This present article is an overview of the terms text, academic text, discourse and academic discourse, the structure and content of which are influenced by the context of communication. The human sender is determined by all the contextual elements: by the place where the communication takes place, by the general social context, by the relationship with the receiver etc., in the realization of the speech acts. A current stage in the development of academic communication is transmission of texts, speeches via Internet technologies, made through various forms, networks, platforms etc.