Informal Pedagogical Communication on VKontakte Social Network: Discursive Analysis

Informal pedagogical communication may occur online in social nets. The socio-linguistic sphere of informal virtual communication is in the scientific focus of communicative studies and internet linguistics. This article introduces a classification of discourse practices used by teachers in informal online communication. The research featured 35 accounts of schoolteachers on the VKontakte social network, with 50 entries subjected to analytical and descriptive method. The type of discourse practices depended on the method of reflection on a speech event. The narrative discourse recreated the speech event as a story with a plot; the informative discourse transmitted information; the reflexive discourse actualized the inner experiences, introspection, and value orientations. Depending on the method of addressing, the informal virtual discourse was either dialogical or rhetorical. The dialogical discourse encouraged dialogue, discussion, and problem solving while the rhetorical discourse involved no feedback.