Methodological Aspects of Developing Future Professionals’ Use of Mitigation Strategies in Business English Communication

The article addresses the methodological foundations of teaching future specialists mitigation strategies (softening of utterances) in business English communication as a component of pragmalinguistic competence. The relevance of the topic is determined by the growing role of English as the lingua franca of international business and the need to develop the ability to flexibly regulate the categoricalness of speech according to the interlocutors’ status and context. Drawing on the theories of P. Brown and S. Levinson, B. Fraser, J. House and G. Kasper, and C. Caffi, the conceptual apparatus is clarified and a taxonomy of mitigation strategies is developed: lexico-semantic, syntactic, modal, and discourse- pragmatic devices. A taxonomy of mitigation strategies relevant to business discourse is identified: lexico-semantic, syntactic, modal, and discourse-pragmatic means of softening utterances. A three-component methodological model for developing the ability to apply mitigation strategies is proposed, encompassing cognitive-orientational, communicative-activity- based, and reflective-evaluative stages of instruction. The expediency of using tasks based on an authentic corpus of business discourse, role-play and simulation exercises, critical- incident analysis, and contrastive pragmatic analysis is substantiated. Assessment criteria are defined: pragmatic appropriateness, diversity of devices, functional effectiveness, and intercultural correctness. By applying these criteria, it is possible to conduct diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments of students’ mastery of the skills under study and provide the feedback necessary for personalized instruction. The article’s materials can be used to teach the disciplines “Business English” and “Oral and Written Speech Practice” to students of philological and economic specialties.