Challenges in developing professional communicative competence among international medical students considering the linguo-therapeutic orientation of medical discourse

This study aims to identify the challenges in developing professional communicative competence among international medical students, with a focus on the linguo-therapeutic aspect of medical discourse. The article describes the specifics of teaching Russian as a foreign language (RFL) in Russian medical universities and presents the results of a study of modern RFL textbooks for medical students. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that it is the first analysis of RFL textbooks for medical universities in terms of presenting material focused on teaching Russian as a means of communication that allows influencing the patient for therapeutic purposes. The study found that each textbook designed to teach communication in the academic and professional sphere presents the professional communication between doctor and patient in its own way: some focus exclusively on collecting medical history, others on the patient’s personality characteristics. We attributed the need to consider the linguo-therapeutic orientation of medical discourse to the issues that require further methodological reflection, which will improve the professional communicative competence of international medical students. The results of the study may be useful to authors and reviewers of RFL textbooks for medical students, as well as to teachers.