How the Bachelors of Psychology Reflect on Professional Speech: The State of Discursive Reflexivity Development

The article deals with one of the problems of reflexive psycholinguistics; namely: reflections of speakers – future psychotherapists and psycho-counselors – on professional speech, its awareness and control over its generation. The purpose of the article is to describe the results of the theoretical and empirical study of spontaneous and reflexive speech processes in Bachelors of Psychology, who have entered the Master’s program in the speciality 053 Psychology (specialization – “psychotherapy” and “psychological counseling”). The article presents conceptual approaches, criteria indicators, methods and techniques that contributed to the study of reflection on professional speech, which facilitated the study of how the Bachelors of Psychology reflect on professional speech and if it is refined, what reflection is it: spontaneous or arbitrary?; Conscious or unconscious is the control over the generative process?; How they objectify the language of their profession: whether it is “transparent” in them or has become an object of perception?; What is the extent to which they reflect on professional speech?. Methods & Techniques. Using a set of methods (discourse analysis of transcribed psychotherapeutic discourses, produced by respondents, content analysis, observation of professionally centered speech, analysis of informants’ judgments about their speech and their individual language, analysis of the done by them self-analysis of audio recordings of their psychotherapeutic discourses) and techniques (tests of achievement with closed and open tasks, tests with one radical; diagnostics of an individual measure of expression the properties of speech reflectivity) there were identified two levels of reflectiveness development in professional speech. Results. Identified two levels of reflectiveness development in professional speech: 1) low level, which is characterized by such qualitative characteristics, as spontaneous reflection on professional speech at the level of unconsciousness, complete absence of objectification of the language of specialty and control over the speech, dominance of interpsychic spontaneous (situationally revealed) reflection on professionally directed speech, lack of situational, retrospective and perspective reflection; 2) the average level when in respondents is observed manifestation of spontaneous reflection on professional speech at the level of unconscious control, the lack of objectification of the language of their specialty, the dominance of interpsychic reflection on speech, the presence of spontaneous situational reflection in the absence of retrospective and perspective professional speech reflexivity. The respondents which can be referred to the high level of reflexivity development were not revealed. Conclusions. It is established that empirically the reflection on professional speech in students is not formed enough. Purposeful psycholinguistic-didactic influences are required for ensuring the success of the professional speech of the Bachelors of Psychology.