MASS POLL AS THE MAIN LANGUAGE SITUATION DIAGNOSING METHOD IN UKRAINIAN SCHOOLING

Abstract

Introduction. The need to involve questions concerning quality and valuation parametersof linguistic situation in the material collection is caused by diglossic nature of bilingualismin schools in most parts of Ukraine, which is evident in the areas of the language use: Ukrainianin class, and Russian – during the breaks and after school activities. The language situationin a particular school, regardless of the status of language teaching, due to the configurationof the language situation in the region, which, however, is not included in statistical reports.That is shown in the survey carried out within the framework of Project No. 62700395 ofthe Volkswagen Foundation “Bi- and Multilingualism: between intensification and conflictresolution. Ethnolinguistic conflicts, linguistic politics and contact situations in post-SovietUkraine and Russia”, a system of questions was proposed concerning the real linguistic situation(perception of the linguistic environment, its assessment by the respondents) and its desirabledevelopment, that is, in the aspect of language policy in the field of education.Purpose. The paper focuses on the relevance of the language situation study in Ukrainianschooling using the mass poll methodology, due to mismatch of statistical data on the functioningof Ukrainian as the state language and the real facts of the language use in the secondaryschools. Methods. The research is grounded on the methods of sociolinguistics, that is quantitativeand qualitative analysis applying survey fieldwork and language boundary/difference perception.Results. The article specifies the sociolinguistic criteria on the basis of which theconclusion about changes in the linguistic situation in the field of school education in the periodfrom 2006 to 2017 is made, in particular the dynamics of the regional differences and quantitativedeformation inherited from the Soviet era in the “city – village” aspect are traced. In particular,questions aimed at data collection on the assessment of the society's linguistic situation inthe field of education were thoroughly analyzed. These questions made it possible to trace changesin linguistic behavior of respondents depending on the sphere of communication. Comparisonof responses in the regional dimension revealed the heterogeneity of the language situationin school education by region, and the analysis of the responses of different population centersresidents allowed to trace trends in overcoming the unevenness of linguistic developmentin the state in the “city – village” aspect. Providing respondents with questions that envisagedthe assessment of possible language policy in the field of school education, we sought to determinewhether this assessment depends on the peculiarities of the linguistic situation in the region, howcommon the stereotypical representations about the desired language education are, or whetherthe general political situation in the state affects perception and an assessment of the linguisticenvironment of educational institutions by the speakers. A separate question dealt with theprospects of bilingual education in Ukraine.Conclusions. The compulsory comparison of the results of several sociolinguistic pollswas emphasized to conclude on changes in the language guidelines for the desired perspectivesof language education and language policy measures in the field of school education.