Sociolinguistic Aspect of the Advancements in Modern Digital Technologies. Benefits and Risks

The article discusses the current sociolinguistic characteristics of the development of digital technologies as a basis of modern science, all industries, the media, etc. The author outlined the advantages provided by the global process of unification of contemporary society in the sociolinguistic context. Also, the author highlighted the problems associated with the Englishlanguage platform of information technology from the current approach to ethnic-language and national identity. English is considered both as the world lingua franca and as a tool of “soft power” in the international arena. In the latter case, in the context of its use as the primary language of the modern “digital world”. The question is posed of a reasonable differentiation of the use of English beyond the scope of digital technology, where it has unconditional, sole and, in the opinion of the author, utterly natural leadership. Therefore, the author raised the question of the advisability of popularizing the Russian language as a language of higher education for international students in Russia. The author concluded that there exist the objective necessity and the completely organic possibility of using English as an international language of communication without losing one’s language (as a part of the ethnic and civil) identity of ethnic groups in the global world.

language unification, language policy, digital technology, information technology, English, lingua franca, ethnic language identity, civic identity

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