Application of second foreign language teaching principles in terms of multilingual approach

The paper deals with the practical issues of multilingual approach to teaching foreign languages at a non-linguistic university. Over the past few decades, the vital problems of teaching second foreign language have become the subject matter of many Russian and international experts. The theoretical fundamentals and a concept of multilingual school and university education are provided. At present, the Department of Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communications of the Ural State University of Railway Transport is actively involved in the research on the methodical development of a multilingual approach to teaching. The communicative and cognitive, comparative (contrastive) principles and the principles of differentiation, intensification and economy developed by L.I. Bim in her concept of multilingual teaching served as the basis of the academic course in English after German: Theory and Practice of the English Language after Studying German. The authors of the above-mentioned course considered it appropriate to include the principles of self-reliance and self-efficacy as well. The creation of the second foreign language courses, comparative manuals and study guides can be regarded as the first steps on the way of implementing the multilingual ideas.