"TEACHING SPECIAL DISCIPLINES THROUGH THE MEDIUM OF ENGLISH" COURSE FOR PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCES DEVELOPMENT OF UNIVERSITY TEACHERS

In today`s world a modern engineer should possess the English speaking skills that will enable him or her to conduct their professional duties at a highly competitive level and become an internationally recognised specialist. At present each leading university is striving to offer highly competitive unique educational programmes that will attract talented students and in the near future ensure that their graduates will be in demand in the global market. According to the Strategic Plan of Development of National Research Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) special disciplines are to be developed and delivered through the medium of English as a language of instruction in order to raise the quality of teaching and attract more international students and staff. Such highly challenging tasks are the aims of the top Russian universities within the educational policy in Russia in order to enhance competitiveness within the top Russian national research universities with the ultimate goal of numbering among the world`s leading educational institutions. Thus TPU content teachers are facing the challenge of developing teaching aids and mastering classroom delivery skills that will ensure teaching quality and the development of professional competencies for engineering students. This paper addresses the issue of developing a training course for TPU content teachers that will enable them to acquire pedagogical excellence in developing teaching materials, for mastering sound skills in delivering lectures and seminars, and producing highly specific course content documentation, all through the medium of English. The course is designed in collaboration between TPU, Russia, and the University of Southampton, UK. It is argued that a special teaching algorithm can be successfully implemented if the following pedagogical conditions within the teaching process are met: a) problem solving tasks and assignments within a project based approach to learning and teaching in order to develop critical thinking skills are integrated into curricula; b) delivery through the medium of English as a foreign language is performed; c) pedagogical content of the course becomes the core for professional development activities; d) English language proficiency within the subject area and pedagogics is ensured.