Ivanova N.K.

The article analyzes the main features of registering variant characteristics of English vowels and consonants, as well as of the suprasegmental means in the 3rd edition of the Oxford English Dictionary Online. A new notation for indicating pronunciation in British and American English is considered in detail and, according to the phonetic editors of the dictionary, transformational phenomena in the articulation of a number of phonemes are also presented.

The article, based on the material of three editions of the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary, examines some evolutionary features of the pronunciation representation system in this general dictionary, which in recent years has gained extraordinary popularity after publishing of the online edition. The traditional and new transcription systems used in various editions of the dictionary are discussed in

The paper considers the important role of such a complex mental activity as visualization in relation to challenge of the time and the consequences of digitalization. The history of the issue is briefly stated on the basis of domestic and foreign approaches. The paper contains examples of various types of speech activity including visualization as a means of effective presentation, perception and interpretation of educational and scientific information (in lectures presentations, student speeches, research papers and their digital abstracts).

A study of homonymy conducted for more than ten years based on the English Pronouncing Dictionary (EPD, 1‑18 ed., 1917‑2012) and Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (LPD, 1‑3 ed., 1990‑2008), allowed us to establish the frequency of phonetic (and graphic) variants in various groups of homonyms (homographs, homophones, phonetic-graphic homonyms, homonymic proper names, homonymic abbreviations), to determine the general and specific approaches of D. Jones and J. Wells to the problems of registering pronunciation variants and variability, and in particular, the phenomenon of homonymy.

The paper discusses some current issues related to the dissemination and perception of English among Russian academe as a medium of international scholarly communication. The content of the paper is based on the available statistical data and the author’s experience of teaching English for academic communication to postgraduates and master students. Particular attention is paid to the sociolinguistic characteristics of a foreign language proficiency and levels of competence characteristic for students and lecturers in various types of speech activity.