Abstract
The purpose of this article is to help language teachers at all levels of education to understand in depth problems posed by linguistic superdiversity. Based on the study of scholarly literature, documents of educational bodies and the authors experience in language teaching in different countries, the article answers the question of how the teaching of world languages such as English and Russian is changing due to the recognition that their functions and status differ in various countries. We explore why, despite gradual changes in curricula, there is still pervasiveness of pedagogies attempting to achieve a perfect command of the studied languages, without considering students needs and language repertoires, the local sociolinguistic situation and labor market requirements. We focus on methods of teaching English and Russian, taking into account various aspects of language ideologies related to mono- and pluricentricity. To show the dependence of language teaching on the socio-cultural situation, we apply the concept of Critical Language Awareness covering aspects of language variation and changes in attitudes to normativity, prescriptivism and regional language varieties. We also show that innovative pedagogies put new demands on teachers requiring that they have to adjust to new teaching formats, acquire skills of using educational technologies and teaching diverse student populations. The focus of the review on teaching English and Russian proves that despite different histories of their pedagogies, the interplay of language, ethnicity, identity, culture and education systems is significant for both, and without taking all these elements into account, the goal of educating effective multilinguals is elusive.
Highlights
IntroductionThe necessity to write this article was dictated by major changes in the role language plays in the globalized world and its economy
Teaching languages with a changing statusThe necessity to write this article was dictated by major changes in the role language plays in the globalized world and its economy
There is a growing body of research into English as an International Language (EIL), and there is emergent literature on Russian as a pluricentric and international language, which in various situations can be used as a lingua franca
Summary
The necessity to write this article was dictated by major changes in the role language plays in the globalized world and its economy. Relying on our own long-term experience in teaching English and Russian to various audiences in different countries we aim to alert academic linguists and practitioners in educational systems to the interconnectedness of social changes and growing multilingualism in populations with the need for flexible language pedagogies. Focusing on teaching English and Russian, we will try to show what Russian-speaking societies can learn from the Anglophone world in the sphere of pluricentric language usage, maintenance and teaching. We will continue our discussion focusing on standard and/or dominant language ideologies and their consequences for the language teaching and learning. We studied coursebooks for different student populations and different levels of linguistic and communicative competences, and we analyzed multiple online resources. A variety of resources enabled us to look at the language teaching from different perspectives. We used the method of included observation, an essential tool in ethnographic studies
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