English realia of education system: Classification and student’s thematic glossary

Researchers’ attention to the issue of education in the Year of Teacher and Mentor is explained by the ongoing revision of modern Russian education in the period of departure from the Bologna system. The task on the agenda to combine unique Russian educational practices with the best global approaches to education in the new projected system creates the need for a comprehensive analysis of education systems in various countries and 124 their reflection in the language in the form of linguistic realia. Despite the continuing linguists’ interest in the research of terms and concepts covering the field of education, a comprehensive analysis of language units reflecting the desired semantics has not been performed yet. This article aims to highlight the challenges of describing the Englishlanguage realia and to approach their classification and systematization using a student’s glossary. The material of the Englishlanguage education system realia was selected by continuous sampling from English online and printed dictionaries using a definitional methodology. Linguistic and cultural commentary and comparative analysis were applied to the total of about 2000 units selected. The results show that a significant number of linguistic realia and the lack of their unification complicate their study raising the issue of an effective approach to their systematization. The paper offers a possible variant of a thematic classification of realia illustrated by school education realia. The proposed approach suggests the development of a student’s glossary of educational systems realia in Englishspeaking countries whose model is designed to meet the classification needs.