Introduction

The relevance of the problem is due to a paradox of modern education: while reading is recognized as a key channel for obtaining information in the global scientific space, in the practice of teaching a foreign language at university, it often remains a peripheral, auxiliary skill [3, 10]. Overcoming the gap between the declared importance of academic reading and its actual methodological status is an urgent task. The purpose of this study is to develop, theoretically substantiate, and test an effective methodological system in which reading plays the role of a leading, core activity that integrates all aspects of foreign language training for students of non-linguistic specialties. The object is the process of teaching professionally oriented reading. The subject is the methodological organization of classes with an emphasis on reading as a type of speech activity. Hypothesis: the purposeful formation of textual competence through a system of strategic work with authentic genre texts leads to a synergistic effect: a significant increase in the level of understanding and critical processing of textual information, intensification of the acquisition of terminological vocabulary and grammatical models, as well as an increase in academic motivation and student autonomy [2, 6, 7].

1. Theoretical foundations of reading as an activity in foreign language teaching

1.1. Definition and essence of reading as a speech activity

Within the framework of the activity approach (A.N. Leontiev, I.A. Zimnyaya [1]), reading is defined as a specific form of mediated communication, a purposeful, motivated, and structured (orientation, planning, execution, control) internal activity. Its essence is not passive «scanning,» but an active dialogue between the reader and the author, during which, based on the linguistic signals of the text and background knowledge (presuppositions), a new personal meaning is reconstructed and generated. This makes reading not a receptive, but a truly productive process [12].

1.2. Psycholinguistic aspects of the reading process

The interactive model (K. Stanovich, D. Rumelhart) is the most relevant for foreign language teaching, as it postulates the simultaneous work of «low-level» processes (letter and word recognition, syntactic analysis) and «high-level» ones (activation of semantic schemas, prediction, inference) [6]. In a foreign language, low-level processes are often not automated, which creates cognitive overload and blocks access to meaning. The task of teaching is to bring the technical side to automaticity through repeated practice and strategies (skipping, scanning), freeing up resources for semantic processing. Schema theory emphasizes that understanding is possible only when the corresponding cognitive structure (content schema, genre schema, language schema) is activated or created, which requires careful pre-reading work [11].

1.3. Methodological approaches to developing reading skills

The evolution of approaches reflects a paradigm shift: from the analytical-translational (text as an illustration of grammar and a source for translation) to the semantic (whole-word approach, global understanding) [5]. The modern strategic approach (I.S.P. Nation [7], N.D. Galskova [2]) is dominant. It focuses on the conscious teaching of students a set of strategies (cognitive, metacognitive, compensatory) for working with text before, during, and after reading. This turns the student from a passive recipient into an active «strategist» managing the comprehension process [8, 9].

1.4. The role of reading in the student’s communicative competence

In the structure of foreign language communicative competence (according to J. van Ek), reading is the basis for the development of:

• Linguistic competence: enriches vocabulary, especially passive, demonstrates grammar in a natural context [2, 7].
• Sociolinguistic competence: introduces registers, styles, genre features of professional communication [5].
• Discursive competence: teaches to see the logic of the text, connections between parts, argumentation [6].
• Sociocultural competence: provides access to cultural codes and realities of the target language country [5, 8].
• Compensatory competence: develops guessing ability, the skill of using context [3, 10].

Thus, reading acts as a meta-activity that nourishes and develops all other components [4].

2. Features of organizing reading classes in English lessons at a University

2.1. Types and genres of texts for academic reading

The principle of authenticity and professional relevance is key. Texts should represent real genres that the student will encounter in study and work [3, 6]:

Primary: scientific articles (abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion), patents, technical specifications.

Secondary: literature reviews, abstracts, summaries, popular science articles.

Educational-professional: textbooks, lectures, presentations, conference theses.

Operational-informational: science news, posts in professional blogs, instructions.

Graduation of complexity is important: from short adapted texts to full authentic ones, with the support of glossaries and comments [10].

2.2. Formation of students’ educational and cognitive motivation

Motivation is formed through [8, 9]:

Problematization: starting a lesson with a question or problem from the professional sphere, the answer to which must be found in the text.

Choice and autonomy: giving students the opportunity to choose a text for in-depth study from a proposed list on one topic.

Project connectivity: reading becomes not an end in itself, but a stage for completing a project (report, presentation, comparative analysis).

Visualization of progress: using digital portfolios where the student sees how many texts they have worked through and what vocabulary they have mastered.

2.3. Methods of activating reading and text comprehension

The work is built on a three-phase model [7, 10]:

• Pre-reading: «K-W-L» Chart (Know – Want to know – Learned), brainstorming on key terms, prediction based on title/illustrations/first paragraph. The goal is to activate the schema and create an information gap.
• While-reading: Strategies are differentiated by purpose: scanning for dates/names, search reading to answer a specific question, intensive reading with text marking (e.g., by color: facts/opinions, problem/solution), creating mind maps or diagrams.
• Post-reading: Reconstructing the text from jumbled paragraphs, discussion in the format of «debates,» writing a letter to the author, a short summary (abstract) or a tweet on the topic of the text, creating infographics based on its content.

2.4. Integration of reading with other types of speech activity

Reading → Speaking: «Opinion corners» on theses from the text, role-playing game «press conference with the author,» pitching ideas based on what was read [5, 8].

Reading → Writing: writing an annotation, review, argumentative essay «agree/disagree,» compiling questions for an interview on the topic [2, 7].

Reading → Listening: watching a TEDx talk on the same topic with subsequent comparison of positions, listening to a podcast and reading its transcript [9].

3. Methodology for studying the effectiveness of reading as a leading activity

3.1. Choice of methodology and research tools

A quasi-experiment with non-equivalent control (CG) and experimental (EG) groups was used. Tools: 1) Diagnostic test (pre-/post-test) for understanding texts of different genres; 2) Strategy questionnaire (adaptation of M. Prensky’s questionnaire to identify the frequency of strategy use); 3) Lexical-grammatical test focused on structures typical of academic texts; 4) Focus group interview with EG students for qualitative analysis of motivation; 5) Analysis of activity products (notes, annotations of students) [6, 12].

3.2. Criteria for assessing students’ reading skills

A three-level system of criteria was developed [6, 10]:

• Level of literal understanding: accuracy of answers to questions on the text’s factual information.
• Level of reconstruction and interpretation: ability to identify the main idea, trace argumentation, draw a conclusion, distinguish fact from opinion.
• Level of evaluation and application: ability to critically evaluate the author’s position, relate content to personal experience or professional knowledge, propose a solution to the described problem.

3.3. Data collection and analysis process

Data were collected during the academic year. Quantitative test data were processed using the Student’s t-test for independent samples in SPSS program. Qualitative data from interviews and works were subjected to content analysis with the identification of semantic categories (difficulties, strategies, attitude change) [1, 11].

3.4. Sample justification and organizational aspects of the experiment

Students of 2-3 years of an engineering profile participated in the study (N=80). The groups were formed from parallel streams, which ensured approximate equivalence in the initial level (confirmed by the pre-test). The experiment was conducted under natural conditions of the educational process [4].

4. Analysis of the results of implementing reading as a leading activity

4.1. Level of students’ understanding and interpretation of texts

Post-test results showed a statistically significant (p<0.01) superiority of the EG at all three levels of understanding. The most pronounced progress (35% difference with CG) was recorded at the level of interpretation and evaluation. EG students more often used complex sentences with cause-and-effect relationships in their answers («The author argues that… which leads to the conclusion that…»), demonstrating command of discursive clichés [2, 6].

4.2. The influence of active reading on the development of lexical and grammatical skills

The lexical test revealed that EG students not only recognized 40% more terms but also used them correctly in their own statements (unlike passive recognition in the CG). In grammar, a «frequency effect» was observed: stable grammatical models characteristic of the scientific style (passive voice, Present Perfect, modal verbs of deduction) were acquired more firmly and without special memorization of rules [3, 7].

4.3. Feedback from students and teachers

Qualitative analysis of interviews revealed a shift in motivation from external («needed for credit») to internal («interesting, I feel I can understand a real article»). Teachers noted increased cognitive activity and independence: students more often asked clarifying questions about the content, not about the meaning of an individual word, and offered their own interpretations [8, 9].

4.4. Identified difficulties and ways to overcome them

Difficulties:

• Cognitive overload during the first acquaintance with a full authentic text.
• Resistance to group work among strong students.
• Lack of time for in-depth study.

Solutions:

• Scaffolding (support): providing the text in parts, supporting outlines, a list of keywords before reading [5, 10].
• Differentiation of roles in the group: «analyst,» «critic,» «visualizer,» «reporter» [4].
• Flipped classroom: initial acquaintance with the text and completion of simple tasks – at home; analysis, discussion, creative tasks – in the classroom [9].

5. Practical recommendations for effective organization of reading in English classes at a University

5.1. Development of methodological complexes and teaching materials

It is necessary to create not sets of texts, but thematic modules, for example, «Writing a Scientific Abstract,» including: a sample abstract → instructions for its composition → a series of articles for abstracting → a lexical minimum (clichés for generalization, citation) → assessment criteria. Integration of genres is important: an article from Nature → its popular science retelling in The Guardian → discussion on a professional forum [2, 7, 10].

5.2. Use of modern technologies and digital resources

Corpus technologies: Using corpora (COCA, BNC, specialized corpora) for independent verification of the frequency and typical contexts of use of words found in the text [7].

Collaborative annotation tools: Perusall, Hypothesis, allowing students and teachers to leave comments, questions, and answers directly in the margins of the text, creating lively social reading [6].

Visualization tools: MindMeister, Coggle for creating digital mind maps during reading [11].

5.3. Increasing student motivation and engagement

• Gamification: A badge system for mastered strategies («Scanner,» «Critic,» «Synthesizer») [8].
• Authentic projects: Participation in writing articles for a student scientific wiki encyclopedia, maintaining a thematic blog in English [5, 9].
• Connection with the real world: Inviting a native speaker (scientist, engineer) to discuss an article in their field [4].

5.4. Preparing teachers to conduct classes with an emphasis on reading

The key component is retraining aimed at [2, 5, 6]:

• Developing the teacher’s own textual competence (genre analysis, critical reading strategies).
• Mastering the methodology of teaching strategies, not just checking comprehension.
• Skills in working with digital tools to support reading.
• The ability to select and didacticize authentic materials, creating supporting «scaffolding» for them.

Conclusion

The conducted research proved that reorienting a university foreign language course towards reading as a leading activity is not just a methodological technique, but a strategic decision that corresponds to the cognitive and professional needs of the modern student. The developed and tested model, based on a strategic approach to working with professional genres, has shown its effectiveness in forming complex textual competence, which serves as a solid foundation for all foreign language communication [1, 3, 6, 10]. Further research may be aimed at studying the long-term transfer of formed skills to reading in a completely autonomous, professional environment, as well as at developing AI tools for the adaptive selection of texts and analysis of the reading strategies of a particular student [7, 12].