The article is devoted to the linguistic and linguo-didactic typology of a foreign language (English) teacher. It outlines the problems related to the systematization of educational terminology and proposes possible solutions. To identify the topic-based classification of L2 teachers’ professional vocabulary, the article uses the lexicographical analysis of education dictionaries. On the basis of the compiled list, the principles of vocabulary selection are demonstrated: we followed the combined approach, using dictionaries and authentic materials as sources of vocabulary selection. Moreover, the methods of corpus linguistics are used to select the vocabulary from the list according to the principle of frequency. The study defines the topic-based structure of the general professional vocabulary of education based on various sources, which was subsequently specified and adapted to higher education. The author demonstrated the principle of lexical material selection based on the above mentioned structure and describes the difficulties of English and Russian terminology harmonization (their synonymy and polysemy). A solution to the above problems is suggested. The article justifies the combined approach to the selection of professional vocabulary of education. Based the two classifications identified in the article, a course for postgraduate students may be developed. At the same time, the vocabulary list remains open and the course implies training future foreign language teachers and teaching them the principles of working with professional vocabulary.