Abstract:

In teaching future economists professional English functional analysis of speech is becoming an important element of training. The need for such skills is explained by the necessity of identifying the means of speech influence and their further application. Speech strategies reflecting the general intention of the speaker are such means. The object of present research is one of common business discourse strategies – the strategy of goal setting.

The aim of this article is to analyse what particular tools implement the goal setting strategy; to identify the role of prosodic organisation of speech in general pragmatic impact; to describe how these facts benefit to foreign language training. The analysed material includes oral speech of the heads of international economic organisations Jim Yong Kim, Christine Lagarde, Jose Angel Gurria Trevino et al. The work was carried out by methods of continuous sampling, functional and auditorial analysis.

In the course of English for Specific Purposes classes students were suggested to analyse various excerpts of the empiric material from the point of view of pragmatic means. It turned out that the strategy of goal setting can be realised by the tactics of request, inquiry, order and offer. Then the lexical, grammatical, stylistic, syntactic and phonetical peculiarities of these tactics were singled out. The tactics of request and inquiry use the gradually ascending scale while the tactics of order and offer are pronounced with descending intonation. Final tones can be high or low fall depending on energetic and emotional or calm and serious colouring of the utterance.

The authors highlight that such analysis teaches students to distinguish between the elements of positive and negative pragmatics and understand how they interact. The experiment has shown that the skills of functional and auditorial analysis are both useful and interesting for students. They become aware of the fact that the choice of appropriate combination of segmental and supersegmental means is an indispensable component of professional communication.

Further study of strategies applied in economic discourse can benefit to more effective practical cooperation in this sphere. It also helps students to master regulation of the pragmatic effect of their speech, choose an adequate degree of influence and adhere to the business style of communication.

Keywords:

English for Specific Purposes, teaching effective communication, supersegmental means, prosody, intonation, strategies and tactics.