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Language Ideologies, Language Policies, and English-Language Teaching in Russia

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Second Handbook of English Language Teaching

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE))

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the language ideologies and language policies in Russia, while attempting to ascertain the impact these may have had on the attitudes towards English, a major foreign language taught in Russian schools today. The chapter is structured as follows. First, I review the language policies pursued by the Russian government in prerevolutionary Russia. Second, I explain how linguistic diversity was managed during the Soviet era. In the next step, I highlight the most recent developments in the domain of language planning and language management, while considering the most recent sociopolitical events, namely the annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Finally, I discuss how language policies traditionally implemented in Russia have impacted English-language teaching, as well as the teaching of other foreign languages. Throughout the chapter, I will attempt to expand the scope of my descriptive analysis to include some of Russia’s neighboring states (e.g., the Ukraine, Byelorussia, etc.). In so doing, I will attempt to demonstrate how the linguistic legacy of the Soviet period has affected language ideologies and policies in those satellite states.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Julia Davydova

  2. Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg, Feldkirch, Austria

    Julia Davydova

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  1. Julia Davydova
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Correspondence to Julia Davydova .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Xuesong Gao

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Davydova, J. (2019). Language Ideologies, Language Policies, and English-Language Teaching in Russia. In: Gao, X. (eds) Second Handbook of English Language Teaching. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02899-2_10

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