INTEGRATING CONTENT AND LANGUAGE: THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF CLIL IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSES

Abstract

The article focuses on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), which implies teaching professionally-oriented subjects using a foreign language. The authors are confident that CLIL is one of the most effective ways to build the foreign language communicative capacity of technical university students. The possibility of implementation of two approaches to CLIL (Hard CLIL and Soft CLIL) is considered and compared bearing in mind technical university realm. The goal of the research is to try building the foreign language communicative capacity of technical university students in foreign language classes by introducing CLIL. The paper aims at revealing the essence of CLIL and its principles; the essence of foreign language communicative capacity; presenting some exercises from the authors’ practice, which were used at the CLIL lessons; proving that CLIL can be an effective way to build foreign language communicative capacity of technical university students. Students training in specialty 10.05.03 “Information Security of Automated Systems” have become the target group of the research.