Рarameters of analysis of the language situation in the field of school education in Ukraine at the beginning of the XXI century
О.M. Danylevska
PhD in Philology, Researcher of the Department of Stylistics, Language Culture and Sociolinguistics, Institute of the Ukrainian Language of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
4 Hrushevskyi St., Kyiv 01001, Ukraine
Е-mail: od3556261@gmail.com
Heading: Researches
Language: Ukrainian
Abstract: The article analyses the language situation in Ukrainian school education by quantitative, qualitative and evaluative parameters based on the data of a mass survey, targeted questionnaires for schoolchildren, observations of the teachers’ and students’ daily language practice, and analysis of regulatory documents governing the use of languages in secondary schools.
The significant discrepancy in statistics between the number of students taught in Ukrainian and the real facts of the languages used in the school system has been interpreted in the context of deformations of the language situation in the field of education, it is noted that this discrepancy does not correspond to the society’s guidelines. On this basis, it is substantiated that quantitative indicators are not enough to analyse the language situation in the field of school education, since they do not take into account the facts of out-of-school using the language/languages, as well as the ordinary speakers’ ideas about languages functioning at school.
The data obtained give reason to state that the functioning of Ukrainian as the language of study and Russian as the language of informal communication of a large number of communicants in almost the entire territory of the state, except the western region, is most essential for characterizing the language situation in the field of school education in Ukraine.
Contrary to official statistics, the language situation in school education is determined, by general configuration of the language situation in the state (in particular, its significant unevenness by region and on “city-village” basis), its assessment depends on the speakers’ personal language preferences.
The practice of Russian-speaking adolescents’ active use of Ukrainian language under conditions of a Ukrainian-language school in official and semi-official communication should be considered as a mechanism to strengthen its communicative power, which creates potential conditions for the transition to Ukrainian in other communicative fields.
Keywords: language situation, language policy, bilingualism, diglossia, state language.
REFERENCES
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