Written Foreign-Language Scientific Discourse in Speech-Language Pathology Students

Introduction. Speech­-language pathology is a complex field of scientific knowledge based on broad interdisciplinary foundations. It shapes the specifics of the professional thesaurus and significantly complicates the formation of scientific discourse among future specialists. The study aims to conceptualise and test a novel pedagogical model for developing foreign­-language scientific discursive competence in speech-­language pathology students through the integration of thesaurus and corpus approaches, designed to eliminate terminological asymmetry. The article presents the results of a diagnostic experiment assessing the level of foreign-­language scientific discursive competence using methods of contrastive terminography and discourse analysis applied to empirical data (questionnaires, written assignments, translations). The experiment identified gaps in students’ mastery of professional terminology, genre norms of academic writing, and cross-­linguistic communication skills. Materials and Methods. The study was conducted among master’s degree students from five Russian universities. The sample included 252 participants. Materials were presented to assess the level of Foreign Language Scientific Discursive Competence in written form. Cognitive and communicative skills were evaluated, as well as domain-­specific translation skills. Qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis were used for data collection and interpretation. Results. Students assess their English proficiency as low. Three-­quarters of respondents demonstrated a low level of foreign language scientific discursive competence in written form, both at the cognitive and communicative skills levels. Participants experience difficulties when translating specialized terms and scientific texts, which was evident in the high variability of translations and the frequent use of transliteration instead of seeking precise equivalents in English. Insufficient awareness of the international terminology system among the participants was revealed. The analysis of the obtained results showed a strong positive correlation between the development of cognitive and communicative skills in the structure of Written Foreign Language Scientific Discursive Competence. Discussion and Conclusion. Research results indicate insufficient preparedness among master degree speech-­language pathology students to address professional challenges within the contemporary intercultural and scientific context, opening perspectives for revising the existing paradigm of foreign language learning. The practical significance of this article lies in improving the professional foreign language training of speech­-language pathology students, aimed at developing scientific discourse skills, mastering international terminology, and overcoming terminological asymmetry between Russian-­language and English-­language logopedics.