
The article considers the issue of ESP evolution in foreign
language teaching at non-linguistic universities. On the base of ESP and CLIL
comparative analysis, the authors substantiate the shift to subject-oriented FL
teaching that contributes to formation of FL professional communicative
competence of a specialist. The content of a professional didactic competency of
non-linguistic university EPP teacher is considered.
Keywords:
CLIL, ESP, Language for Specific Purposes, LSP
The issue of the effectiveness of teaching a language for professional
purposes for the development of foreign language professional communicative
competence of future specialists has long been of concern to researchers of the
problems of foreign language education in non-linguistic universities. The
linguistic, linguodidactic, pragmatic, psycholinguistic and methodological
aspects of teaching a foreign language used in a specific (professional) area of
human activity are considered.
In the last decade, a number of factors have emerged that directly or
indirectly influence the change in the paradigm of foreign language training of a
specialist. Among these factors, one can single out the competence-based
approach to training specialists, which involves designing curricula based on
learning outcomes expressed in the form of formed competencies. However,
regular updating of regulatory requirements for foreign language training of a
specialist (currently presented by the Federal State Educational Standard of
Higher Education 3+) does not make the task of choosing effective approaches to
foreign language professional training easier, since There are a number of
contradictions in the above-mentioned requirements that differentiate the
language education of bachelors and masters in a non-linguistic university. In
this regard, today the most pressing issues are the development of university
methods of teaching foreign languages in non-linguistic universities, with the
help of which the foreign language professional communicative competence
(FLPCC) of a spec The requirements for foreign language education in a non-
linguistic university are regulated by the Model Program for Foreign Languages
for Non-linguistic Universities, developed in 2009 and edited by S.G. Ter-
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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Minasova, in which the fundamental approach is recognized as Language for
Specific Purposes (LSP) [1]. Several years have passed since the compilation of
this program, it seems appropriate to trace the evolution of the widely known
LSP approach in order to determine new teaching strategies in a non-linguistic
university. The study of “language for specific purposes” (in Western
terminology, Language for Specific Purposes – LSP), like the history of bilingual
education, dates back to ancient times. Communication using language for
specific purposes arose simultaneously with the division of labor, which entailed
the emergence of different areas of knowledge and, accordingly, new concepts.
The subsequent division of scientific disciplines (disciplinarity of education) and
the increase in the number of specializations led to a new vector of LSP
development, thanks to which the concept of “language for specific purposes”
has become widely known since the 1960s of the 20th century to the present
day.
LSP researcher T.N. Khomutova identifies historical (pragmatic), linguistic
and linguodidactic reasons for the evolution of the concept of language for
specific purposes in the second half of the 20th century [2]. During this period,
LSP was going through another stage of its development, which was influenced
by the end of World War II and the post-war economic recovery. The surge in
economic activity and scientific and technological progress in the 1960s against
the backdrop of the growing influence of the United States led to the
strengthening of the role of English as the language of international
communication, which led to the emergence of a new variety of the LSP
approach – ESP (English for Specific Purposes).ialist will be formed. T.
Hutchinson and A. Waters, considered the founders of the ESP approach, argued
that the development of ESP was also influenced by the shift in emphasis in
linguistics from the formal characteristics of languages to the situational
contexts in which communication occurs [3]. Shifts in the linguistic paradigm led
to a change in the linguodidactic aspects of ESP teaching, when T. Hutchinson
and A. Waters substantiated the need to create methods that would allow
teaching a language for specific purposes based on an analysis of the needs of
students. Today, the theoretical development of the LSP concept is proceeding in
two main directions: linguistic and linguodidactic. In the linguistic context, the
LSP theory is based on the study of speech productions in the process of human
communication and is implemented “in oral and written discourse in the form of
texts, each of which accumulates and stores special knowledge” [4, p. 97]. In
linguistics, the term LSP has many interpretations, which leads to a certain
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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terminological inconsistency, relating language for specific purposes to the
concepts of “sublanguage”, “functional style”, “genre”, “register”, etc. This
confusion is associated with the opposition of LSP and language for general
purposes, adopted in the 1960s. In modern linguistics, LSP has acquired the
status of a subsystem of natural language, which not only eliminated such
opposition, but also led to the justification of the similarity of languages for
specific and general purposes. Thus, the sources of LSP vocabulary can be words
of the literary language, borrowings, slang, digital symbols, etc.; the
morphological and syntactic characteristics of LSP also do not have fundamental
differences from those in the language for general purposes. The specificity of
LSP text genres imposes certain restrictions on the compositional structure of
the specialized texts themselves (financial report, feasibility study, business
letter, etc.), which allowed researchers to identify different levels of LSP text
language (languages of technical, fundamental, humanities, language of material
production, etc.). With the development of computer technologies, the interest
of linguists in the text structures of LSP has led to the emergence of LSP studies
within the framework of corpus linguistics. Today, the linguistic aspects of LSP
are studied in the field of contrastive linguistics, lexicology, sociolinguistics,
translation theory, and psycholinguistics.
The linguodidactic aspect of LSP is the subject of many studies in the field of
foreign language teaching methods and the theory and methodology of (higher)
professional education. The methodology of LSP in its most widespread version
ESP was first outlined in 1987 by T. Hutchinson and A. Waters in the book
“English for Specific Purposes / A Learning Centered Approach” [3]. Later, the
linguodidactic concepts of ESP were developed in the book by T. Dudley-Evans
and M.D. St. John “New Developments in English for Specific Purposes.
Interdisciplinary approach” (1998, 2011) [5], which presents the main
provisions of this direction:
– ESP is considered by scientists as an approach, and not as a product,
which means that the focus of the research is not linguistic, but linguodidactic
aspects;
– the analysis of the needs of students is the starting point in the
construction of professionally oriented courses for teaching foreign languages to
specialists;
– ESP does not provide for the study of grammatical forms that are already
known to students at a basic level, but is the formation of grammatical skills
necessary for certain situational contexts;
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PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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– ESP is characterized as a language limited by situations of professional
communication, within the framework of which a special professionally oriented
course is built;
– an ESP course can be specially designed for specific disciplines;
– ESP programs are often created for intermediate or advanced level
students, but can also be developed for students at a beginner level of language
training [5, p.5]; – ESP reflects the methodology typical for teaching the studied
specialized disciplines;
– when teaching ESP, the teacher may ask the student for an explanation of
any phenomenon typical for the specialized discipline.
Since the late 80s of the 20th century, the ESP direction has been actively
developing, flexibly following the needs of the market. ESP courses are offered
both as part of university programs for foreign students, and separately, on a
commercial basis. Professional English-language communication skills in
specialized areas are supposed to be mastered in such courses as: “English for
Lawyers” (English for Legal Purposes), “English for Doctors”, “English for Air
Traffic Controllers”, “English for IT specialists”, etc. The target audience of such
programs is university students or certified specialists who need to develop
their professional foreign-language communication skills.
Given the linguistic focus of the ESP method, the strategy for assessing
students' achievements in ESP programs is generally based on the same
methodological techniques as in teaching English for general purposes. The
focus of the assessment procedure in ESP is professional foreign language
competence, which means students' mastery of the basics of genre, discourse,
grammar and terminology characteristic of a given professional field, as well as
communicative competence or the ability to communicate in a foreign language
in formal and informal situations. The formal method for assessing performance
in an ESP classroom, as well as in a GE classroom, is written testing.
The ESP teacher is a conductor of knowledge about the language being
studied, genre, discourse and terminology and does not act as a source of special
knowledge (“primary knower”), since he/she is not a specialist in the content of
the subject discipline. The role of the teacher in the ESP methodology is defined
as “manager”, “facilitator”, “consultant”, “advisor”. The ESP methodology
requires the teacher to be able to conduct a needs analysis, understand the basic
concepts, and have a basic understanding of the subject matter. ESP teacher
training abroad is carried out on the basis of continuing education programs,
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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which are widespread and accessible in many European countries, as well as on
the basis of master's degree programs at universities. ESP teacher training
programs are also appearing in Russia (for example, at MISiS).
In the last decade, the European practice of teaching foreign languages has
shifted its emphasis towards subject-oriented teaching of foreign languages. The
CLIL approach, which combines the study of a subject discipline and a foreign
language used as a tool for acquiring subject knowledge (vehicular language), is
a reflection of the EU policy, which promotes bilingual education as a way of
convergence of European countries.
The idea of the approach is based on the language acquisition theory of C.
Krashen and lies in the fact that a specially methodologically coordinated
teaching of a subject discipline and a foreign language (in some cases in a foreign
language) not only promotes the successful acquisition of both subjects, but also
significantly develops the cognitive skills of students by establishing various
neural connections in the brain [6]. Numerous experiments have proven the
correctness of this assumption, which has led to its expansion in school
education in the countries of the European Union, Asia and Latin America. The
approach is also successfully applied in a number of European universities.
The basic concept of CLIL is the so-called "4 Cs": content - the content of the
subject discipline; communication - oral and written communication in the
specialty; cognition - knowledge, i.e. the development of cognitive abilities of
students in the process of studying the language and a special subject; culture - a
wide range of cultural context aimed at developing in students responsibility for
the global and local civil society.
CLIL methodologists D. Coyle, D. Marsh, F. Hood [7] highlight the following
CLIL principles:
1. Authenticity. CLIL uses authentic materials and learning situations, for
example, to reproduce real-life situations.
2. Multitasking. Teaching is focused on several areas: understanding of
subject content; development of cognitive skills through analysis of subject
content; development of presentation and discussion skills; development of
language skills (FL); formation of cooperation between students in group work
mode (compliance with time frames, work with information sources); formation
of skills in working with ICT. 3. Active learning. Students actively participate in
the learning process both at the project preparation stage and at the
presentation stage. They are responsible for involving other students in the
project. They also develop peer assessment criteria and assess each other.
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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4. Safe learning environment. This is ensured by creating a friendly
environment and equal conditions for all students, which to a certain extent
echoes important psychological and pedagogical provisions on creating a
comfortable environment for students in foreign language classes.
5. Scaffolded instruction. Based on the concept of the “zone of proximal
development” by L.S. Vygotsky, J. Bruner’s idea of the need to create educational
supports that are gradually eliminated as the student acquires autonomy in
learning activities is implemented within the framework of CLIL as the basis for
the teacher’s methodological actions [8].
Since CLIL does not impose entry requirements on students’ language
skills; CLIL programs have no age restrictions, which makes them adaptable to
various educational contexts. It is important to note that mastering a foreign
language by students is not a priority task of CLIL. Language is not a goal, but a
means of developing students' subject and foreign language competencies.
The approach is based on the concept of integration, which can be
implemented in different ways. Studying a foreign language can be included in
the curriculum of a special subject (for example, mathematics, history,
geography, etc.). Subject content can be used in foreign language classes through
cooperation between the foreign language teacher and the special subject
teacher [7]
There are three known CLIL models: soft CLIL, the so-called language-led,
when the emphasis is on the linguistic features of a special context, and hard
CLIL, the so-called subject-led (subject-oriented), when almost 50% of the
curriculum of subjects in a specialty is studied in a foreign language. The third
model occupies an intermediate position and is used when some modular
programs in a specialty are studied in a foreign language (partial immersion).
One of the main goals of CLIL learning is the cognitive development of students
based on the formation of thinking operations, which in CLIL are divided into
low order thinking skills (LOTs) – the simplest thinking skills (memorization,
classification, object definition, etc.), and high order thinking skills (HOTs) –
high-order thinking skills (forecasting, reasoning, creative thinking, synthesis,
evaluation, hypothesis building, etc.). The basis for “navigation” in the
development of cognitive skills is the widely known taxonomy of learning
objectives by B. Bloom [9].
According to the methodology of the approach, a CLIL teacher is a subject
teacher with developed foreign language competence (at the B2-C1 level on the
CEFR scale). This condition for the implementation of this approach complicates
THEORETICAL ASPECTS IN THE FORMATION OF
PEDAGOGICAL SCIENCES
International scientific-online conference
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its adaptation in educational institutions of the Russian Federation, since the
number of subject teachers with a high level of foreign language proficiency is
limited both in schools and universities, and their mass language training is a
very lengthy process.
Nevertheless, the subject focus of CLIL, which distinguishes the approach
from the usual ESP, which develops exclusively the linguistic skills of a specialist,
seems to be an important methodological aspect of foreign language
professional education in a non-linguistic university. Without the technical
possibility of widespread implementation of CLIL, non-linguistic universities of
the Russian Federation should nevertheless perceive foreign language education
as language teaching for professional purposes (LFP), taught not only for the
purpose of developing foreign language professional communication skills, but
also for the purpose of expanding professional knowledge and forming the
cognitive skills of students.
In pursuit of the task of developing the IPCC of a specialist in the context of
two academic hours of a foreign language per week, a teacher of the FL should
have developed special professional and methodological competence (PMC),
including knowledge and skills in the field of competency-based design of
educational programs based on learning outcomes; knowledge of the axiology of
professionally oriented foreign language teaching and the language policy of
universities in the Russian Federation; knowledge and skills in the field of
professional linguodidactics (including the linguodidactic capabilities of ICT and
methods of formative assessment); proficiency in methods of modeling
professional activity in the process of foreign language teaching, implying the
awareness of the FL teacher in the field of the specialized discipline; the ability
to carry out interdisciplinary cooperation with specialized departments, etc. A
key component of the PMC of a FL teacher is proficiency in methods and
technologies of interdisciplinary foreign language teaching, based on the concept
of scaffolded instruction (CLIL) [10]. The development of the proficiency and
competence of a teacher of the linguistic and literate language, which
determines the readiness to work effectively in a non-linguistic university, is
possible today in the context of advanced training in the system of additional
professional education [11]. Foreign language professional education in a non-
linguistic (especially technical) university is an important component of training
a competitive specialist for the development of the country's innovative
economy. To solve this problem, it is necessary to shift the emphasis towards
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productive interdisciplinary technologies for training future specialists, which
requires from the teacher of the foreign language not only regular updating of
professional knowledge and skills, but also a comprehensive understanding of
the tasks facing higher professional education in Russia.
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