The quality of education – including the vocational one – depends primarily on its content; and the paper describes the material selection process for designing the curriculum of the «Russian Language and Culture of Speech» course for the medical higher school, based on the theory of level development of educational content by V. V. Klayevsky and I. Y. Lerner. The relevance of the subject for prospective medical specialists is substantiated as it is well-known that this sort of professional activity is lingua-active. Therefore, the high level of linguistic and communicative competence is a necessary prerequisite of the doctor’s professionalism. The main emphasis is on the requirements of the third generation of federal state educational standards for higher vocational training regarding the content of the humanities subjects. The general cultural competences necessary for the graduates specialized in medical treatment and qualified as physicians and pediatricians are enumerated. It is indicated that the objectives, goals and content of the «Russian Language and Culture of Speech» course comply with the above standards.

The essence of educational content concerning the curriculum, courseware, textbooks and training manuals is highlighted with the reference to the medical educational establishments. The author believes that the research results along with the printed and electronic educational resource, aimed at developing linguistic and communicative competence, can help prospective specialists in their future professional work.

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