Substantiation of a model for creative vocabulary instruction for university students in the process of teaching english as a foreign language

Abstract

The article addresses one of the topical issues in the training of university-level future philologists and language teachers - the development of creative, multimodal approaches to English vocabulary instruction within a student-centered paradigm and the formation of intercultural com-petence. The article substantiates an integrated model ot creative vocabulary instruction that combines six complementary techniques: pic-ture-based lexica/ mapping, dingbat and rebus puzzles, micrography and macrophotography as precision-description triggers, catchphrase- style guessing games, live-senses description cards, and metaphorical association cards. The essence of such concepts as multimodal learning depth of lexical knowledge, affective filter, intercultural communicative competence, and student-centered learning is revealed. The main attention is focused on the theoretical and methodological principles underlying the model: it is shown that combining verbal and visual coding of information (Paivio's Dual Coding Theory), deeper processing of lexical material (Nation's principles of vocabulary depth), lowering the affective filter (Krashen's hypothesis), and developing the competencies of interpreting and relating (Byram's model) together create the conditions for forming not only receptive but also productive, culturally sensitive vocabulary. The structure of an integrated 90-minute lesson that consistently combines receptive and productive stages of lexical processing is presented, together with formative-assessment criteria: a word-association rubric, peer-description obser-vation logs, reflective metaphor journals, and portfolios of student-created materials. Based on an analysis of domestic and international psychological-pedagogical literature, including empirical studies published between 2019 and 2025, the practical expediency of implementing the proposed model in the educational process of higher education institutions is substantiated. It is also noted that the concept of the research is ensured by the unity of methodological, theo-retical, and methodical aspects and is oriented toward preparing competitive specialists capable of effective intercultural communication in a glo-balized educational space.