Bilingual Education and the Problems of Ethnic and Linguistic Identity in the USSR and Modern Russia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Course “Bilingualism and Mother Tongue (Russian)” in the Process of Educating Russian Teachers
RUDN Journal of Language Education and Translingual Practices, 2017
Авторы предлагают ознакомиться с предпосылками и принципами проведения курса «Двуязычие и родной (русский) язык» для магистрантов Таллиннского университета. Указанный курс стал результатом проведенных исследований в рамках нескольких научных проектов, а также руководства магистерскими работами. Кроме того, включено описание целей курса и содержание самостоятельной работы студентов.
Bilingualism in Ukraine and the Problems of National Identity
Ca' Foscari Japanese Studies. Religion and thought, 2022
The article clarifies the terminological basis of the study of bilingualism in Ukraine and proposes a consistent demarcation of individual or collective bearer of the sign when using concepts such as mono-, bi- and polylingualism, dominant language, etc. to prevent erroneous conclusions or deliberate manipulation of language issues. Based on the results of the 2001 census and a statistically significant mass survey in 2017, the features of ethnic and linguistic self-identification of Ukrainian citizens in the early twentieth century were analysed and its regional specificity was determined. In the issue, the first results of an online survey of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) and locals, in connection with the war in Ukraine, are presented, which show significant shifts in the language consciousness of Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine.
Ethnolinguistic Contradictions in Schooling in Russian Republics
Sociologicheskaja nauka i social naja praktika
The article presents an analysis of the main factors of tension in connection with the compulsory study of the state languages of Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, and examines the course of development of contradictions, including from a legal point of view, as well as key differences of situations in both republics. It is shown that, according to sociological research data in recent years, the demand of learning of the Tatar language among Russians in Tatarstan has decreased, and the demand of the Tatars to learn the Tatar language remains very high. Some reasons are analyzed for growing dissatisfaction with the compulsory study of state languages of the republics, most pronounced in Tatarstan, including the ratio of hours of studying Russian and Tatar languages, non-conformity of the number of Russian language hours to the federal standards, poor efficiency of methods of studying Tatar language, lack of variability of methods, and mandatory testing in Tatar language – in the absence o...
2019
Родной язык ассоциируется с чувством принадлежности к месту и народу. Это духовная пуповина между людьми и их родиной, которая хранит запечатленную в письменном виде память народа, общины и семьи. Родной язык можно сохранять, несмотря на границы, даже в условиях миграции. Сохранение не зависит от того, является ли иммигрантское население многочисленным или компактным, признается национальным меньшинством или является группой, которая не признается в чужой стране национальным меньшинством со своим собственным языком. Сохранение родного языка зависит от того, практикуется ли он в семье, проживающей за границей, и от наличия в новом месте школы, где этот язык изучается. Ярким примером учреждения, которое защищало болгарский язык – родной для этнических болгар в Венгрии, была болгарская школа в Будапеште. Основанная в 1918 г. и закрытая в 2011-м, она была старейшей болгарской государственной школой за рубежом. Почти столетие она была символом болгарской общины в Венгрии и самым важным фактором, способствующим сохранению болгарской идентичности болгар, рожденных и живущих в Венгрии. Будучи всегда примером добрососедства, Болгария и Венгрия оказались в новой политической ситуации XXI века. Обе страны стали частью Европейского Союза, экономические и культурные отношения между ними развиваются, приток рабочей силы из Болгарии в Венгрию увеличивается. В этих условиях в Венгрии остро ощущается отсутствие государственной средней школы с полным курсом обучения на болгарском языке для 1– 12 классов.
Buryat Russian Bilingualism: Psycholinguistic Aspect
2010
This volume presents the first comprehensive study on psycholinguistic aspects of the Buryat-Russian bilingualism. The bilingualism in Buryatia has been widely studied, but almost exclusively external factors have been considered, such as language policy of the Soviet state and dominance of the Russian population. Therefore, the investigation of inner, psycholinguistic, cognitive factors has been a desideratum in the Buryat linguistics for long time. The main goal of the book is to describe psycholinguistic aspects of structural changes in the Buryat language related to extralinguistic ones and to reveal specific features of ethnolinguistic consciousness of the Buryat ethnie which has been in intensive contact with the Russian ethnie since the XVIIth century. Two levels of analysis are presented: structural and discursive ones. The structural analysis deals with cultural semantics of linguistic signs – texts, dictionaries, and data of a psycholinguistic experiment. On the discursive level the authors analyze the Buryat-Russian discourse of modern bilingual Buryats. By doing this, the authors define the speakers’ communicative competence in both languages, which includes not only linguistic, but also cultural competence. The chapter one Inner Factors Forming the Buryat-Russian Discourse is written by P. Dashinimaeva (1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1) and E. Khilkhanova (1.1, 1.2.4). The part 1.1. On History and Theory of the Subject examines various theoretical and methodological perspectives from Western and Russian psycho-, neuro- and cognitive linguistics. Unlike most psycholinguists who generally avoid engaging with naturally occurring language, the authors study informal and spontaneous discourse while only spontaneous, natural language (first of all code switching) and not the data elicited from a controlled psycholinguistic experiments can give us information about factors and mechanisms of how two languages co-exist and function in a bilingual brain. The part 1.2. Cognitive-psycholinguistic Factors of Language Interaction on Example of the Buryat-Russian Bilingualism discusses functional bilateralization of the brain and separate storage of form and content as inner factors of bilingualism. The authors are interested in such type of bilingualism when the first (Buryat) language is being learned first, and after some time – the second one (Russian). The type of speech lateralization by bilinguals has its peculiarities depending on the level and mode of the second language acquisition. The structure of hemisphere interaction in speech processes by early bilinguals is the same as by monolinguals while the late second language acquisition involves both cerebral hemispheres differently. From a cognitive point of view, languages always are in a functional competition. Therefore, only conscious use of both languages by bilinguals and conditions that make it possible can provide relatively «ideal» bilingualism. Otherwise, the result is an asymmetric bilingualism. The functional weakening of the mother tongue is reflected first of all in the lexicon and leads to the constant code switching. It means that activation of words in the native language is only possible when a speaker feels the lexical deficit and makes conscious efforts to produce words in the native language. This is how defunctionalization of lexical units works. The degree of «going away» of lexical units from the collective Buryat ethnic memory demonstrates negative dynamics from the elder to the younger generations. The regress of the Buryat language is evident not only in increase of the passive vocabulary, but also in absence of practice to give names to new objects, that is to produce neologisms. The following groups of «going-away» lexemes have been defined: 1) units that designate disappeared cultural objects; 2) units of technolect; 3) taboo words; 4) names with abstract and evaluative semantics; 5) terms designating kinds of natural objects and artifacts; 6) synonyms. The cognitive mechanism in a bilingual situation functions as follows: passionar of the ethnie → reserved verbal and non-verbal behavior → absence of motivation to thought’s externalization → irregular input of suitable phonological units → weak representation of units in a short-term and later on in a long-term memory → loss of plasticity and mobility of approximate neuron ties → difficult recognition of lexemes as phoneme sequences in the output while establishing contact with the semantic component. The Buryat spoken discourse is characterized by the active penetration of the Russian speech variations into all social strata of the Buryat society. The authors define three groups of psycholinguistic factors that determine language choice and switching bilingual codes: 1) automatisation of language skills combined with economy of speaking efforts and habitual speaking in Russian, 2) triggering, and 3) insufficient linguistic compe6 tence in Lа combined with a high linguistic competence in Lb, as well as frequency of usage Lb. Further on, the authors offer some Methodologies of the Buryat- Russian Discourse Investigation (part 1.3). Chapter two deals with the structural level of analysis. In part 2.1 the authors try to reveal the difference between the language potential (system and norm) and language functions categorized and saved in various configurations in the mental lexicon of bilingual Buryats. Assuming that functioning of language is based on associative memory the authors conducted an associative experiment. The associative experiment demonstrates that speech and mental stereotypes depend on linguistic knowledge which is stored in various memory types. Chapter two containing the associative experiment results is written by G. Dyrkheeva (2.1) and Zh. Zhalsanova (2.2). The free associative experiment results have shown that the national language code, which is equal to correlation of the number of Buryat words to the general number of responses, is rather high and is equal to 0,81. The diversity of associative fields is evidence of high level of respondents’ reflexion ability as well as of good knowledge of the Russian language. Reactions to stimuli words given in two languages reveal diversity and plurality of bilinguals' thinking. Numerous traditional, standard associations show that the Buryat ethnolinguistic consciousness is rather stable, although new associations in both Buryat and Russian language also emerge. The national-cultural specifics of associations is the most salient in words with religious semantics (бурхан ‘God’, дацан ‘buddhist temple’). The research on gender stereotypes (part 2.3) by Buryats and Russians has revealed that gender stereotypes of both ethnies are typical for patriarchal consciousness. In particular, the gender stereotype of «masculinity» in the Buryat linguistic consciousness is contains a more careful attitude to men from their very childhood. For Russian respondents, little boys are perceived as children who become men only when they grow up. In both cultures the woman is first of all a wife and a mother. Woman as a person is not presented in linguistic consciousness of both ethnies. Additionally, gender stereotypes in the Buryat linguistic consciousness are marked by strong kinship ties. The research has also shown that gender stereotypes are not stable entities; they are dynamic and are subjects of social modeling and manipulation. The Introduction is written by G. Dyrkheeva and P. Dashinimaeva, the Conclusion – by P. Dashinimaeva. The English summary is written by E. Khilkhanova.
This contribution deals with the issue of Rusyn-Slovak bilingualism in contemporary Slovakia. The development of the Rusyn language in the context of minority-majority bilingualism is characterized by specific tendencies which we discuss here based on an analysis of audiotaped material. Our recordings offer a limited sample of the speech of a young generation of Rusyns representing Rusyn dialects of the Snina district in the region of eastern Zemplín County. The Rusyn spoken vernacular in its present condition has been significantly influenced by Slovak. The lexicon has been most strongly “attacked” by foreign-language lexemes which have spontaneously found their way to the center of the vocabulary of the Rusyn-speaking population and have stamped out older native words of East Slavic origin. A great part of the lexicon in the spoken language largely of the younger generation of Rusyns is taken from Slovak and Czech. Penetrating into their vocabulary in a dynamic way are various foreign-language words, as well as entire linguistic constructions which are either adapted into a particular dialect or are simply adopted in their original form. Linguists define several types of bilingualism. In the Rusyn language context in Slovakia we can, for the most part, speak of social bilingualism because communication in both languages is carried on here over a large geographical territory. Present in this landscape is also diagonal bilingualism based on a typical mastery of a non-literary and dialectal form of the language. Confusion of codes and linguistic borrowings on the part of Rusyn-Slovak bilingual speakers are most frequent in those spheres of language use in which Rusyn does not have a sufficiently developed vocabulary. The environment in which Rusyns live and the everyday situations in which they are immersed simply demand the adoption, mastery, and use of two languages and thus bilingual education here often is not managed with conscious deliberation on the part of parents. There exist, however, several methods for achieving bilingual education from which there are many benefits for children. In practice, though, we encounter negative opinions and even prejudices toward bilingual education of children which insist that bilingualism negatively impacts their communicative, mental, and psychic development. In our view, practical experience supports exactly the opposite.
Статья посвящена вопросам использования результатов лингвистических исследований русского лексического материала в практике преподавания русского языка как иностранного или неродного при подготовке учителей русского языка для национальных школ. Утверждается, что накопленная и сохраненная в языковых единицах этнокультурная информация может стать предметом сопоставительного изучения при освоении неродного языка. Оценивается дидактический потенциал лингвистических методов, заключающихся в семантическом и мотивационном анализе слов или фразеологических сочетаний из разных языков, один из которых родной, другой – осваиваемый. В контексте поиска материала для обучения таджикских студентов, которые в будущем планируют стать учителями, методике преподавания русского языка как неродного проводится сравнение лексики тематической группы «Воспитание» в таджикском и русском языках