Experience of applying STEM- and STEAM-approaches to foreign language training of students at a non-linguistic university

The authors of the article focus on STEM- and STEAM-approaches to higher education. Recently, these approaches have been actively discussed by the pedagogical community, as they are becoming increasingly widespread throughout the world on an uncontested basis. The aim of the study is to improve pedagogical practices for applying these approaches to foreign language training of students at a non-linguistic university. To achieve this, the following tasks were consistently solved: study of the history of the issue, including the search for Russian and foreign roots, the foundations of STEM- and STEAM-approaches to education in general and higher education in particular; information and analytical review of open sources on the topic of the study; presentation of the experience of practical application of STEM- and STEAM-approaches to foreign language training of students at a specific non-linguistic university; development of practical recommendations for teachers. It is shown that STEM- and STEAM-approaches to education in general and higher education in particular are not fundamentally new for pedagogical practice. They are based on the ideas of the founders of pedagogical science, expressed by them much earlier than the beginning of the 21st century, when the spiral of interest in them began to intensively unwind. At the same time, the practical application of these approaches to foreign language training of students of a non-linguistic university has not been given due attention in the open press. The works most often focus on individual aspects and components of modern approaches, organization and methods of foreign language training of students of a non-linguistic university without covering them as a whole and considering them in interaction; the features of foreign language training are "dissected" without any attempts to combine and evaluate the resulting synergistic effect. The successful experience of practical application of STEM- and STEAM-approaches to foreign language training of students of a specific non-linguistic university is described, ensuring the presence of all the attributes of STEM- and STEAM-approaches in the educational process (interdisciplinarity, project-based organization, personalization, applied orientation, humanization) with the ability to vary innovative educational technologies at the discretion of the participants in the educational process. The innovative flexible, reconfigurable and manageable educational model of foreign language training of students of a non-linguistic university is distinguished by the following features: block-modular principle of model construction; transparency, openness (all participants in the educational process can take part in building the educational trajectory and choosing modules of the educational program); readiness for development and improvement; creativity, focus on creativity and critical thinking. Practical recommendations for foreign language teachers are formulated. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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