CLIL as a New Innovative Pedagogy: the Case of Russia and Armenia

Abstract

The present paper presents teaching experience and observations in CLIL implementation of the countries that about forty years ago shared a common vision of how to teach foreign languages at the tertiary level, but since then have developed their education policies separately. The article suggests the analysis (based on the experimental activities) of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) from the perspectives of universities of two countries - Russia and Armenia. The analysis was carried out by means of an observation tool for CLIL teaching in Tomsk Polytechnic and Yerevan State Universities. In the overview the authors make the attempt to collect the general theoretical principles and concepts of CLIL, match them with the real classroom data that they have, analyze it and conclude what improvement is needed and what measures are eligible for the national educational context of both countries. The article data do not pretend to overview all the aspects of university language teaching, because they are different in the countries, they reflect to a certain extent the national teaching experience and relate it to the theoretical and practical issues of CLIL and ESP education.