The paper under consideration is devoted to the issues of foreign language training of the technical university students — future aviation specialists, as well as the foreign reading skills development. According to the analysis of the scientific literature and comparing both foreign and domestic teaching experience, the intensification and improvement of this process has proved to be extremely relevant within the modern paradigm of higher education, due to the common use of English in the aviation industry. The paper also studies how the conceptual ideas and elements of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) implemented in the “Technical and aviation English” course can help to form the students’ consistent foreign language reading skills which may supposedly be a basis for the further professional knowledge development. Experiment training conducted at the Saint Petersburg state university of civil aviation and its results confirmed that CLIL may be an essential part for the subsequent development of the students’ foreign language reading skills to some degree that primarily affect successful performance of their professional duties for aircraft operation.

Keywords: CLIL, reading skills, technical and aviation English, foreign language reading, aviation personnel training.