The Cognitive Approach to Teaching Students English Terminological Lexis of the Subject Field of “Microeconomics”

Abstract

The paper is devoted to study of prerequisites of applying cognitive approach to teaching English terminological lexis of the subject field of “microeconomics” of students of non-special higher educational establishments. Such notions as “cognition”, “memory”, “attention”, “thinking”, “intelligence” that provide student’s mental activity in the process of studying have been considered. The system of cognitive exercises on learning English economic terminology that contains seven types, i.e.: exercises on choice of proper lexical information, grouping, guesswork from the context, logic thinking, formulating scientific definitions, language game, associative thinking, problem-solving, and is based on logic operations of comparison, identification, division / disjuncture, integration / conjuncture, analysis and synthesis, deduction, abstraction, generalization, classification, typology, categorization, conceptualization, formulation of notions and judgements. The exercises have been chosen according to thematic principle (the topic “Marketing’ from the author’s manual ‘Business English Course’) and include the following kinds: identifying a key word, identifying an odd word, multiple choice, finding out a particular name, grouping the words according to their semantic combinability, guesswork from the context, formulation of definitions, solving the crossword, filling in the radial diagram of the mental map by language reactions-associations to the word ‘marketing’, problem-solving of the real-like situation dealing with marketing activity in small groups and proposing a business solution. The selected exercises develop heuristic capabilities, analytic skills, logics of thinking and creative imagination of students, facilitate memorizing, strengthen attention, intensify subject and foreign languages knowledge, help to acquire new knowledge, structure information in verbal and visual forms, motivate research activity.

Keywords

• cognitive approach, terminological lexis, subject field of “microeconomics”, logic operations of thinking, cognitive methodology