INTERDISCIPLINARY INTEGRATION OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INTO HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTION (INTEGRATED ESP CASE STUDY)

Abstract

The article explores the issue of the interdisciplinary integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) into the educational process of a higher education institution (HEI). The potential possibilities of the subject "Foreign language" in formation of sustainable development competences have been revealed.

The experimental study was conducted with first-year students of the following undergraduate programs: "Primary Education", "Preschool Education", "Speech Therapy, Special Psychology", "Psychology" at Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University. The initial level of formation of sustainable development competencies in students at the beginning of the experiment revealed 18.75% with high level, 51.79% – average and 29.46% – low. Hereby, the need to improve the quality of the researched object was established.

The conducted ESP learner needs analysis on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) confirmed students’ eagerness to learn them in the university ESP course, designed in order to address students’ main lacks, needs and wants relatively the integrated language learning. In accordance with the questionnaire findings and in cooperation with the Foreign Languages Department English teachers there were outlined the content of education, goals of learning, methods and means that contribute to the development of the chosen competences in SDGs by means of English as a medium of instruction.

The experimental study implied application of the framework of content and language integrated learning (CLIL) in the integrated ESP by means of working with English-language texts about sustainable development, discussing acute issues, studying English-language normative documents, scientific and methodical works on sustainable development, watching video fragments with their further discussion. The methodology presupposed learners’ group work, project activities, facilitation methods and interactive learning technologies.

It was established that learning foreign language with an emphasis on sustainability contributes to increasing the level of sustainable development competencies: at the control stage of the experimental study, twice as many students demonstrated high level, as compared to the ascertainment stage. Observation of the educational process proves the increase in students' language learning motivation in accordance with improvement of the quality of the studied phenomenon.