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

Abstract

Introduction. The need to involve questions concerning quality and valuation parameters
of linguistic situation in the material collection is caused by diglossic nature of bilingualism
in schools in most parts of Ukraine, which is evident in the areas of the language use: Ukrainian
in class, and Russian – during the breaks and after school activities. The language situation
in a particular school, regardless of the status of language teaching, due to the configuration
of 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 of
the Volkswagen Foundation “Bi- and Multilingualism: between intensification and conflict
resolution. Ethnolinguistic conflicts, linguistic politics and contact situations in post-Soviet
Ukraine 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 desirable
development, 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 Ukrainian
schooling using the mass poll methodology, due to mismatch of statistical data on the functioning
of Ukrainian as the state language and the real facts of the language use in the secondary
schools.

Methods. The research is grounded on the methods of sociolinguistics, that is quantitative
and qualitative analysis applying survey fieldwork and language boundary/difference perception.
Results. The article specifies the sociolinguistic criteria on the basis of which the
conclusion about changes in the linguistic situation in the field of school education in the period
from 2006 to 2017 is made, in particular the dynamics of the regional differences and quantitative
deformation 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 in
the field of education were thoroughly analyzed. These questions made it possible to trace changes
in linguistic behavior of respondents depending on the sphere of communication. Comparison
of responses in the regional dimension revealed the heterogeneity of the language situation
in school education by region, and the analysis of the responses of different population centers
residents allowed to trace trends in overcoming the unevenness of linguistic development
in the state in the “city – village” aspect. Providing respondents with questions that envisaged
the assessment of possible language policy in the field of school education, we sought to determine
whether this assessment depends on the peculiarities of the linguistic situation in the region, how
common the stereotypical representations about the desired language education are, or whether
the general political situation in the state affects perception and an assessment of the linguistic
environment of educational institutions by the speakers. A separate question dealt with the
prospects of bilingual education in Ukraine.
Conclusions. The compulsory comparison of the results of several sociolinguistic polls
was emphasized to conclude on changes in the language guidelines for the desired perspectives
of language education and language policy measures in the field of school education.