The Strategy of a Teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language in

Integrated Content and Language Teaching at University

E. N. Tuana, I. A. Krasnova, S. A. Gubareva, T. A. Baranova and N. V. Anisina

Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

Keywords: Content and Language Integrated Learning, Teaching Russian as a Foreign Language, Professionally-

Oriented Learning, Language for Professional Purposes.

Abstract: This article deals with the problem of organizing the process of integrated content and language learning in

the conditions of a modern Russian university. The purpose of the research is to describe the experience of

intensification and optimization of the learning process in the language of the specialty with foreign students

based on the strategy of combining popular scientific texts with scientific-educational and scientific texts

proper. To confirm the hypothesis that a popular scientific text, due to its linguistic and semantic accessibility,

should facilitate the process of studying academic scientific texts and maintain students' interest in the chosen

specialty throughout the entire period of study at the university, the authors tested experimental training with

foreign students of junior and senior courses receiving the specialty "Foreign Regional Studies: The Russian

Federation" at Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. The results of the experiment and the

survey of foreign students at the end of the academic semester showed the need to include popular science

texts in the corpus of educational materials intended for use in the language classes of the specialty. In addition,

the paper defines the goals that form the strategy of a teacher teaching students Russian (or more broadly,

another foreign language) as a means of communication in the professional sphere.

1 INTRODUCTION

The main vectors of the development of the modern

world are the processes of globalization and

digitalization, which are inextricably linked and

interdependent and are a natural result of scientific

and technological progress. (Chumakov, 2021). The

development of global communications contributes

to the rapid dissemination of scientific information

around the world. Modern scientific knowledge has

become an imperative of our time. In this regard,

mastering the language of science is a need not only

for narrow specialists in any field of science or

technology, but also for the whole society as a whole,

which finds itself in conditions of technogenic

existence. The changed priorities of modern society

have become a guideline for the formation of new

educational goals and objectives at all levels of the

modern education system around the world.

Currently, the system of higher professional

education faces the task of training highly qualified

specialists of a new generation who possess not only

subject knowledge in their specialty, but also are able

to communicate professionally in a foreign language

in a foreign language environment.

In the context of professionalization of language

education, higher school teachers face a number of

issues that require rethinking the accumulated

experience and searching for new organizational and

methodological solutions in teaching foreign

languages.

This article discusses the problem of organizing

the process of content and language integrated

learning in the conditions of a modern Russian

university on the example of Russian as a foreign

language. The purpose of this research is to describe

the experience of intensification and optimization of

the learning process in the language of the specialty

based on the strategy of combining popular science

texts with scientific-educational and scientific texts

proper.

The object of the research is the texts of the

popular scientific sub-style of speech used in teaching

Russian as a foreign language to students studying in

the specialty "Foreign Regional studies: The Russian

Federation".

The subject of the research is the strategy of using

popular science, educational-scientific and scientific

Tuana, E., Krasnova, I., Gubareva, S., Baranova, T. and V. Anisina, N.

The Strategy of a Teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language in Integrated Content and Language Teaching at University.

DOI: 10.5220/0011607900003577

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Actual Issues of Linguistics, Linguodidactics and Intercultural Communication (TLLIC 2022), pages 105-110

ISBN: 978-989-758-655-2

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

105

texts proper in Russian language classes for special

purposes in junior and senior courses.

When teaching foreign students the language of

the specialty, the unit of study traditionally acts as an

educational-scientific (and scientific text proper in

senior courses), which is a linguistic model for

studying the lexical and grammatical features of the

language of the scientific style of speech, as well as

the logical and compositional structure of the

scientific text as such. The methodological difficulty

of a teacher of Russian as a foreign language (or any

other foreign language) consists primarily in the

selection of texts for teaching, which should be

suitable not only for teaching the language itself, but

also for forming a fragment of the scientific picture of

the world associated with the chosen specialty of

students.

The long-term practice of teaching Russian as a

foreign language in Russian universities indicates that

foreign students of junior and senior courses (to a

greater or lesser extent) in the learning process

experience significant difficulties in understanding

and comprehending scientific-educational and

scientific texts proper in their specialty. Oral and

written forms of control of knowledge, skills and

abilities of foreign students show that the

understanding of the read text is superficial, which is

manifested in the lack of depth and completeness of

perception of the content of the text, as well as the

idea of its structural and semantic organization.

Solving these problems is the primary task of a

teacher engaged in teaching the language of the

specialty.

The teaching of Russian as a foreign language

(RFL), which began to be implemented in Soviet

universities in the early 50s of the 20th century and

then continued in the Russian higher education

system, has always been professionally oriented,

since the Russian language is for foreign students

receiving higher education in Russia, primarily a

means and tool for mastering professional knowledge

in an academic environment (Mitrofanova, 1976;

Motina, 1988; Popova, 2021). Teaching the language

of the specialty in the conditions of a Russian

university is based on the principle of

interdisciplinary coordination, which includes close

interaction between the teacher of the RFL and

teachers of special disciplines. English as a foreign

language training programs also include the

development of communication skills for special

purposes (ESP) (Hans, 2015; Hortas; Ellis, 2015).

However, in the practice of teaching English as a

second language (ESL), English for Academic

purposes (EAP) has also been singled out recently

(Wette). This division has arisen due to the fact that

teaching English for special purposes is focused

mainly on those who have relevant professional

knowledge, skills and abilities and are learning the

language for further activities in the specialty

(Nhlanhla Mpofu, 2021).

In 1994, D. Marsh introduced the term "content

and language integrated learning" (CLIL) to denote

the educational process in which disciplines or their

individual sections are taught to students in a foreign

language (Marsh, 2010). Students simultaneously

study a foreign language and receive professional

education in it. With such an organization of training,

students find themselves in a bilingual educational

environment, that is, they master their future specialty

simultaneously in their native and foreign languages.

Due to the fact that the Russian language in the

conditions of teaching in a Russian university is not

only a tool of cognition (language of learning) and a

means of communication (language for learning), but

also a subject of study (language through learning),

that is, corresponds to the triad of integrated foreign

language teaching (Coyle, 2010), the term "content

and language integrated learning" (CLIL)

corresponds to the goals and objectives of the RFL in

the Russian higher education system. It is worth

noting that in the Soviet-Russian linguo-

methodological literature devoted to the problems of

teaching Russian as a foreign language for foreign

specialists mainly uses such terms as "Specialty

language", "Language for special purposes",

"Professionally-oriented teaching of Russian as a

foreign language", "Scientific style of speech"

(Kutuzova, 2008; Almazova, 2017).

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The authors of the article hypothesize that the

intensification and optimization of subject–language

integrated learning in the language classes of the

specialty is carried out by introducing into the corpus

of educational materials not only scientific-

educational and scientific texts proper, which are

traditionally the basis of teaching, but also popular

scientific texts. Popular science texts, due to the fact

that they contain features of scientific and journalistic

styles of speech, are used as "transitional" to the

development of professionally oriented texts related

to the profile of students' education and having

pronounced features of the scientific style of speech.

If scientific-educational and scientific texts proper are

to a greater extent the basis for the formation of

language competence, then popular science texts, in

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addition to this function, are designed to support

foreign students' interest in the chosen specialty, as

well as to perform developmental and educational

functions.

The following provisions served as a justification

for the above hypothesis.

Popular science texts have both signs that bring

them closer to the scientific texts proper, and specific

signs that distinguish them from the latter. These two

types of texts are united by a common communicative

goal – the communication of scientific information.

However, the scientific texts proper are aimed at

qualified specialists, and popular science texts are

addressed to the general public who do not have

special knowledge in this field. It is this feature that

makes these texts interesting and understandable for

students who are starting to receive their future

specialty.

In comparison with the scientific texts proper

written in strict scientific language and meeting

scientific standards, popular science texts are a

linguistically simplified version of the scientific text.

This circumstance makes texts of this type the

optimal unit of instruction in the language classes of

the specialty. Firstly, students receive interesting

scientific information in an understandable form,

which undoubtedly increases their educational

motivation not only for classes in the language of the

specialty, but also for specialized subjects.

Information about scientific facts, phenomena,

achievements in popular science texts is reported with

elements of entertainment and imagery. In such texts

there are no scientific generalizations and

classifications, on the contrary, they contain concrete

examples (facts, events, phenomena, processes),

figurative comparisons, metaphors, analogies are

used. The new and difficult is explained through

comparison with objects and phenomena that are

understandable and familiar to an ordinary (specially

unprepared) person. In addition, the use of digital data

and special terms in popular scientific texts is

minimal, which also makes the text easy to

understand in terms of content and language.

Secondly, such texts perform the function of

"transitional" and prepare students (especially junior

courses) who do not have a sufficient stock of

scientific and linguistic knowledge to perceive

linguistically complex scientific texts proper, the

share of which increases in the language classes of the

specialty in senior courses. On the basis of popular

science texts, it is much easier to master the general

scientific vocabulary, which abounds in popular

science texts, and which forms the basis of scientific

speech. Syntactic constructions are also more

simplified here, which in the future (at senior courses)

facilitates the study of complex syntactic

constructions in academic scientific texts. Thirdly,

reading popular science texts expands the scientific

horizons of students, increases their general level of

culture and awareness in the field of knowledge

studied.

All of the above factors served as the basis for the

introduction of popular science texts into the corpus

of educational materials on a par with scientific-

educational and scientific texts proper intended for

study in the classroom in the language of the

specialty, in our case, Russian as a foreign language.

In order to confirm this hypothesis, an

experimental training of foreign students of 1-4

courses receiving the specialty "Foreign Regional

studies: The Russian Federation" at the Higher

School of International Relations of Peter the Great

St. Petersburg Polytechnic University was conducted

during one semester in classes on Russian as a foreign

language.

For experimental training, we, together with

teachers in specialized disciplines, selected popular

science texts that met the following requirements.

1. Availability. Popular science texts should be

understandable not only in terms of language,

but also in terms of content. In this situation, it

is necessary to take into account the level of

language and general training of a specific

group of students in this subject (field of

knowledge), which would allow them to

successfully master new material. The texts

available in terms of language and content

contribute to the creation and maintenance of

motivation among students while reading texts.

2. Subject matter. The subject matter of the texts

should be determined primarily by the

curriculum provided by the training profile. At

the same time, various problems can be

discussed within the same topic.

3. Cognitive value of texts. Texts should contain

scientific information that would arouse interest

and satisfy the cognitive needs of students. It is

desirable that popular science texts be used in

addition to those topics that are studied in

specialized disciplines and contain new

information for students.

4. Visualization of texts. For a better

understanding of what has been read, it is

necessary to choose texts that have illustrations

or other means of visualizing the content.

The ratio of the main and secondary information

in the text (Akhmerova, 2015). Texts should be

The Strategy of a Teacher of Russian as a Foreign Language in Integrated Content and Language Teaching at University

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suitable for training various types of reading

(studying, introductory, viewing, searching)

(Folomkina, 2005), written tasks, as well as

speaking tasks.

6. Authenticity. The degree of authenticity of texts

is determined by the level of language training

of students (Akhmerova, 2015). So, for junior

students, texts adapted to a greater extent will be

offered for reading, and for senior students -

texts with elements of adaptation or original

texts.

It is important to note that all of the above

requirements for popular science texts intended for

use in the educational process in the language of the

specialty should solve the problems of education,

development and upbringing of the personality of

students.

The introduction of popular science texts into the

educational process was carried out in the following

percentage ratio in relation to the educational-

scientific and scientific texts proper provided for by

the semester curriculum: in the first year - 30%, in the

second year - 20%, in the third year – 10%, in the

fourth year – 5%.

The work with popular science texts was aimed at

achieving training, developmental and educational

goals. For the realization of training goals, tasks were

used to form skills and abilities in various types of

speech activity (reading, speaking, listening, writing),

as well as tasks related to the study of structural-

semantic and lexical-grammatical features of these

texts. In addition, tasks were used to transform

popular scientific texts into educational-scientific (or

scientific proper), taking into account the lexical,

morphological and syntactic features of each sub-

style.

Developmental goals were achieved as a result of

completing tasks aimed at developing the skills to

analyze, compare, summarize information related to

the content plan and the plan of expression of popular

science texts. This also included tasks for the creation

of metal maps as an effective form of representation

of the structural and semantic organization of the text.

The realization of educational goals is associated

with increasing the level of scientific culture of

students, their awareness in the studied field of

knowledge, expanding the scientific picture of the

world as a whole. To achieve these goals,

communicative tasks were used (critical discussion of

what was read, identification of known and new

information, determination of the value of research

for society and humanity, etc.).

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Based on the experimental training we have obtained

the following results:

1) experimental groups of foreign students in

junior and senior courses who studied the

language of the specialty both on the basis of

scientific-educational and scientific texts, and

on the basis of popular scientific texts, showed

greater interest and speech activity in the

classroom, as a result of which they made

significant progress in learning Russian than

the control groups, in particular which used

only traditional texts of scientific-educational

and proper scientific style of speech when

teaching the language of the specialty;

2) students of senior courses, during the

experimental training, were able to

successfully train various forms of debatable

speech communication in the language of the

specialty on the basis of the accumulated

knowledge base in specialized disciplines and

on the material of popular science texts. The

language tools necessary for conducting a

discussion in the educational and professional

sphere, after working out in classes with a

Russian teacher, were further improved by

students in classes on the profile of training

with subject teachers. Success in learning the

language of the specialty has increased the

motivation and academic performance of

students in classes in specialized disciplines.

3) the texts of popular science orientation in the

language classes of the specialty in

combination with scientific-educational and

scientific texts proper allowed the teacher to

more successfully achieve not only training,

but also developmental and educational goals.

4) a survey of foreign students of junior and senior

courses at the end of the academic semester

showed that 95% of students who took part in

experimental training noted the need to include

popular science texts in the curricula for their

use in the language classes of the specialty.

Our research has allowed us to obtain results that

allow teachers of Russian as a foreign language (as

well as teachers of other foreign languages) to

develop their own strategy for the foreign language

training of future specialists in higher professional

education. As the results of our research show, the

factors influencing the effectiveness of language

classes in the specialty include not only correctly

selected and processed texts of various sub-styles of

scientific speech, their quantity, quality, but also the

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competent methodology of the teacher's work with

them. In addition, it is important to note that "the

activity of students in the foreign language

environment of the university depends on the activity

of the teacher" (Smelkova, 2021). Here we mean the

active interaction of teachers in the language of the

specialty with teachers in specialized disciplines,

without whose help it is impossible to create a corpus

of professionally-oriented educational texts that are

optimal in terms of language and compliance with the

subject content of specialized disciplines. It is also a

prerequisite for a language teacher to possess certain

knowledge in the field of the specialty studied by

students. Based on the above, it can be concluded that

the presence of interdisciplinary connections and the

creation of a single language space will provide

students with a comfortable educational environment

for obtaining a specialty in a foreign language. We

believe that the results we have obtained will

complement a number of scientific studies devoted to

the professionalization of the content of foreign

language training of students in higher educational

institutions.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Based on the conducted research, the following

conclusions can be drawn that determine the strategy

of a teacher of Russian as a foreign language (or any

other foreign language) in the language classes of the

specialty:

1. In professionally oriented teaching of Russian

as a foreign language, it is advisable to use popular

science texts in the classroom that correspond to a

certain learning profile. Such texts provide a gradual

transition to the study of scientific and educational

and scientific texts proper, in which the lexical and

grammatical features of the scientific style of speech

are fully represented. In addition, the use of popular

science texts significantly increases the motivation of

students to study, and also gives an opportunity to a

language teacher who does not have deep knowledge

of specialized disciplines to teach students various

forms of debatable speech communication in a

foreign language, which can be further improved in

classes with subject teachers and acquire an even

greater professional form. At the same time, in junior

courses, such texts should occupy a dominant role and

tend to decrease in senior courses.

2. By applying texts of popular science genre in

the language of the specialty, teachers of Russian as a

foreign language (or any other foreign language)

achieve training, developmental and educational

goals. At the same time, training goals include tasks

for the formation and improvement of skills and

abilities in various types of speech activity based on

popular science texts (reading, speaking, listening,

writing), as well as familiarity with their structural,

semantic and linguistic features. Developing goals

are realized as a result of completing tasks aimed at

the ability to think logically, analyze, compare,

generalize, draw conclusions based on popular

science texts corresponding to the profile of students'

education. Educational goals are achieved by

increasing the level of scientific culture of students

and their awareness in the studied field of knowledge.

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