Electronic Terminological Mini-Dictionary in the Context of Cognitive and Methodological Challenges
Electronic Terminological Mini-Dictionary in the Context of Cognitive and Methodological Challenges

Summary/Abstract: The article deals with elaboration of electronic terminological mini-dictionary in the context of cognitive and methodological challenges. It is known that the reliance on cognitive processes, such as representation, storing, processing, interpretation and reproduction of new knowledge, creates conditions for effective foreign language professional communication teaching. The article substantiates a cognitive approach as a conceptual basis for elaborating a new model of mini-dictionary of terminology units. This approach enabled the authors to set the unit of the dictionary selection – the term-concept (TC) as “operative unit of memory”. When mastering TC, learners’ mind has a complicated chain of cognitive processes of emergence and forming of scientific notions, which are professionally-coloured ones. Definitely, TC as a specific mental unit, is verbalized in the language system by the lexical unit of terminology character, which represents a fragment of professional reality and determines a special concept of engineering field of knowledge. Following cognitive imperatives, the authors revealed lingvodidactic and cognitive principles of ТС selection. Taking them into account, methodological and cognitive grounds for organizing mini-dictionary of terminologically-marked lexis have been substantiated. The conceptual field as a unit of terminological mini-dictionary has the property to integrate all grounds for creating an optimal, systemically-modelled mini-dictionary. In accordance with cognitive ideas about the mental essence of the concept, the selected contour of the mini-dictionary field is some kind of professionally-organized environment, which helps to model in the cognitive mind of students the whole integrity of concepts, or integrated fragment of professional concept-sphere, which reflects systematic knowledge of specific highly-professional educational disciplines. The cognitive vision of the process of a new format mini-dictionary elaboration enabled the authors to shift accents from linguistic phenomena to mental processes. Organization of the mini-dictionary predetermined the necessity of using praxeological approaches, in the course of which the authors elaborated a cognitively-set algorithm of students’ work with the electronic version of the mini-dictionary. Thus, electronic mini-dictionary in the context of cognitive and methodological challenges becomes a guide to the terminological world of students’ specialty with specific professional shell, and serves a kind of catalyst of adequate understanding of foreign language terminology.

• Details
• Contents