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Abstract. The rising demand for exchange and mobility programs as well as double diploma opportunities with world leading universities highlights the importance of ESL proficiency. TOEFL iBT as a test of EAP is accepted by most of the HEI in various countries. The aim of the present study is to determine students' metacognitive awareness of global academic reading strategies, namely the use of context clues, within the framework of preparation for TOEFL reading section. The article establishes the connection between success in reading comprehension and the degree of students' metacognitive awareness. The authors concentrate on expository texts from TOEFL reading section as a testing material and provide detailed description of single context clues types and double context clues patterns typical for this text structure. The following study is concerned with comparison and interpretation of the results obtained in three focus groups of students, who have accomplished reading comprehension task from TOEFL iBT with and without learning to employ the context clues reading strategy

The relevance of the research is justified by the global educational perspectives and transformation of the language instruction. English is predominantly changing its status and is more frequently used for delivering science and arts content. Tertiary teachers and researchers in non-English-speaking countries face the challenge of publishing their research findings in internationally circulated journals, participating in the global conferences and moreover delivering their courses in English. Total "Englishization" which is currently underway leads to the increased requirements to the tertiary institutions in terms of academia language proficiency as well as to their significant efforts to be recognized in the global education arena. Besides, the global spread of English has led to a linguistic phenomenon of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), when most if its users are non-natives. Thus, English has become very flexible and English medium instruction (EMI) settings are prime examples of this. Many stakeholders consider EMI as a tool for creating opportunities for English learners and users to achieve success in both educational and workplace environments and join a global academic and business community. However, despite the EMI boom, little empirical research has been conducted on the issue leading to the lack of theoretical and practical background. To fill this void the research group aimed at exploration of the EMI phenomenon in the Russian Federation with the special focus on academia of Kazan Federal University, Institute of Management, Economics and Finance. The study methodology was based on the questionnaires and interviews with the tertiary teachers. The results have depicted that despite the pressing need for courses with English instruction in the curriculum, very few universities provide them, both at undergraduate and graduate levels. The reason is quite obviouslow English proficiency of professors and students on the one hand, and poorly-documented methodological framework for using EMI in the classroom, on the other. The situation is further complicated by the lack of advanced training programs for tertiary teachers where they can increase their language proficiency and learn and practice EMI methodology. Therefore after the exploration of IMEF context in terms of EMI, the authors identified several challenges. Firstly, a significant part of professors who are potentially capable of teaching their courses in English feel quite unconfident about their public speaking in English. Most of them mention problems with students face-to-face communication, accuracy and fluency issue as well as insufficient academic vocabulary and teaching methodology. On the basis of a pre-course survey the authors have developed an introductory short-term course "English for teaching proficiency" with the view to examine academia requirements and design advanced training program for EMI.The post-cost survey has revealed that after the course more than half of the participants (65%) became more confident in terms of langu...

Global education environment changes the function of the English language. Nowadays it acts not only as a means of learning but as a medium of instruction (EMI). As part of a study in Kazan Federal University, Institute of Management, Economics and Finance, we identified the gap between the requirements of a current global educational setting and the level of academics' linguistic competence. This paper presents the results of academics' current social portrait survey. During the survey we detected two major issues preventing the academics from teaching majors in English. The first concern is the lack of qualified English speaking academics capable of delivering courses in English (2%). The second considers the percentage of elderly teaching staff educated in the times of Soviet Union, when educational system concentrated upon communism construction and written translation was a dominating practice. The study applies qualitative methodology using a questionnaire designed with closed and open questions. We implemented Pearson correlation coefficient, Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and association index to identify the correlation between age, positions and language proficiency of academics and their desire to teach career-oriented majors in English. Though the teachers' answers varied, they outlined the fact that the younger generation considers career-oriented major teaching using EMI to be an essential part in self-development and career progress. The older generation showed low interest in using EMI at their lectures and seminars. The findings also show that job position doesn't affect the academics' desire to be enrolled in EMI, while the level of their English proficiency influences the desire to teach the subject in English.© 2016 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy.org.uk Keywords: English as a medium of instruction (EMI); teaching staff; career-oriented major; English language teaching program.