Abstract:

The article is aimed at the introduction of an innovative system of the English language training for undergraduate students which is impossible without the use of new educational technologies. One of the technologies considered as an efficient one is that of content and language integrated learning. The concept of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) assumes that subject teachers are able to exploit opportunities for language learning. The best and most common opportunities arise through reading texts. CLIL draws on the lexical approach, encouraging learners to master a language while reading.

The electronic linguistic corpus is seen as the most effective means of solving the problems of learning foreign language vocabulary. The methodological functions of the linguistic corpus that determine its use in foreign language vocabulary teaching can be combined with content and language integrated learning at the stage of acquiring special vocabulary by students.

The purpose of the paper is to present electronic linguistic corpus in the process of implementation of the CLIL methodology which can be easily integrated into classroom environment. The purpose of creating electronic linguistic corpus is to implement effective learning methods. For example, the student has the opportunity not only to acquire certain knowledge on a special subject or to consolidate what has already been learned, but also to improve one’s knowledge of a foreign language. At various stages of working with the text, the attention of the trainees focuses on special thematic vocabulary, on the content of the text. The electronic linguistic corpus is a large, systematically organized electronic collection of texts. The corpus of texts in a foreign language serves as a more reliable source of using words than textbooks, since the corpus contains “living” examples of language use that occur in real life, while in textbooks all situations in which the word under study is used are modeled. In the educational process, the linguistic corpus helps to transform a huge number of foreign texts into a component of learning content. On the basis of the corpus we created a number of educational tasks aimed at developing students' lexical skills.

The developed educational tasks have been successfully introduced into an educational process of teaching English to undergraduate students. The authors described a technology of CLIL realization in the process of lexical skills development. The results of placement and final tests reliably show a significant improvement in the way the students start using the language after they’ve worked with electronic linguistic corpus. The satisfaction survey shows that the creation of electronic linguistic corpus in the process of implementation of the CLIL methodology can provide several benefits: students simultaneously learn special vocabulary and improve their language skills.

Keywords:

CLIL methodology, lexical skills, electronic linguistic corpus, foreign language vocabulary, special vocabulary.