THE IMPLEMENTATION OF CLIL APPOACH IN ESP COURSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION OF UZBEKISTAN

Аннотация

The present article aims to look at the benefits of implementing Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) as a new approach in ESP courses in Uzbekistan Higher Education. Although there are numerous worldwide studies on the adoption of CLIL, relatively limited research has been done to explore its implementation in Uzbekistan Higher Education. Initially, the researcher explored the latest studies on the importance of CLIL in ESP courses and hypothesized that this approach was more likely to benefit ESP students in non- linguistic departments. The study involved an ESP instructor of Foreign Languages Department and 26 biology students of Science Department at Namangan State University. The purposes of the study was to find out the effectiveness of teaching language through CLIL pedagogy and clarify the attitudes towards its implementation from the students’ perspectives. The two questionnaires were used to analyze the needs of the learners, their views and effects of language and content learning to enhance the biology students' professional communicative competence, content learning as well as their attitudes towards the implementation of CLIL approach. The findings revealed that the use of CLIL approach in ESP classes increased the students’ motivation to learn both English and content, and the students in the experimental group felt more confident in their professional communicative competence. Thus, CLIL has positive implications on teaching ESP courses in non-linguistic faculties at universities although there are several challenges of its implementation in Higher Education in Uzbekistan. Key words: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), English for Specific Purposes (ESP), Professional Communicative Competence, Biology students, language learning, Higher Education.