К.п.н. Л.Ф.Авдеева

Taganrog Institute of Management and Economics, Russia

Interdisciplinary integration as the basis of the students’ self-activity during the foreign language learning process

Interdisciplinary communication in the course of a vocational training is an expression of the integration processes taking place today in science and society. Interdisciplinary communication provides integration of humanitarian and specific professional cycles, their relationship with the production sphere of activity. A course of foreign language teaching, (for example, to law students) can serve as striking pattern of interdisciplinary communication.

Contemporary legal education in Russia can’t be restricted by national system, as during the process of globalization it is enriched with the achievements of both international law and foreign countries law. Changes occurring in the world can help future lawyers to solve the task of the international legal system mastering. Students’ knowledge in this sphere encourages them to acquire ability to assess and forecast the prospects of the Russian state and law development. Knowledge of a foreign language helps law students understand deeper the features and content of the international law, the specifications of the state, the rights and duties of other countries, the legal culture of the people, etc. In future, this knowledge will help them in their professional work in the conditions of spreading contacts with foreign countries in all spheres of society. Therefore, the task dealing with teaching future lawyers to speak foreign languages, to give them knowledge of international law, and particularly the legal systems of other countries and peoples becomes urgent.

The success of foreign languages training depends on several factors, one of which is the organization of students’ self activity, having a multifunctional character. The need for students’ cognitive independence is due to their need to increase their readiness for training at high school and those requirements that apply to a specialist with higher education in modern conditions of rapid growth of science and the rapid updating of information. The emphasis is made on the necessity to inculcate the capacity for self-organization, self-activity, self-awareness, self-confidence, social responsibility.

According to this approach to the problem, the main goal is the formation of the student’s personality as an active subject of the educational activity, his/her comprehensive training for a continuous educational process, self-development and self-improvement. Consequently, the task of the teacher is not only to transfer the amount of his/her own knowledge, but also in shaping their skills of self-organization and self-learning.

Activating students’ self-activity needs a certain communicative and stimulating environment. The main organizational components of such environments are - the organization of activities, interaction, supporting incentives, organization of training content, organization and control of assessment criteria.

Organization of activity involves the management of students’ creative work and joint teachers’ and students’ research work which is implemented through properly organized communication system and to a large extent depends on each of the participants in the educational process.

Organization of interaction involves the use of student-centered, communicative-directed approach to learning process, which enables a comprehensive communicative and cultural competence held in an atmosphere of cooperation and psychologically comfortable learning environment.

The next component to create communication-enabling environment is the organization of incentives. A very important component is content, this professional component being the most substantial one.

The educational content includes linguistic and speech materials necessary for the formation of the linguistic and communicative competence in various areas of communication, including future professional activity.

Students’ self-learning activities as an integral part of the educational process provide a great opportunity for the formation of language skills, development of their creative abilities in the course of studies. For example, in the process of studying the history of the foreign state and law, students and a teacher jointly carry out the work which needs translating the texts related to the constitutional history of Early Modern England, the Constitution of the United States and other countries that have had the greatest impact on the modern state and the law.

Depending on the content of the subjects studied, students are offered a variety of research, informative and other projects that provide the basis for discussions, analysis of the facts, the events, the opportunity to make their own conclusions, and thus using their knowledge of a foreign language.

Students’ self-activity is manifested in mastering language skills, mastery of language lexical and grammatical operations, reading comprehension and cognitive actions performed on the basis of cross-cultural and general cultural information. Significant result of this activity for students is application of this knowledge and skills in their professional activities

For example, the history of state and law of foreign countries is one of the disciplines that is the foundation of legal education. "Without the knowledge of this subject it is impossible to know the state and law evolution, as well as the present day state and law reality."

According to the majority of teachers, lack of future lawyers’ knowledge of a foreign legal system effectively limits their interest in learning foreign languages.

Thus, professionally oriented intercultural communicative competence enables students to expand their professional communication. Specialized training materials in a foreign language is a means of deepening professional knowledge, having educational value, helping to intensify interest in the study of a foreign language.