Content and Language Integration (CLIL) in engineering education: methodological foundations for foreign language audiences
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2026-3-118-126
Given the increasing internationalization of higher and postgraduate education, as well as the globalization of the engineering labor market, it is necessary to develop effective methods for training foreign citizens that will ensure simultaneous mastery of professional disciplines and the language of instruction. This is especially true for the postgraduate period of study, when the adaptation academic period is very short. Traditional approaches separating language and subject training are now often insufficient to develop comprehensive professional competence. The purpose of this study is to systematize the existing methodological foundations of subject-language integrated learning (Content and Language Integrated Learning – CLIL) and to substantiate a model for adapting such training to the specifics of engineering education in a foreign-language audience. To achieve this goal, the work provides a theoretical analysis of scientific literature describing the CLIL methodology, work on linguodidactics and engineering pedagogy, and also generalizes pedagogical experience and models the educational process. The conceptual core of the proposed strategy is the CLIL methodology, from which the key components of training are considered: integration of content, development of professional communication, and cognition and culture. For the engineering context, the following has been taken into account: the dominance of subject content in the targeted development of academic discourse; emphasis on cognitive skills, taking into account the cognitive characteristics of students. A three-level adaptation model is proposed, and the key challenges of modern pedagogy and labor market requirements are identified. As a result of this study, conclusions were made and substantiated that the CLIL methodology represents an effective conceptual basis for creating an integrated educational environment, where a foreign language acts not as an end, but as a means of mastering engineering knowledge. The successful implementation of the proposed program requires interdisciplinary cooperation between linguists and teaching engineers (teachers of preparatory departments and teachers of main faculties, university researchers), and also requires the development of specialized educational and methodological materials that ensure the synchronous development of professional and communicative competencies of foreign students.
Keywords: subject-language integrated learning, engineering education, postgraduate training, teaching methodology, content and language integration, vocationally oriented language teaching
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Issue: 3, 2026
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: PEDAGOGICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF MODERN EDUCATION
Pages: 118 — 126
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