THE ROLE OF FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS IN TEACHING ENGLISH TO ECONOMISTS

The article is devoted to the problems of teaching a foreign language of business communication in the paradigm of functional linguistics. Based on the theoretical postulates of functional synergetics, the author describes a model of functional analysis of discourse. The author notes that the semantic system of any finite utterance demonstrates systemic properties, that is, it is logically ordered, has elements (propositions, pragma-semantic, and logical-semantic relations), strives to a functional attractor, and mobilises all its means to move towards it. It also has inherent spontaneous (emergent) properties, manifested under the influence of its interaction with the environment. A communicative situation or the consciousness of communicants, interacting with this system, pushes its evolution and forwards development in a new direction. As the experiment showed, students perceive such an approach as further enhancing their speech rhetorical skills. Finally, the author clarifies how strategic speech tools participate in the formation of pragmatics of economic discourse and what properties may be useful to specialists in the field of economics and business. The results of the study may be useful to teachers and specialists in business and corporate communication.