ETHNOCULTURAL NEEDS, NATIVE LANGUAGES OF THE STUDENT YOUTH IN CHUVASHIA

Abstract

The article presents the results of a sociological survey conducted in October 2018 which involved 300 students of three higher educational institutions of Chuvashia. The main attention was paid to the projective opportunities for using various subjects in studies that are directly related to the ethnocultural differences of the peoples of Russia. The theme of the history and culture of the native land became the undisputed leader in this choice, followed by themes related to folk cuisines, national traditions and folk holidays. A significant interest of students in the opportunity to make such a choice is noted: on average, each respondent chose about 5 out of 13 proposed options. Comparing the responses given by the Russians and the Chuvash in terms of frequency of choice and preferences shows that Chuvash students are more interested in national traditions: in 7 out of 13 cases their answers surpassed the answers of students belonging to the Russian nationality in terms of frequency of choosing certain cultural characteristics. The students expressed their viewpoint about possible using the acquired knowledge about folk traditions and culture in their future professions. The answer to the question about native languages confirmed the already existing observations that not one, but two languages act as the native language for one fifth of respondents. For Chuvashia, in the absolute majority of cases, this option means that the Russian and the Chuvash languages are recognized as native languages.