The paper looks at the major technological, sociocultural and linguistic factors that are changing the nature of interpersonal communication in the Information Age, and some manifestations of these changes. Rapid progress of technology, above all, the advent of the Internet, brought about dramatic changes in the modes and parameters of human communication over the recent decades. New types of written communication arose and have firmly established themselves on the global scale – in social networks, chats, blogs, forums and various Internet communities. Having created unprecedented possibilities for connecting with people irrespective of their location, age or social status, innovative technology is at the same time challenging standards of communication ethics and speech culture. Sociocultural transformations in the modern society, democratization of social relations contribute to weakening of speech norms and deterioration of overall speech culture, especially among young people. The increasing role of English as a language of global communication and its reputation of the dominant language of new technology and virtual reality are inevitably influencing speech habits of the Internet users across the globe. The combined work of all these factors results in visible deterioration of speech culture, standardization and simplification of speech, elimination of cultural specificity, tendency to replace expressive language means with emoji, downgrading of style, defying norms of spelling, word use and grammar. Obvious irreversibility of technological progress and the growing share of life people spend online call on specialists from various related fields to continue comprehensive analysis of transformations of speech culture in the modern world with the aim to assess societal risks and work out timely and adequate countermeasures.

The article outlines the directions of transformation of ecological consciousness in the process of solving global problems. Insufficient impact of institutional changes on nature management regulation to ensure overcoming of environmental problems is shown. It is emphasized that the main tool for overcoming negative trends in the environmental sphere is the transformation of society’s consciousness towards its greening, aimed at achieving optimal interaction between society and nature, the harmonization of material and spiritual life as a real embodiment of the environmental imperative. It should be based on shifting the emphasis of ethical principles - from anthropocentrism to ecologycentrism, to restore the balance between man and thebiosphere.

ICT and the Internet have revolutionized education, in terms of opportunities for distance learning, independent study and resource sharing in particular. However, these new opportunities are not equally utilized across university curricula, with much slower progress in the Humanities than in STEM disciplines. The paper looks at how teaching the History of the English language, a mandatory course for university students majoring in English, can be enhanced through the use of web resources. The use of high quality study resources can help solve a threefold task: shifting the emphasis from the lecturer to the student; raising students’ motivation and engagement in the course through independent work and research; and increasing the content quality of the course. The authors developed a map of the Internet resources that can be used in the course in the History of the English language. The map has four segments: digital texts; online dictionaries and translation tools; videos, podcasts, textual materials, databases, timelines, etc.; and online activities. Each of the segments offers a list of the Internet resources which can be recommended for the course. The authors see the major benefits of using these resources in facilitating students’ preparation for lectures, practical classes, tests and examinations, changing their overall attitude to the History of English, which is traditionally stigmatized by students as insurmountably hard to master, helping students to see that the course can be engaging and even fun, motivating them to explore the history of the language they study on their own. The critical assessment of the web resources available for the course has revealed that the Internet can offer little for the online activities segment of the developed map, which defines the necessity for academics to invest their effort in developing and sharing exercises, practical assignments, tests and other activities to assist students in mastering the course and provide tools for knowledge assessment.

Globalization is the phenomenon that has made quite a loud statement about itself during the last decades of the 20th century and found its representation in the formation of global economic, financial, cultural, legal, and political areas. Having been the conglomerate of various national states for thousands of years, the world’s social, economic, ecological, cultural space is now transforming into space without borders. The formation of global economic relations, ecological, demographic challenges can’t be solved individually, with local measures and means. In the second half of the 20th century, the world faced global problems and crises (ecological, demographic, reorganization of the economic and political world order), which have become the challenges that can’t be solved with the help of local actions. The global community is forced to raise issues about the ecologization of the entire industrial activity taking into account its consequences at all levels: local, national, and international. That’s what common threats and problems require. The sustainable development paradigm requires both reviewing and changing the “human-nature” system and realizing the necessity of preserving nature for ensuring the existence of the next generations. Sustainable development is to provide the transfer to a new economic type – the green economy, which requires significant investments, particularly in the renewable-energy industry, industrial waste treatment, restoration of soil fertility, preservation of forests.

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