Popular Science Texts Research Articles

The Reconstruction of Logic in Popular Science Translation—A Case Study of C-E Translation of <i>Discovery of Fu-Tea</i>

Popular science is an important carrier in popularizing the knowledge, methods as well as the ideology of science and technology. By using publicly accepted language, popular science translation facilities the international exchange and development of science and technology. To reflect the scientificity and preciseness of popular science texts, the translation of popular science texts should be logically clear and strictly structured. This paper includes five parts: the first part is about the introduction of the background, the source text, and its significance. Then this paper analyzes the characteristics of popular science texts, which is followed by the discussion of the necessity of the reconstruction of logic in the translation of popular science texts based on the logical differences between Chinese and English sentences. Finally, with the C-E translation of Discovery of Fu-tea as an example, three methods based on the reconstruction of logic are discussed. The case analysis shows that methods such as emphasizing the objectiveness of the subject, using connective devices for the explicitness of logical relations, and reorganizing the word order are efficient in improving the translation quality of popular science texts.

Praxeology of sustainable development in educational ontology (evidence from Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy)

The article focuses on the relevance of education for sustainable development in the process of future educators training for professional life. The methods of historical, comparative, dialectical and prognostic are applied. It was possible to consider practical features of sustainable development in the educational environment. These methods contributed to a deeper study of the problem; clarifying and outlining key positions and priorities; specifying the main problems of implementing the concept of sustainable development in national education by comparing the national legal framework with the international one; finding out the essence of the outlined problem and the ways of its implementation in national education, which leads to a change in the philosophy of education; identifying the main priorities for the formation of an individual mindset, as well as life position in a society of sustainable development. Based on the analysis of particular documents and scientific publications on sustainable development and education for sustainable development, the tasks of education for sustainable development are highlighted. The results list of the educational community work in the International Project «Education for Sustainable Development in Action» are presented. The results of the experimental research carried out in Khmelnytskyi Humanitarian Pedagogical Academy aimed at future educators’ training technology of preschoolers’ skills for sustainable development are also presented. A short description of the option course «Future educators training technology of preschoolers’ skills for sustainable development» which has been delivered to the students is presented. As well as the structure of the course «Pedagogical foundations of developing soft skills» is described. The content of the course reveals the social component of sustainable development, but environmental and economic components are implemented at the expense of teaching aids (artistic and popular scientific texts). A brief description of teachers training for implementing interactive technologies with students is presented.

Development of gaming practices in popular science text

The popular science text is described by the author in the context of competition with other media products: films, TV series, video games. Under these conditions, a popular science text acquires new communication characteristics, one of which is a play. The concept of play is viewed through the prism of Johan Huizinga’s work «Homo Ludens, a Study of the Play Element in Culture». The work highlights the main features of play. There are four such characteristics: a play brings pleasure, provides for the presence of special (play) behavior and establishes order, and is also characterized through the tension that arises in the process of playing activity. The play brings pleasure to the player, which in a popular science text is realized through the comprehension of new knowledge, as well as through the awareness of the abundance of sences and interpretations of the text, «flickering of meanings», realized with the help of metaphors. Play behavior is a «play with the addressee»: the use of professional vocabulary allows a reader to identify himself with a researcher. A special playful order is achieved through the use of special narrative schemes that makes it possible to avoid automatism in perception and help to assimilate the content of the text in the most productive way. The tension inherent to any play is interpreted as an intellectual tension associated with the comprehension of new sences, and as an emotional tension, which is achieved via the use of means of artistic expression and strengthens the reader’s emotional involvement in the events described in the text. Each statement is illustrated by examples from popular science works presented in the Russian book market. The author comes to the conclusion that modern popular science texts demonstrate a new property – a playful beginning.

Identification of argumentative sentences in Russian scientific and popular science texts

In this study we analyze the applicability of specific machine learning algorithms to the task of detecting sentences containing argumentation in Russian text. We employ a collection of scientific and popular science texts with manually annotated argumentation to evaluate the quality of identifying argumentative sentences in terms of precision, recall, and F-measure. The experiment involves three algorithms: MNB, SVM, and MLP. The bag of words model is used for representing texts. Lemmas of words in analyzed sentences serve as features for the classification. We perform the automatic selection of informative features in accordance with Variance and χ2 criteria combined with the weight-based filtration of lemmas (via TF*IDF and EMI). The training set includes around 800 sentences, while the test set contains 180. The MNB algorithm demonstrates the highest F-measure and recall scores on almost all feature sets (maximal values reached equal 68.7% and 89% respectively), while the MLP algorithm shows the best precision for about half of feature selection variations (the maximal value is 72.5%).

Використання науково-популярних текстів у навчанні майбутніх юристів англійської мови

In the article the authors substantiate the peculiarities of how to teach reading popular-scientific texts to law students during the distance learning English. The aim of the article is to give the definition of an English popular- scientific text and it’s structure in the linguistic paradigm and to show the peculiarities of how to teach reading this kind of texts to future lawyers. Methodology. Theoretical statements include the analysis of the existing methods and approaches to teaching reading English popular-scientific texts to law students. General principles of higher school didactics and methods of teaching foreign languages, general scientific, comparative, descriptive, logical and semantic approaches to defining the peculiarities of English popular-scientific texts in linguistic theory are the theoretical and methodological basis of this article. Results. The definition of an English popular-scientific text is given on the basis of the linguistic research, the features of such texts are specified on the basis of the analysis of linguists` research, popular-scientific sites and printed editions. The requirements as to the level of mastering English competence in reading English popular-scientific texts are made according to the stages of learning English by future lawyers at the Academy of the State Penitentiary Service starting from the first to the fourth year of studies. In the article the authors use the critical analysis of the national and foreign linguistic and methodical literature sources on the research topic as well as of the educational documents and programmes. Practical implications of the results achieved lies in giving an English popular[1]scientific text in the context of future lawyers learning English at the different stages of the educational process. The authors define the types of reading and corresponding skills which are to be formed at each year of studies while learning how to read English popular-scientific texts. Some specific requirements as to the level of mastering English reading competence are to be taken into account while organizing educational activities that should help to get the degree of Masters of Law. The materials for the research are popular-scientific sources, first at all, scientific blogs, popular-scientific events and editions. Value (originality). The value of the study is characterized by the presentation of a new vision of forming future lawyers English competence while reading popular-scientific texts. The authors also give the definition of an English popular-scientific text and its structure on the basis of the linguistic research. Key words: an English popular-scientific text, future lawyers, English, reading.

Visually Impaired Novice Translators in Using Translation Techniques

Background:
 This study aims to determine the translation techniques used by visually impaired translators in translating popular scientific texts. Visually impaired translators were used as the subjects of this study because when compared to sighted translators, visually impaired translators had a different way of doing translation activities. The difference in this performance is influenced using text-to-speech tools they use. Apparently, this phenomenon has not been discussed by various specialized translation research previously and by involving blind translators as research subjects directly, translation techniques can be expected to be identified naturally.
 Methodology: 
 Using popular scientific texts in the field of psychology, two visually impaired translators were assigned to translate 24 sentences in a translation experiment. To analyze the data that was collected, the researchers used analytical techniques consisting of a domain, taxonomy, and componential analysis. 
 Findings: 
 Since they are too dependent on text-to-speech aids, visually impaired translators use a lot of literal and discursive creation translation techniques. The appearance of these two techniques in their translation implies that the resulting translation cannot match the context of the sentence. This happens because text-to-speech applies word-for-word reading.
 Conclusion: 
 It is important for visually impaired translators to understand the weaknesses of their translation. Translators should minimize the use of literal and discursive creation translation techniques when translating popular scientific texts. One way is to improve their translation competence.
 
 
 

BORROWINGS FROM THE POLISH LANGUAGE IN THE BELARUSIAN SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY

This article examines interaction specifics of the Belarusian and Polish languages in scientific texts at the beginning of the 20th century. On the basis of scientific and educational, popular science texts and lexicographic materials, the characteristics of polonisms, their subject and thematic affiliation, as well as the peculiarities of their formal adaptation on the Belarusian linguistic basis are carried out. The work uses descriptive, contrastive and comparative historical methods, which were useful during the examination of polonisms in Belarusian language. The author establishes the dependence of the interacting nature of contacting languages on various intralingual and external factors, which predetermined the nature of the interlanguage relations of the Belarusian and Polish languages at the beginning of the 20th century. For all the lexical inequality of scientific texts, their linguistic unity was formed due to a common goal – the transmission of scientific information. In general, the analysis showed that when borrowings from the Polish language are used in the texts of Belarusian science, there is no consistency. Accordingly, it can be stated that the influence of the Polish language on the Belarusian scientific language is not characterized by depth, and the language of Belarusian science at the beginning of the 20th century was not oversaturated with polonisms. This was probably facilitated by the tendencies of the Belarusian linguistic and cultural revival, the dominant of which was primarily the orientation towards national identity and, accordingly, the limitation of foreign linguistic influences.

The structure of academic writer identity in L2 book reviews by Russian undergradu-ates: Voice and stance

Introduction. The article focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of academic writer identity. The theoretical aspect comprises the analysis of the Anglo-American bulk of research devoted to the problem of writer identity in the academic written discourse. The purpose of the article is to define the structure of writer identity, its voice and stance. The practical objectives of the study is to investigate the identity of novice academic writers represented in their language choices as well as to describe the mechanism of such choices. In order to accomplish the purpose of the research, three types of writer positioning are distinguished: ideational, interpersonal, and textual. Materials and Methods. The theoretical analysis is based on the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach and Rhetorical Genre Studies as well as recent developments of ESP. The analysis of empirical data has been conducted using the methods of discourse analysis as well as qualitative and quantitative methods of data processing. The study reveals the voice and stance represented by lexico-grammatical means of the English academic written discourse. The conducted experiment introduces the context of ESP and models the situation of the implementation of the genre approach in the Academic Writing course in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, which is one of the leading technical universities in Russia. The research materials include texts of academic book reviews written in English by Russian undergraduates. Results. The study has revealed the social nature of writer identity determined by the genre hybridity of a book review. It is shown that identification and positioning are in direсt connection with the source text; thus, while choosing a textbook of a general science book, the writer identity is getting to be collective or professional. Depending on the functional style of the source text, the rhetorical markers are changing as well. Thus, while choosing a textbook, students are writing for the teacher and addresses the student audience; at the same time in case of the general science text, the student rises to the level of an expert and addresses the scientific community. The popular science text helps work out the individual voice while the author’s style is changing toward the creative one and the dialogue between the writer and the reader is taking an intimate coloring. Subjectivity markers (adjectives with the negative value, boosters) are getting to be typical for the Russian linguistic and academic culture. Conclusions. The article concludes that constructing the socially-predetermined writer identity is an essential skill for students and academics. The writer identity is fluid and changeable depending on the social context – academic discourse and genre characteristics. The genre of a book review that combines objectivity and subjectivity gives an opportunity to construct writer identity according to the choice of the source text. The writer identity is culturally-predetermined and connected with the standards of Russian linguistic culture, academic rules and traditions of teaching English as a foreign language in Russia.

Linguistic and Cultural Poetics of German Popular Science Texts (based on U. Stumpf’s “Kräuter: Gefährten am Wegesrand”) and Resultant Translation Challenges

The article examines several aspects of linguistic and cultural poetics of German popular science texts, which in many ways shape national and cultural specifics of such texts and thus influence the process of translating them into Russian. As a distinct hybrid, popular science texts are characterized by high information density, intertextuality, and a wide range of vocabulary and style. Popular science texts create a special information space in which national and cultural specifics play a significant role. The article presents the results of the linguistic, stylistic, and cultural analysis of the German popular science work on botany by W. Stumpf “Kräuter: Gefährten am Wegesrand,” The strongly marked linguistic and cultural poetics of this text is largely determined by the peculiarity of botany as a field of knowledge: namely the knowledge of herbs, based on discoveries of ancient botanists, on folk knowledge, and on the personal experience of the author. At the lexical level, the linguo-cultural specifics are most clearly manifested in the nominations of plants: etymologically interesting phytonyms, their synonymic chains, and lexical gaps identified in the translation process. As a cross between scientific, journalistic, and literary texts, popular science texts display features of all these styles, which also determines the density of their linguistic and cultural poetics. The article provides a translation of several passages into Russian in order to demonstrate some of the challenges in translating popular science texts while taking into account their national and cultural specifics. The results of the study can be used both in teaching German as a foreign language and in translation courses at all levels of general and professional education as well as in developing textbooks, thematic dictionaries, and botanical glossaries.

Models of representing an astronomer’s voice in a journalist’s popular judgment

Within the framework of this article, the starting point of the research is the theoretical position, according to which reports on discoveries and achievements in the field of astronomy appear as a frequency phenomenon, covered in specialized popular scientific texts. As a result, a pragmatic analysis of the source of information and ensuring access to the voices of astronomer researchers in a journalistic report is an urgent problem. The personality of the journalist acts as an intermediary between scientists and non-professional readers, whose knowledge of astronomy is limited, and the created popular science texts are a kind of communication platform for voicing the judgments that are put forward by representatives of the astronomical communities. In this regard, journalists not only supplement the reader’s knowledge in an accessible form, but also open access to the voices of representatives of the scientific and astronomical community, relying on such means as direct and indirect speech, which reveal different degrees of frequency in the first paragraph of the text and in the subsequent presentation. To systematize the actual data indicating the explicit labeling of the source of information in a popular science message, the most frequent language signals that are used by journalists in order to introduce a «foreign» voice into the text (predicates that introduce direct or indirect speech) are analyzed. As a result, models and indicators of their frequency were identified, this, in turn, provided an opportunity to trace the trends in voicing the expert astronomers’ opinions in a popular scientific text. It is established that the distribution of direct and indirect speech with explicit marking of the source of information in the first paragraph of the popular science text is not homogeneous. In this text segment, indirect speech is the most frequent, which allows the journalist to focus the reader’s attention on an unbiased vision of a scientific and astronomical event.

Influence of photography on students’ perception of electronic popular science text

The present article analyzes the relevance of the combination of the verbal and non-verbal components of popular science text and the role of computer technologies and the global information network Internet in creating texts of this type. The author conducts a study to assess the impact of Internet technologies on the process of creating electronic popular science text in an attempt to determine the most promising technologies used in this process. The author concludes that the most advanced technologies have to be used in creating a popular science text. It is noted that the Internet era opens up new opportunities for creating popular science texts, however, the most effective way to create popular science texts combines verbal and non-verbal means (primarily photographs) and modern computer technologies. An important aspect of popular science text is a trend towards the reduction in volume which is achieved through photographs often replacing lengthy descriptions and explanations. Considering the polysemantic nature of photography and the stabilizing function of a text in relation to an image, an approach to the consideration of verbal and visual components in the framework of popular science text is proposed.

COMMUNICATIVE-PRAGMATIC POTENTIAL OF POPULAR SCIENCE MEDICAL TEXTS

The article concentrates on the study of the communicative and pragmatic features of popular science medical texts.The purpose of the popular science medical text is to popularize knowledge in the field of medicine, biology and health care. Also medical terminology not only names medical concepts, but also has an influencing function. And expressive means simplify the presentation of medical knowledge and get into contact with a reader. The article gives the definition of “popular science style”, considers its specificity and analyzes the stylistic features of popular science medical texts in English and German. It is noted that the communicative and pragmatic characteristics of popular science texts on medical topics are expressed in the use of certain linguistic means focused on the transfer of scientific knowledge and the involvement of communicants in the perception and understanding of this information. The results of the analysis show that the percentage of terms, colloquial vocabulary, tropes and syntactic means in English and German is approximately the same. It allows us to conclude that most popular science medical texts have such stylistic features. Thus, the authors of popular scientific medical books strive to fulfill their main task - to convey scientific knowledge in the field of medicine to the reader as much as possible.

Research on teaching portuguese as a second language for foreigners. Investigación sobre la enseñanza del portugués como segunda lengua para extranjeros

The objective of this work was to investigate, through a review of the state of knowledge type, the process of teaching and learning the Portuguese language to foreigners in Brazil. It is a qualitative, descriptive and analytical research. Academic publications dealing specifically with the subject were analyzed in the databases: Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO); Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) and Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD), between 2005 and 2018, checking trends and references on the subject, through bibliographic review. It was possible to value and subsidize other types of studies with the same research interest. Through the works found, an in-depth analysis was carried out. Preliminary readings of popular science texts revealed the importance attributed to knowledge of culture in the teaching of a given language to these speakers. As a conclusion, the need for further studies on the subject is identified, due to the importance it has for the future of Brazilian education and its impacts.

К ВОПРОСУ О ПРОФИЛИЗАЦИИ ОБУЧЕНИЯ РКИ НА ПРЕДВУЗОВСКОМ ЭТАПЕ В ТЕХНИЧЕСКОМ ВУЗЕ

The article is devoted to the issues of specialized / professionally oriented teaching Russian as a foreign language at the pre-University stage of foreign students of engineering specialties. As one of the principles of such training, the principle of profiling is put forward. The authors suggest a possible way to profile the teaching of the Russian language to foreign students. Taking into account the communicative needs of first-year foreign students in the educational, scientific and professional fields, as well as specific methodological conditions that hinder the process of language pre-University training at the preparatory faculty, allowed us to develop a model of integrated learning of listening and writing. The developed model is based on the principles of communication, profile orientation, complexity in teaching types of speech activity, as well as accessibility, which is more subject to the selection and organization of educational material. Popular science text is chosen as the main teaching tool. Informative, informative, accessible presentation of scientific material, and the interdisciplinary nature of popular science text make it the optimal educational tool for profiling the process of teaching Russian at the pre-University stage, including in the field of teaching listening and lecture notes. The introduction of such a model will serve to restore continuity in the training of foreigners at the pre-University and main stages in a technical University, make it easier for students to communicate in the educational, scientific and professional spheres, and increase its effectiveness.

Library science knowledge: continuity and dynamics

Continuity of knowledge is the objective regularity of library science development. Library science is characterized by non- cumulated model of cognitive potential growth. The processes of new knowledge generation, actualization and complementation go on continuously, although unevenly, with varying degrees of intensity at different historical stages. The goal of the article is rationale for continuity and dynamics as the main instruments of library science knowledge development. The article is based on data analyses (including content-analyses) in the framework of methodology of inductive approach. Traditions and innovations are the main categories that provide continuality and dynamics in library knowledge growth and its further enhancement. The author considers the ideological impact on library science development, shows the influence of political changes on library science and the professional community. The article gives examples of Marxist ideology blocking the creation of new scientific ideas, determining the nature and content of research programs and the methodological tools chosen by scientists. Continuity in science can be strengthen by organization and fulfilling microhistorical researches. Portraits can creates a good basis for biographical and prosopographic research. Portraits of researchers presented in scientific, popular science, memoirs and other texts give an idea not only about their lives, but also about the features of the historical era. The role of creating portraits, as well as biographical and prosopographical research, is very important for understanding the processes of dynamics and continuity in the development of library science knowledge. Studying the professional career of practitioners and researchers allows getting answers to questions related to the origins of ideas, concepts, and theories, and helps tracing the complex path of transition from practical activities to library science. These types of research help to identify the social background of researchers, understand their beliefs and motivation to improve practice based on the use of scientific knowledge. Biographical and prosopographical research contributes to the removal of many misconceptions on the development of library science at different historical stages. Local history research is also important for studying and understanding the development of library science and the features of professional and personal life of researchers who have contributed to its cognitive enrichment. The integration of the results of local history, biographical and prosopographical research allows the creation a more complete picture of the development of library science in the historical perspective.

Volunteers as Agents of Change: A Study of the Manipulation of Scientific Knowledge through Translating Hedges in Popular Science Texts into Arabic

Volunteers as Agents of Change: A Study of the Manipulation of Scientific Knowledge through Translating Hedges in Popular Science Texts into Arabic

Diversion of qualitative characteristics of text complexity (a case study of literary and popular science PIRLS texts)

The study under consideration highlights the multidimensional comprehensive analysis of eight texts of diverse genre attribution applied in the international PIRLS testing during 2001-2011 (PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is conducted by International Association in assessment of academic achievements IEA. The national coordinator of the research implementation PIRLS in the Russian Federation is FIAQE «Federal Institute of assessment of quality education»). The objective of the study is to substantiate the hypothesis concerning similarities and differences in typological characteristics that aim at evaluating the complexity of popular science and literary texts. The cornerstone of the theory serves the assumption of the text complexity which involves quantitative (the word, sentence, text length) as well as qualitative (narrativity, syntactical simplicity, precision, referential cohesion, semantic cohesion) characteristics of the text [14]. The study determines that literary texts display a wider diversity of syntactical structures and a higher narrative degree than popular science texts under similar length and readability conditions. The precision indicators of popular science and literary texts are manifested in approximately the same range whereas referential and semantic cohesion represent a broad range of fluctuations in both cases.

Ways of introducing judgments and sources of information in a popular science text devoted to astronomy

The journalist’s personality acts as an intermediary between scientists and non-professional readers, whose knowledge of astronomy is limited, and the created popular science texts are a kind of communicative platform for voicing judgments. In this regard, journalists not only supplement the reader’s knowledge in an accessible form, but also open access to the voices of representatives of the scientific and astronomical community, relying on such means as direct and indirect speech, which reveal different degrees of frequency in the first paragraph of the text and in the subsequent narrating. To systematize the actual data indicating the explicit labeling of the source of information in a popular science message, the most frequent language signals that are used by journalists in order to introduce a other voice into the text (predicates that introduce direct or indirect speech) were analyzed. As a result, models and indicators of their frequency were identified, which provided an opportunity to trace the trends in voicing the expert astronomers’ opinions in a popular scientific text. It is established that the distribution of direct and indirect speech with explicit marking of the source of information in the first paragraph of the popular science text is not homogeneous. In this text segment, indirect speech is the most frequent, which allows the journalist to focus the reader’s attention on an unbiased vision of a scientific event.

Liberation through science: Karl Evang as sex educator.

Karl Evang's (1902-1981) efforts with regard to sex education in Norway are well documented, in particular his work in the interwar period, as an initiator and co-editor of Populært Tidsskrift for Seksuell Oplysning (Popular Journal for Sex Education) (1932-1935). This article takes Evang's work in the 1930s as its starting point, but emphasises his role in promoting sex education in schools after the war. The main sources for the article are Evang's popular science texts on sex education as well as archive material that shows Evang's role in school policy. Searches have also been conducted in newspaper databases and in the journal. The text builds on research on Populært Tidsskrift and on the teaching of sex education in Norwegian schools undertaken by the author of this article. Karl Evang worked to promote sex education in Norway. His professional and ideological efforts in this regard in the interwar period are well documented, but he was also committed to this cause as Norway's director general of health in the post-war years. Evang regarded the teaching in schools as a particularly important tool for health-promoting knowledge about sexuality in the population, and he helped to place sex education in schools on the agenda after the war. Through his professional and political networks, he was perhaps the most important driver of sex education in Norway, in the decades before as well as after the war.

НОВАЯ НАУЧНО-ПОПУЛЯРНАЯ КНИГА1920–Х ГГ.: О ЧЕМ И КАК?

Existing researches on early Soviet books focus on illustrated books. This article, however, attempts to build a more diverse view of the children’s book of the 1920s, drawing on a corpus of 142 complete texts of various orientations. In the first part of the article, all the texts in the sample are grouped by subject and characterized. The predominant place is occupied by the so-called production book in the broadest sense: devoted not only to production processes, but technology, technologies, and resources. It turns out that the “resource approach” is characteristic not only for production books, but also for books about animals or human health. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of artistic methods used in popular science texts and the analysis of innovative methods in the design and illustration of books.