Topical Methods for Shaping a Linguistic World View in International Relations Students

Abstract

The language is a specific type of human activity, «a shape of thought». As a means of communication, it acts as an exponent of the speaker’s spirit and world outlook. The issue of shaping a linguistic world view in students of non-linguistic colleges and, in particular, the problem of the language impact on the way of view of life still requires its solution. The author of the article harks back to the history of foreign linguistic school of thoughts of German linguists Wilhelm von Humboldt (founder of theoretical linguistics) and Johann Leo Weisgerber (who proposed the term «the linguistic world view»), of American ethno-linguists Edward Sepir (author of the comprehensive typological classification of languages of the world) and Benjamin Whorf (author of the theory of linguistic relativity), of an English philosopher John Langsho Ostin, one of the creators of the theory of speech acts. The article mentions some ideas of the Russian world view presented in works of the national linguists, such as A.A. Potebnya, A. Vezhbitskaya, Ye.S. Kubryakova, V.M. Vorobyev. Drawing on many years of experience of teaching the English language in departments of international relations, linguistics and translation studies in St. Petersburg Institute for External Economic Relations, Economics and Law, the author examines the methods of shaping the linguistic world view in students of International Relations and Linguistics. As an example, the author brings forth a scenario of the lecture course in the discipline «Professional Foreign Language (English) in Studying the Topic «National Identity».