Modality in English and pedagogical aspects of studying in universities of the Chechen Republic

Abstract

Epistemic modality is one of the key linguistic phenomena of modern English, which determines the degree of authenticity of a statement and the author's position regarding the truth of a proposition. This study is devoted to the analysis of the peculiarities of the development of epistemic modal constructions by students of higher educational institutions of the Chechen Republic in the context of the modern educational paradigm. The corpus-oriented approach allowed us to identify specific patterns in the use of modal verbs in the production of academic discourse by bilingual students. The analysis of empirical data collected on the basis of two leading universities in the region demonstrates significant differences in the frequency of use of epistemic markers compared with the normative indicators of academic English. A discursive analysis of written works showed the predominance of low-modal constructions (68,3%) over high-modal ones (31,7%) when expressing scientific uncertainty. The data obtained indicate the need to develop specialized pedagogical strategies that take into account the sociolinguistic features of the regional educational context. The theoretical significance of the research lies in expanding the understanding of the mechanisms of interference of the native language when mastering the pragmatic aspects of the English language in a multilingual educational environment. The practical value of the work is determined by the possibility of optimizing methodological approaches to the formation of the discursive competence of future specialists in the field of intercultural communication.