Differentiated teaching of theoretical disciplines at a linguistic university

The problem of differentiation and construction of individual educational trajectories still remains one of the actual research topics of research in modern university didactics. This is due to the fact that educators must work with students who have varying levels of prior preparation from school and differ in levels of readiness to comprehend educational material. Currently, in the practice of university language education, there is also an urgent need to implement a differentiated approach, which, in light of current transformations of the structure and content of the educational process, is becoming relevant, particularly for teaching theoretical disciplines in a language university. However, strategies for implementing differentiated instruction within the framework of linguo-theoretical disciplines have not yet been sufficiently studied. In this regard, the aim of this study is to establish a scientific rationale, to design, and implement a methodology for differentiated teaching of linguo-theoretical disciplines to students at foreign language institutions. The research involved four main stages: reviewing scientific literature and university practices, theoretical modeling of the educational process, piloting the methodology, analyzing results, and developing a unified methodology for differentiated teaching of linguo-theoretical disciplines. The study included 115 undergraduate students from the Moscow City University enrolled in the “Pedagogical Education” program with a specialization in German Language, as well as 20 postgraduate students specializing in “Theoretical, Applied, and Comparative Linguistics” and “Languages of Foreign Nations (Germanic Languages)”. The results of the study are as follows. The article defines the role of differentiation in the system of self-guided educational activities, correlates types of differentiation with types of self-guided learning, and, based on this, outlines the requirements for ensuring differentiation in linguistic and linguodidactic disciplines during lectures, seminars, and project-based research activities. Summarizing the experience of organizing lectures and practical classes according to these requirements allowed the authors to propose their own methodological recommendations for differentiated instruction within lecture and practical classes. These recommendations cover such disciplines as foreign language teaching methodology in schools, theoretical grammar, stylistics, the history of the German language, and comparative-historical, typological, and contrastive linguistics. The study identified several methods for implementing differentiated teaching. These include differentiated familiarization with materials, particularly through the use of a “parallel” online course, i.e., a more comprehensive video lecture course on the topic of the classes; differentiation in the forms and content of seminar instruction; allowing students to freely choose the topic and format of their research project; and differentiated assessment of student responses based on the variability of materials studied. Additionally, supplementary explanations during lectures delivered in a foreign language are provided for weaker students, along with prompting questions about the lecture material. An effective teaching strategy involves organizing students into microgroups that include weak, average, and strong students, with the latter serving as consultant-assistants to the instructor. This approach enables weaker students to achieve compliance with their zone of proximal development. For postgraduate students, the use of problem-based lectures followed by differentiated selection of material for research activities has proven particularly effective.