Abstract:

The study covers the emergence of underlying linguistic structures representing the English-language alternative of world order which shape the understanding of a contemporary global reality perceived by English speakers (native and non-native speakers relying on two national varieties of English – British and American). The scientific evidence comes from leading social and media sources such as materials of international organizations (United Nations papers in particular), media and social network pieces of the last two decades. Such combination of the sources was especially necessary to illustrate the scale of demand for the analyzed linguistic units in modern environment and is helpful for educators to forge a bond between the students and the information they learn by showing how relevant the English concepts are in today’s life and why they are worth internalizing. The study identified distinctive features of conceptualizing an array of popular linguistic structures (that are at the same time the tools for thought framing) to describe a contemporary global order and its political and social relations, such as NO ONE LEFT BEHIND, RESILIENCE, COMMITMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, INCLUSION, DIVERSITY, SUSTAINABILITY etc. The study ultimately holds that these concepts proved to be the ones that form a basic view of how an ideal human society is organized, who are the main actors and what should be encouraged and eradicated – in short, the linguistic units create certain patterns for perceiving global reality, international relations and societal fabric in the English-language discourse. The analysis of them might enrich modern linguistic knowledge, particularly in pragmatics and cognitive science, as well as contribute to a better English-language learning by giving recommendations on how these concepts could be incorporated into the classroom enhancing students’ navigation through English-language texts and comprehension of their basic logic. The methodology was chosen to meet the requirements of a complex research: discourse analysis, semantic analysis, conceptual metaphor analysis, the analysis of communicative strategies and tactics of speech manipulation. Theoretical background of the study hinges upon theories of conceptual metaphor, enactivism, constructivism in language and education.

Keywords:

Discourse analysis, semantic analysis, cognitive linguistics, constructivism, constructivist learning, learning by doing, conceptual metaphor.