The article examines the problem of the formation of professional competence of a future biology teacher. The review of the works of foreign and Kazakh teachers-scientists on the professional competence of the teacher is made. The definitions of «competence» and «professional competence» are analyzed. The characteristic of the professional competence of a biology teacher is given. One of the key focuses of education is the training of highly qualified teaching staff. A modern teacher should possess research and social skills, IT technologies, with developed critical thinking, creativity, sociability and the ability to work in a team. One of the priority directions for the modernization of education in the Republic of Kazakhstan is the program of «trilingual education», and the effective technology of its implementation, according to the authors, is the technology of CLIL «Content and language integrated learning» (Content and language integrated learning). The authors describe the CLIL technology: definition, ideas, advantages, disadvantages, prospects.

In order to determine students' cognitive interest in the subject of biology and ideas about CLIL technology, the following methods were carried out with 3rd-year students (N=30) of the EP «Biology teacher training»: the methodology «Motives of educational and cognitive activity», questionnaire on biological disciplines. The results of the ascertaining stage of the study are presented.