The study of a foreign language can pursue different goals; it is the expansion of horizons, communication, and, finally, the most important goal for graduates of technical universities: the opportunity to obtain new knowledge in the field of science and technology.

At the beginning of the XX century, foreign language teaching was based on the fundamental (classical) method aimed at the formation of solid systematized knowledge. The student’s ability to make a quality written translation based on a thorough knowledge of the grammar of a foreign language was the result of joint efforts of the teacher and the student. Undoubtedly, a considerable amount of time was required to produce a quality product.

In non-linguistic universities, where the time allotted for learning a foreign language is very limited, its shortage creates problems that are difficult to solve.  It is the slowness of learning communication skills with such initial data that limits the application of the fundamental method in non-language universities.

When teaching students of technical specialties a foreign language and, first, written translation, it is an undeniable fact that the wider the scientific outlook of students, their intellect, the level of general knowledge, the higher the quality of the text translated by them. The working program on foreign language in technical universities does not provide training of specialists in scientific and technical translation. First of all, due to the above-mentioned reasons — the lack of the necessary amount of teaching time for this training. Nevertheless, future specialists must possess the basic skills for realization of translation activity in the sphere of scientific literature. In this respect it is difficult to overestimate the influence of extra-linguistic knowledge used in translation.

Some difficulties in working with scientific and technical texts are associated with the fact that they have clearly expressed features of both lexical and stylistic nature.

The saturation of texts with emotionally neutral terms is known to create monotony detrimental to attention retention, which is counteracted by the deliberate introduction of excessive information that attracts attention. Although, perhaps, the slowing down of the rhythm of presentation caused by such a method of presenting information allows those who due to personal characteristics are not distinguished by a high speed of perception to better assimilate it. Be that as it may, but taking into account these considerations, redundant information, often present in the educational scientific and technical text, cannot be unreservedly considered as superfluous and obscuring the meaning.

 Nevertheless, so-called redundant information is almost always present in foreign scientific and technical texts. And first of all, it is stylistically colored, emotionally expressive vocabulary. And in such cases we have to rely on students’ extra-linguistic knowledge, their horizons, reading comprehension and general knowledge.

When comparing, in particular, English scientific and technical texts with Russian ones, it is possible to note greater rigor and less expressiveness of Russian texts. And if the translation of fiction requires an equivalent transfer of expressive and emotionally colored vocabulary, then when translating scientific and technical texts we often have to resort to “neutralization” or “leveling” of the author’s stylistic technique. Some stylistic techniques introduced in English texts are unacceptable for Russian special texts. If they are introduced, the norms of the Russian scientific and technical text will be violated [1, p.214].

It should also be noted that, due to a certain kind of globalization of modern civilization, international words turn out to be plastic and quite suitable material for using them as terms. It is obvious that the saturation of scientific and technical texts with such terms is a positive factor in the learning process, because “it is international words that can serve as a kind of ‘reference points’ in understanding specialized texts” [2, pp. 31-32].

 When selecting teaching materials for teaching the translation of specialized texts, a choice must inevitably be made: should we first consolidate and expand the knowledge related to the general course, or is it better to focus on the introduction of special vocabulary, even on the simplest grammatical structures?

A scientific and technical text is a special case of a foreign language text, the specificity of which is conditioned by the fact that its addressee should be a specialist in a particular field of knowledge, conditioned by professional interests. If at school the emphasis is placed on familiarizing students with the most common words of a foreign language, the task of higher education institution is to prepare students to master the highly specialized vocabulary, which guarantees the possibility for future specialists to fully use the information contained in written sources.

In the process of learning the transition, sometimes quite painful, from the commonly used vocabulary to the vocabulary inherent in a particular specialty is carried out. This transition is easier if the complexity increases gradually, if there is an intermediate stage, and if it includes familiarization with texts containing mainly general scientific or general technical vocabulary.

Next, we introduce non-adapted texts on specialty, characterized by richness of terms, accurate ways of presenting information, use of neutral vocabulary, which helps to avoid subjectivity in the presentation of facts.

How to combine such layers of knowledge from different planes: on the one hand — basic (thorough or weak) knowledge of a foreign language, on the other hand — familiarity (at a good or insufficient level) with the special vocabulary, excessively present in the texts of scientific and technical literature? Obviously, the process of such a combination is not without difficulties.

In addition, for the formation of the skill of working with texts on specialty it is not enough simply to expand their vocabulary at the expense of general scientific vocabulary and terms. The general meaning of a text and its adequate translation are not the same thing.  The task of accurately understanding facts in such translation is certainly important. Another requirement for a written translation is its transparency. In other words, the translated text, both in terms of vocabulary and grammar, should not give the impression of any foreignness or artificiality.

 The difficulty lies also in the fact that the author of the translation must find strict correspondences in the native language without spoiling the stylistics of the text with an uncomfortable literal translation where the differences in the structure of the languages reveal themselves.

If we try to put together the requirements to the training tasks, the mastery of which, according to methodologists, is necessary for the implementation of high-quality translation of a text on specialty, the list of them looks like this: the development of analytical and associative abilities, the propensity to research, the ability to use linguistic guesswork based on the analysis and synthesis of knowledge, systematic approach, deduction and induction, abstraction, generalization, accumulation of linguistic and technical knowledge.

The goals that these assignments should set are undoubtedly high. However, achieving them with the shortage of hours allocated in the University for teaching translation of scientific and technical literature dictates its own laws and limitations. Every time we have to make a choice, leaning towards the necessary and possible in the existing conditions minimum of the means used.