View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Siberian Federal University Digital Repository Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 7 (2012 5) 927-934 ~ ~ ~ УДК 81’27 Modern Tendencies of Language Policy and Language Planning in Russia and China: Comparative Study Veronica A. Razumovskaya* and Yaroslav V. Sokolovsky Siberian Federal University 79 Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia 1 Received 31.12.2011, received in revised form 16.01.2012, accepted 1.02.2012 The article deals with the comparative study of language policy and language planning in modern Rus- sia and China. A special attention is paid to FLT and aboriginal and minorities languages teaching in the two countries. Keywords: language policy, language planning, foreign languages, aboriginal and minority languages, FLT, Russia, China, comparative study. Introduction (pre-schools, secondary schools, higher schools) The language policy can be defined as and mass media. The language planning and the total sum of the ideological principles and language education are closely interdependent. practical measures directed to solve language The language planning can be legally adopted by problems in the society and state frame. In different state acts or be the so called result of the accordance with its goals the language policy may historic practice of some duration. have two main variants: perspective (language The present situations with the perspective planning or language building in other terms) variant of the language policy ın Russian and retrospective (language and speech culture) Federation and People’s Republic of China are (Grishaeva, 1997). According to academician closely connected with the language planning and R.A. Budagov the language planning can be the language education. The language planning is interpreted as the influence on the language by mostly based on ideological roots and economic the state acts, writers, scholars, linguists and all consequences. The world processes in the fields language users as well (Budagov, 1971). of economy, science, culture and other human The scientific basis for the language planning areas are reflected in the language planning and is the ethnolinguistics (F. Boas, E. Sapir, B. national educational tendencies. Whorf) and the ethnographies of communication The integration into European Community, (I. Gumperz, D. Hymes). The language planning trade and industrial connections with the is realized via different educational institutions countries of the Pacific territory and other * Corresponding author E-mail address: [email protected] 1 © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved – 927 – Veronica A. Razumovskaya* and Yaroslav V. Sokolovsky. Modern Tendencies of Language Policy… geographical areas of the world resulted into the state standards in this important academic field. necessity of formation the so called multilingual The state policy towards the FLT in the West personality. The statesmen, men of science and (in comparison with Russia) was rather implicit culture think that the modern specialist should and was based on the traditional approach and have a good command of two or more foreign needs analysis (Protasova, 2004). The language languages. But the characteristics of Russian and planning in the FLT mostly followed the main Chinese multilingual personalities differ. That is trends of the academic, political and economic why the combination of foreign languages is set interests of the society. In the countries of the due to the geographical position and economic former “socialist camp” the language policy relations of the definite territory (the Krasnoyarsk had its own peculiarities determined mostly territory for example). The situation in Russia by the politics (especially towards the Russian and China greatly differs from the situation language). in modern Europe (the united Europe) but the In the USSR the language policy towards idea of Language Portfolio is undoubtedly very foreign languages had its variations with the fruitful (European Language Portfolio, 2001; respect to the language situation of the USSR General European Competences, 2003; European national territories. In the former republics of the Language Portfolio, 2003). USSR the foreign languages were taught alongside Any foreign language for the multilingual with the Russian language as the state language personality is not only the means of oral and of the country, which was not the mother tongue written communication but also the dominant to the majority of the republics’ population. means of access to foreign culture. This statement For example in the Ukraine Soviet Socialist causes several urgent language planning republic the traditional combination of the taught problems: unification of the purposes of teaching languages was: Ukraine (native), Russian (state), various foreign languages, foreign languages English or other European language (foreign). It is combination, testing principles and procedures, interesting to mention that the Russian language certification procedures. The language education officially got the status of the state language only in general has the following directions: teaching in 2005 (the Federal Law on the State Language native language, teaching foreign languages, for Different Territories and Subjects of the teaching state language. Russian Federation, №3, 1.06.2005). In the Russian Federation (the biggest republic ELT in Russia and China of the former Soviet Union) the situation with the The foreign language acquisition was always FLT was not a homogeneous one. Although the considered to be one of the cornerstones of the language planning was determined by the state education and the professional development in standard, the teaching environment and teaching any progressive country which joins the world conditions differed greatly in different parts of community. But one should take into consideration the vast territory of Russia. Some territories of that each country has got its own history and the Russian Federation (Tatarstan, Bashkirya, experience in the FLT, its own synchronic and Mordovia) were and are traditionally and naturally diachronic periodicities and traditions. The bilingual or trilingual. The former situation still mentioned above aspects determine the teaching influences the present situation in the language methodology, the set of the most widely taught policy. Another important factor is the universal foreign languages and the characteristics of globalization tendency. – 928 – Veronica A. Razumovskaya* and Yaroslav V. Sokolovsky. Modern Tendencies of Language Policy… Taking into consideration the situation with UArctic. That is why the special “real” and on- the foreign language (in secondary and higher line programs should be developed in the frame school) we can notice that the traditional set of of specially tailored educational programs for the taught foreign languages has changed greatly ethnic minorities in the epoch of globalization. recently. So in the Krasnoyarsk territory the The clear understanding of the importance of traditional set was: English, French and German. the English language and the developed strategy During the last two decades in the Far East and in this educational area made it possible to gain Eastern Siberia the oriental languages began to extremely good results in ELT. One of the vivid be taught (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish). examples is the Sakha (Yakutia) Republic. Some of the oriental languages are already taught It is important to emphases that the role of the at school; some of them are taught only at the English language in the context of globalization university level. The set of the foreign languages has got positive and negative estimations. The reflect the traditional and new economic and positive one is related to the unifying and educating cultural relations of the Krasnoyarsk territory, functions of the English language. The negative its unique geopolitical situation. The vivid leader one is connected with domination of the English of the taught foreign languages is the English language and its frustrating influence on the title language which reflects the globalization tendency. languages that initiates total “globanglization” This foreign language provides the access to the (Kabakchi, 2009). world culture, scientific data to different ethnic The language policy towards foreign groups living on the Krasnoyarsk territory. languages in China in retrospective aspect was Some of them belong to the ethnic minorities mostly determined by the ideas of unification and with the nearly extinct and seriously endangered standardization. Looking back over the centuries native language. The English language can we may notice that governors of China paid play extremely important role for the future much attention to the relationship between their development of the Krasnoyarsk territory ethnic control over the nation and languages, which minorities. Especially when they join virtual representatives of the nation speak. A well known educational institutions in the globalization fact is that more than 2000 years ago a famous context. The English language is the so called Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇, 259 lingua franca for different virtual educational BC – 210 BC) started a reform of the writing institutions in the Circumpolar World. The most system aimed at the unification of all various vivid example is UNIVERSITY OF THE ARTIC existing scripts of Chinese characters