Foreign language proficiency is essential for a modern scientist. Teaching academic English to PhD students in Russia is an integral part of a postgraduate stage of education. At this stage the main objective of foreign language classes is to develop language skills and competences that enable young researches to participate in international research projects, to reach scientific and educational goals. Since young scholars have specific linguistic demands for their future academic careers, a course of English for Academic Purposes for postgraduates should focus attention on skills necessary for a successful academic communication. One of the instruments that can facilitate language learning is work with foreign scientific texts which includes translation and analysis of syntactic structures and terminology. The article offers a two-stage approach to the analysis of a foreign scientific text which was realized with the use of a system of exercises developed and implemented at the Department of Foreign Languages of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The approach contributes to the development of foreign language communication skills. The results of the application of this method are as follows: general scientific and terminology vocabulary expansion, development of translation and problem solving skills, text editing skills formation and improvement of the general command of the English language in terms of grammar and lexicon.
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