DEVELOPING PROFESSIONAL CONCEPTS THROUGH FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDIES
The paper is devoted to developing the system of professional concepts among students of non-linguistic higher education institutions within LSP (language for special purposes) studies. Professional orientation of language courses opens up new opportunities for developing professional competences of future professionals through integrating language studies and linking them into occupational and general scientific disciplines. The author specifies the content of the LSP course in the light of cognitive sciences, such as cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics focusing on mental processes, namely representation, storage and retrieval of knowledge. The cognitive and communicative approach is considered to be optimal for the LSP teaching and learning processes in non-linguistic higher education institutions when cognitive functions of language become dominant. In such cases professional concepts become the organizational units of professional knowledge and constitute the system of professional concepts. An LSP course should have three stages. The goal of the first stage is to develop general language competence based on general or popular science texts. The second stage provides for mastering the proper LSP content on the basis a tailor-made course with authentic text studies. The knowledge and skills acquired at this stage are used for further development of professional language proficiency at the final stage. A tailor-made course «Basics of Banking» illustrates the development of professional concepts among students majoring in finance and banking.