A Tense and Shifting Balance: Bilingualism and Education in Ukraine

Bilaniuk, Laada; Melnyk, Svitlana

doi:10.1080/13670050802148731

Cited by 55 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Since Ukraine became an independent country in 1991, there have been increasing numbers of schools using Ukrainian rather than Russian as a medium of instruction. In Kyiv and western regions in particular, these numbers exceed the percentages of individuals reporting Ukrainian as their native language (Arel, 1996;Bilaniuk & Melnyk, 2008;Janmaat, 1999;State Statistics Committee of Ukraine, 2003.…”

Section: Nuances Of Language Policy and Education In The Ukrainian Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing English as a medium of instruction in a Ukrainian University: Challenges, adjustments, and opportunities

Goodman

2014

International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning

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English as a medium of instruction (EMI) programs are an increasing phenomenon in European universities. This paper takes an ethnographic approach to understanding the impact of EMI on pedagogy in a private university in eastern Ukraine. Fieldwork was conducted over the 2010-2011 academic year in 9 English-medium and 3 Russian-medium classes. Data indicated that EMI education posed staffing challenges, as teachers were either language experts with low content knowledge or were content experts with anxiety about their English language skills. In addition, it was at times difficult to obtain textbooks and other print resources in English. Some teachers found teaching in a foreign language necessitated adjustments to speaking pace, discipline, and general classroom discourse. Despite these issues, teachers and students saw teaching and learning in English as a worthwhile opportunity.

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Section: Nuances Of Language Policy and Education In The Ukrainian Comentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementing English as a medium of instruction in a Ukrainian University: Challenges, adjustments, and opportunities

Goodman

2014

International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning

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“…On a broader scale, a comparative perspective related to surveys of the linguistic landscapes of other post-Soviet countries shows that the Moldovan capital is no usual case. Such a continuously strong status of Russian is rather uncommon in many former Soviet republics and scholars have observed a decline of functional domains of Russian primarily in Estonia (Rannut 2008), Latvia (Pavlenko 2011), Ukraine (Bilaniuk and Melnyk 2008;Pavlenko 2011) and, to a certain extent, Kazakhstan (Smagulova 2008). In many parts of the former USSR, "derussification" and "de-sovietization" (Pavlenko 2008: 282;Pavlenko 2011) are common phenomena.…”

Section: Concluding Remarks: Chisinau As a Bilingual Metropolis?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Informal signs as expressions of multilingualism in Chisinau: how individuals shape the public space of a post-Soviet capital

Muth

2014

International Journal of the Sociology of Language

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Informal and transient displays of written language such as graffiti, announcements and notes attached to walls and lampposts form an integral part of an urban linguistic landscape. Especially within multilingual contexts, individuals constantly shape the public space by the languages they use and make language choices that do not always reflect official language policies, commonly held perceptions or the demographic makeup within a certain area. The capital of the Republic of Moldova, Chisinau, proves to be an interesting area of research here, as -apart from a Romanian-speaking majority -the city is home to a large share of speakers of Russian, a language long considered to be the lingua franca of the country. The aim of the current study is to analyse signs made by private individuals that are not part of shop fronts or billboards, namely those that are found all over the city and advertise for language courses, work opportunities abroad or express political opinions. The quantitative basis of the study is made up of two corpora with over 750 different items from various parts of Chisinau surveyed in 2009 and 2010 both in the centre of the city as well as in suburban residential areas. For better traceability and to ensure transparency in linguistic landscape analysis, the 2010 corpus is accessible online. The survey shows that Russian is widely used as a local lingua franca, contradicting official policies that declare Romanian Moldovan the sole national language.

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“…The huge baseline difference between Ukrainian and minority schools is remarkable and alarming, especially if it is driven by inadequate quality of teaching in minority schools, of which there is some, albeit fragmented, evidence (e.g. Bilaniuk and Melnyk 2008). Table 8 A indicate a substantial drop in the take-up rates for History and Biology among minority students.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can state language policies distort students’ demand for education?

Muravyev

Talavera

2016

Journal of Comparative Economics

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We exploit a recent natural experiment in Ukraine's school system to study how stricter requirements for proficiency in the state language affect linguistic minority students' demand for education. The reform obligated linguistic minority students to take a standardized school exit test in Ukrainian, thus denying them access to translated versions of the test. We study the implications of this reform for students in schools with Hungarian and Romanian/Moldovan languages of instruction. Using school-level data and employing difference-in-difference estimation techniques, we find that the reform resulted in a decline in the number of subjects taken by minority students. They particularly withdrew from linguistically-demanding subjects such as History and Biology, taking more Math instead. Given the implications for minority students' fields of future study, the reform may have affected their educational outcomes in a distortive way.JEL classification: I28, J15.

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A Tense and Shifting Balance: Bilingualism and Education in Ukraine

Cited by 55 publications

References 19 publications

Implementing English as a medium of instruction in a Ukrainian University: Challenges, adjustments, and opportunities

Implementing English as a medium of instruction in a Ukrainian University: Challenges, adjustments, and opportunities

Informal signs as expressions of multilingualism in Chisinau: how individuals shape the public space of a post-Soviet capital

Can state language policies distort students’ demand for education?

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