Multiple Impact of International Cooperation in the Language Education of Children in Ukraine after 1991

Abstract

The article analyses the issue of international partnership in plurilingual language education as a prerequisite of creating common grounds for productive communication in a pan-European area, part of which Ukraine is. In this context, the past and present day practices in teaching and learning foreign languages in Ukraine have been described. The historical retrospection in the regular practice of language school education in the 19 th -20 th centuries proves that although plurilingualism has been a constant trend of the individual existence a multilingual and multicultural setting of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, it has never been really valued as a factor of personal, academic or professional development of an individual and the society as a whole. New social and individual perspectives that have opened in Ukraine after proclaiming state independence in August 1991 inspired the demand for real-life communicative skills in foreign languages. The key intention of the paper is to show how significantly foreign language education has been facilitated by a start of active cooperation with Western educational and cultural institutions. The narration ends with conclusions that stress the necessity of reciprocal efforts on the part of Ukraine and its partners to get a synergetic effect of their collaboration.