SOCIOLINGUISTIC PECULIARITIES FOR CHILD SPEECH DEVELOPMENT IN UKRAINE

Abstract

The essay explores into factors for shaping a linguistic identity at an early childhood age in the context of massive Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism. Child speech is characterized on the level of primary social environment, which enables representation of the nation-wide linguistic situation; and helps identify trends and challenges. The correlation is studied between the parents’ mother tongue, a language spoken at home, and the Ukrainian language competence of children. The objective of the research is to consider sociolinguistic peculiarities for shaping child speech at an early age, on the basis of a large-scale survey of representatives of the child’s primary social medium. The aim is to address specific tasks, such as to describe a theoretical aspect of the problem on the basis of foreign research; to represent the findings of survey among adult population in the context of shaping a child’s linguistic identity; to trace a correlation between the parents’ mother tongue, a language spoken at home, and the Ukrainian language competence of children. The object of the research is child speech shaped in the settings of massive bilingualism. The subject matter of the research covers factors for shaping child bilingualism in Ukraine. The materials for research are represented by the data of large-scale survey of adult population conducted in May-July, 2019. The survey covered a broad geography as it was administered via Internet and reached over 100 places in Ukraine. Quantitative indicators of interaction between Ukrainian and Russian languages, both among adult population, and among children, indicate to a mass nature of the contact-based bilingualism in Ukraine, and its various forms in particular. It is the most important feature, among others, with a direct impact on the development of Ukrainian child speech. Despite the fact that many respondents consciously choose a strategy of non-developing UkrainianRussian bilingualism with their children, at least on the level of primary social environment (dominant Ukrainian language in families), the fact does not affect further spontaneous learning of the Russian language on a rather high communicative level in direct contact with native speakers, which is evidenced by the data on switching linguistic codes. The survey findings prove the negative effect of mass Ukrainian-Russian bilingualism on Ukrainian language competence of children. The latter fact is related to frequent switching of linguistic codes and leads to interference-caused mistakes, widespread mixed speech forms among bilingual children.