Popular Science Text as an Object of Professional Translation

On 17 September 2026, as part of the state programme “Reading Nation,” a lesson devoted to translating a popular science text from Russian into English was held for third-year students majoring in Translation Studies.

The lesson plan was conducted by A. S. Poltoranina as part of the course “Specific Features of Scientific Text Translation.” The popular science article “The Physical Science behind Climate Change,” published in Scientific American, was selected as the learning material.

The primary objective of the lesson was to develop students’ skills in translating popular science texts, with particular attention to terminology, scientific style, logical organisation and communicative equivalence.

During the lesson, the students analysed the content and structure of the text, identified key scientific terminology, examined the ways in which it could be rendered in English and translated selected passages from the article. Particular attention was paid to terminological accuracy, the preservation of logical coherence and the adaptation of complex scientific information for the target audience.

As a result, the students strengthened their skills in the pre-translation analysis and translation of popular science texts, expanded their scientific vocabulary and gained practical experience in conveying scientific information in English while preserving its content, style and communicative purpose.

Conducting the lesson as part of the “Reading Nation” project made it possible to combine the development of the students’ reading culture with the enhancement of their professional translation competencies.