On Realizing the Pragmatic Potential of Educational Prescripts

Abstract

The article analyses the new Federal Educational Standards in Linguistics, the basic regulatory document for higher education which formulates norms and prescriptions with the goal of effective implementation of its objectives and requirements. It is common knowledge that the efficiency of such implementation depends on how accurately these prescripts are worded so that there are no inconsistencies or conflicting interpretations. It means that the authors of these Standards must provide for the optimal transfer, reproduction, and regulation of these prescripts and competencies and thus foresee the pragmatics of the educational discourse. The aim of the study is to identify the extent to which the Educational Standards’ pragmatic potential can be realized. The study is based on the fundamental principles of pragmatics as an instrument for combining ideal formulas with real factors that contribute to their implementation. Using content, discursive, and interpretive analysis, the authors find that there are significant contradictions between the Standards’ prescripts and the feasibility of the required results. One of the reasons for this discrepancy lies in the ambiguity of wording and interpreting of the basic categories and the resulting conflict between overlapping or complementary categories — all of which inevitably leads to differences in how they are perceived. Universities could actualize the educational discourse pragmatic potential much more effectively, if the pragmatic relations and educational objectives were more transparently defined and intercorrelated to finally implement a related pragmatic adaptation regarding types of competencies.