Online Educational Discourse in the Framework of Intercultural Communication

Abstract

The research is focused on the features of online educational discourse in the context of intercultural communication. The relevance of this study is preconditioned by a number of factors that are significant for modern linguistics. First of all, educational discourse itself is of interest due to its social significance, as well as its ability to construct reality and identity. The topicality of this publication is also connected with the discursive paradigm, which implies the study of the discursive practices involved in it. Finally, the importance of the intercultural perspective of educational discourse cannot be overestimated, which entails an appeal to the linguocultural specificity of the discourse under study. The empiric material was drawn from the 6-minute English section of the popular BBC Learning English online resource. The objective of the study is to identify the discursive dominants of this representative of educational discourse. On the basis of a complex methodology, which involves the use of the method of linguocultural decoding and interpretation of cultural information, externalized by linguistic means, narrative analysis, analysis of types of text information according to I.R. Galperin, definitional analysis, it seems possible to determine the specifics of educational discourse, which combines multiple discursive practices, namely those of mediatization, polyphony, narrativization, explicit evaluation, lifestyle recommendation. Altogether they contribute to interdiscursivity which characterizes modern online educational discourse. As a result, it can be postulated that within intercultural communication, educational discourse represents an axiological picture of the world oriented towards universal values, which is based on the media picture of the world, it exists as a renewable narrative and addresses a cross-cultural or transnational identity of modern world.