Authors

The article describes the role of grammar in the development of new terms and meanings in the English language. As applied to scientific texts in most recognized journals published in 2020, scientific English is shown to differ from General English in that it contains grammatical metaphor that adds weight and authority to the message and functions as a tool for generating new terms and meanings. The article discusses the definition of grammatical metaphor, its place in a sentence and reasons for its use. Grammatically metaphorical discourse with altered word order sounds clear, concise and meaningful. With changes in life and new developments in science due to the pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) there appear new lexical forms in scientific publications that are grammatically metaphorical. As new terms, they get via mass media into General English opening up new horizons in its development.

The paper discusses the issues of a language teacher professional growth and improvement and increasing his/her competence in line with modern trends in education. It addresses the topic of self-development and its impact on the quality of teaching foreign languages. Self-development of language teaching staff is shown to be the main factor of their professional competence. The work provides a rationale for the relevance of the chosen topic and discusses the significance of teacher self-development in the modern world. Possible ways to improve his/her professional skills are considered. They involve a critical reflective analysis by the teacher of his/her professional competencies, the quality of teaching students a foreign language and prospects for personal growth. It is shown that the process of professional development should be ever-lasting, assume collegiality and provide mentoring within a single educational organization. Self-development and improvement of professional competence implies collaboration with foreign colleagues and experts in the professional field. The paper proposes a scheme of self-development for a language teacher, based on a reflective analysis of his/her professional competence and place in the profession.

This paper addresses the question of pronominal substitution of singular common gender nouns and indefinite pronouns in the English language. As for many contexts this problem remains unresolved, the cultural relevance of “singular they” as the epicene, or gender-neutral pronoun for third person singular use, in speech and writing is analyzed. This issue is briefly discussed in historical perspective, supported by the examples from famous literary works. The approach towards which epicene to use and what grammatical number it should be, is shown to have changed over time. Particular attention in the paper is paid to the present-day English. A survey of educated English speakers has proved that in order to eliminate gender prejudices modern society chooses “singular they”, using the language as a tool to demonstrate commitment to the idea of people’s equality. The attitudes of authoritative organizations to the choice of the pronoun referring to sex-indefinite singular antecedent are analyzed. They demonstrate current linguistic trends in the modern world. Even though the choice of the epicene for third-person singular use in contemporary English is commonly “singular they”, there remain restrictions imposed on the written pronoun paradigm.