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This issue of Scripta Manent contains articles written in languages other than English. Apart 
from the introductory article, which has an applied linguistics perspective, they discuss 
teaching and learning foreign languages for specific purposes (LSP) from the didactic and 
methodological point of view. The selection also reflects current trends in LSP scientific 
research in various countries. 
The first article, by Helena Kuster Kopač, examines morphosyntactic stylistic elements of 
highly specialized German and Slovenian texts from the perspective of translation studies. 
It focusses on scientific, technical, and legal texts with a primarily informative function, 
and provides a corpus-based comparative analysis of the morphosyntactic elements most 
frequently used in order to achieve information density and impersonal verbalization. The 
findings show how informative effectiveness is achieved in both observed languages and 
cultures by outlining the typical linguistic and cultural characteristics.
The article by Saša Podgoršek and Peter Paschke discusses the paths and strategies used to 
develop and improve reading skills in students in the humanities − in this case, philosophy 
students. Foreign-language LSP courses centred on developing reading ability enable rapid 
targeted learning despite limited hours of instruction. From the linguistic aspect, such learning 
contributes to universally postulated (receptive) multilingualism.
Joanna Kic-Drgas’s article on learning how to give presentations in a foreign language 
highlights presentation both as a text type and as a soft skill. The author determines which 
fields cause Polish students the greatest difficulty in preparing and making presentations 
in a foreign language, and she develops a programme proposal that will enable students to 
productively use their professional knowledge in a foreign language.
The issue continues with two articles dealing with classroom language. 
The research by Ninočka Truck-Biljan examines the communicative language competence of 
future Croatian primary-school teachers of German. The goal of her statistics-based empirical 
study was to determine whether good command of a general foreign language also includes 
mastery of the specialized foreign language for German primary school teachers. It concludes 
by questioning the suitability of the current curriculum.
The only article in this issue that has been written in Italian explores classroom terminology in 
Italian and Croatian from the perspective of a user from Croatia. The research presented by 
Sandra Mardešić shows that classroom language terminology makes part of culture-bound 
vocabulary that varies as a result of the differences among educational systems, and suggests 
that this knowledge should make part of the socio-cultural and intercultural competence of 
future foreign language teachers. 
EDITORIAL
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The final contribution has a methodological orientation. Karmelka Barić presents the 
implementation of a blended-learning LSP model that she designed and carried out in 
cooperation with the University of Milan. The author examines the question whether and how 
emotionally appealing blended-learning concepts affect and influence student motivation. 
The pilot study aimed to develop students’ (non-linguistic) soft skills through and as a part of 
teaching a specialized foreign language.
Vita Kilar
Univeristy of Ljubljana, Slovenia
Guest Editor
Kilar / Scripta Manent 12 (2018) 116 - 117