MODERN TENDENCIES OF LANGUAGE POLICY IN UKRAINE

The article is devoted to an analysis and interpretation of modern Ukrainian legislature and policy in the sphere of language usage. The author quotes several articles of the Constitution of Ukraine and tries to provide a critical analysis of them with regards to local language usage in educational establishments as a language of instruction. The analysis shows that the right to get instruction in a minority language is proclaimed in all the government documents. There is a list of languages which are given the status of a local (minority) language. The author tries to analyze how the proclaimed freedom of choice of a language of instruction in an educational establishment is implemented in practice and finds that universities which are situated on territories of residence of national minorities do not provide instruction in a minority language though it is used in junior schools and pre-school educational establishments. The author presents the results of a field survey fulfilled in the East of Ukraine where most of Russian-speaking population lives. The results demonstrate that the majority of the population is Ukrainians by origin and nationality though they tend to use the Russian language in everyday life communication. The language of instruction in higher educational establishments is Russian. So, the results of the research prove that there is a discrepancy between the proclaimed freedom of choice of a language of instruction and the real possibilities to choose the language of instruction in a higher education institution.


Introduction
Multiculturalism has become the core of educational policies in Europe due to the process of globalization, free movement of people within the European Union and an inflow of migrants in all the developed European countries.Educationalists had to face the problem of teaching culturally diverse classes within the last decades of the 20-th century and the beginning of the 21-st century.A number of documents were developed which regulate: -inter-relations of local culturally diverse communities and educational institutions; -highlight the issues of content of education for culturally diverse school communities; set goals of migrant education and equal access to education; -formulate the "living together" and "celebrating diversity" principles of co-existence of culturally diverse communities; -put forward the main idea of European identity based on equal civilization value of all the cultures.
Among the principles of implementation of European educational policy and its' meeting educational needs of local communities is regionalization which, among other issues, provides the possibility to learn a language of a local community and freely use it in all dimensions of private and social life, in education as well [1,2].
Ukraine is striving to become a part of European educational community and proclaims equal right of all citizens to education.We are interested in analyzing the latest tendencies of educational policy of Ukraine and how the educational needs of local communities are met in regions of residence of national minorities.
The goal that we are aiming at in his article is to present the results of a survey of a practical implementation of language policy and analyze them from the point of view of their correspondence to main European principles of co-existence, tolerance, equal educational opportunities and respect to cultural diversity.

Methods
The methods used are the following: analysis and synthesis of the information obtained from different sources, content analysis of government and ministerial documentation, field survey and analysis of results.

Results
The national composition of the Ukrainian population is characterized by a significant numerical superiority of the main nation -Ukrainians.According to the latest census, Ukrainians account for over 70 % of all the Ukrainian population.
Along with the Ukrainians, over 100 nationalities live on the territory of Ukraine.Among them the largest share belongs to Russians -more than 20 % of the total population of the country.The second largest number after the Russians constitute people of the Jewish nationality, whose number is constantly decreasing, and now they make up about 1 % of the population of Ukraine.The population of Ukraine has a significant proportion of citizens of adjacent countries.These are, first and foremost, Belarusians, whose number exceeds 400 thousand people, Moldovans (almost 300 thousand people), Bulgarians (about 250 thousand people), Hungarians (150 thousand people), Romanians (100 thousand people), Poles (250 thousand people).In addition to these nationalities, Greeks, Tatars, Armenians, Gypsies, Germans, Gagauzians live in Ukraine.The population of Ukraine has grown lately due to an inflow of Azerbaijanians, Bulgarians, Georgians.Changes in the national composition of the population of Ukraine are also due to the return to its territory of previously expelled to Russia and other republics of the former Union representatives of the following nations: Crimean Tatars and Germans.They are located mainly in the Crimea and in the south of Ukraine.
The main document that states the core principles of existence of the Ukrainian society -the Constitution of Ukraine [3] proclaims equality of all nations which live in Ukraine and their equal educational opportunities.Language legislation of Ukraine consists of the Declaration of the rights of the nationalities of Ukraine [4], the law of Ukraine "On ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" [5], On National Minorities in Ukraine" [6], "On ratification of the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities" [7] and also international treaties which regulate the issue of language usage.Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Principles of State Language Policy" (2013) [8] establishes the rights of Ukrainian citizens to freely choose the language of communication and study and to be taught in these languages.Article 7 of this Law «Regional or minority languages» (edited in 2016) indicates that the regional or minority languages of Ukrain, include the following: Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Armenian, Gagauz, Yiddish, Crimean Tatar, Moldavian, German, New Greek, Polish, Roma, Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Rusyn, Karaiym, and Krymchack.

Inna Kovalynska PhD, Associate Professor Department of Theory and History of Pedagogy
Kyiv Borys Grinchenko University 18/2 Ihorya Shamo blvd., Kyiv, Ukraine, 04053 innakovalynska@gmail.com Abstract: The article is devoted to an analysis and interpretation of modern Ukrainian legislature and policy in the sphere of language usage.The author quotes several articles of the Constitution of Ukraine and tries to provide a critical analysis of them with regards to local language usage in educational establishments as a language of instruction.
The analysis shows that the right to get instruction in a minority language is proclaimed in all the government documents.There is a list of languages which are given the status of a local (minority) language.The author tries to analyze how the proclaimed freedom of choice of a language of instruction in an educational establishment is implemented in practice and finds that universities which are situated on territories of residence of national minorities do not provide instruction in a minority language though it is used in junior schools and pre-school educational establishments.
The author presents the results of a field survey fulfilled in the East of Ukraine where most of Russian-speaking population lives.The results demonstrate that the majority of the population is Ukrainians by origin and nationality though they tend to use the Russian language in everyday life communication.The language of instruction in higher educational establishments is Russian.So, the results of the research prove that there is a discrepancy between the proclaimed freedom of choice of a language of instruction and the real possibilities to choose the language of instruction in a higher education institution.Keywords: minority, language of instruction, multiculturalism, regionalization, culturally diverse community, European identity.

Discussion
Article 6 "The State Language of Ukraine" of the Law of Ukraine "On the Principles of State Language Policy", while declaring human rights for the free use of languages and the free choice of language of instruction, practically limits the rights of national minorities to instruction in their mother tongue and enables the state, not the individual, to choose the language of education and in such a way, it restricts the rights of minorities to use their own language and linguistic self-identification, since it recognizes that: Ukrainian as the state language shall be applied throughout the territory of Ukraine "in the educational process in educational institutions within the limits and in accordance with the procedure specified by this Law".In our opinion this document restricts the use of national languages in the educational process of higher educational establishments.
We studied the sites of universities that are located on territories where national minorities constitute a substantial part of the population.The aim of this search was to find either confirmation or denial of our assumption that there would be certain courses or programs where the language of instruction would be one of a minority or there would be any other possibilities for representatives of minorities to practically implement their right to use their national language in education.We also made a research of educational policy in the East of Ukraine aiming at understanding how the right of the population to use their native language is implemented in regions under martial law in temporarily occupied territories.
The site of the Uzhhorod National University [9] declares that more than 700 Hungarian students study at 18 departments, as well as more than 500 Hungarian-speaking students, who have the opportunity to use their native language from the entrance exams within all the period of instruction.However, the survey showed that these students do not have a real opportunity to use their native language as the language of instruction because it contradicts provisions of the law we mentioned above.But the university has well-developed ties with foreign educational institutions which provides language courses and co-operation in academic mobility, e.g. a grant for studying in Hungary, an internship program in Turkey, an exchange program with International university of Virginia, USA; a co-operation program Ukraine-Romania 2014-2020; co-operation with a Coshice veterinary medicine university; with law department of Bratislava university, Slovak Republic and the Prague university, Check Republic.
The site of the Pre-Carpathian National University named after Vasyl Stefanyk did not provide any information as for a possibility to be taught in a national language [10] either but the university also provides opportunities for its students to study in 22 universities of Poland; University of Stephan the Great in Romania, 2 universities of the Slovak Republic, 2 universities of Slovenia, the Balashi institution of Hungary; 5 high educational institutions of the Check Republic etc.Each program is accompanied by a course of a national language.So, we can state that the right of individuals to be taught in their native languages is promoted and supported in the Western part of Ukraine where people of Hungarian, Slovak, Polish, Check, Romanian etc. nationalities live.This right is maintained by international ties and a European educational policy which is pursued at the universities.
In the Eastern part of Ukraine which is temporarily under Russian control and where most of Russian-speaking population live the aim of the survey was to find out how citizens of the East of Ukraine position themselves in the national aspect, what nationality they are and what their origin is, what language they prefer to use in communication and how long they have lived in the East of Ukraine.The survey was conducted is the towns Gorlovka, Donetsk and Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, Ukraine.
In Donetsk we questioned 17 people.9 were females, 8 males.The age of respondents varied from 35 till 70. 12 spoke Russian, 5 spoke a mixture of the Russian and Ukrainian languages, and those 5 were older than 45. 14 people said they were Ukrainians by origin, 3 were of mixed origin, all respondents stated their nationality is Ukrainian.2 people have lived in the city for less than 10 years (2 women who married and moved to Donetsk from another part of Ukraine), the rest were local residents.Among the respondents there were 6 people who were pensioners (older then 55), others were employed either fulltime or part-time.
53 people participated in the survey conducted in Gorlovka.31 of them were female, 22 were male.31 were employed, 8 were working pensioners, the rest were pensioners.The age of respondents was from 30 to 86.The survey results are as follows: 44 of respondents specified that they are of Ukrainian nationality.9 respondents were of Russian nationality.The origin of the respondents: 3 were of Russian origin, 4 preferred not to say, 12 were of mixed origin (1 of their parents was of a nationality different from Ukrainian).The rest were Ukrainians by origin.As for the language they preferred to use in communication, the results were as follows: 21 persons preferred to use the Russian language of communication, 8 people admitted that they spoke a mixed maslin language (surzhyk) which contained words and grammar from both languages, 21 people preferred the Ukrainian language for communication, others preferred not to say.All the people who preferred Russian were working and above the age of 45.All those who spoke maslin were older then 45.All those who preferred Ukrainian were older than 60.Those who spoke a mixed language were both employed and pensioners in equal proportion.Only 11 of those who preferred Ukrainian were employed.Of the 9 people whose origin was Russian, 6 have lived in the town for less than 10 years and moved there from abroad.Of the 44 people of Ukrainian origin only 4 have lived in the town for less than 10 years and they moved to the town from other regions of Ukraine.
In the town Bakhmut it was much more difficult to conduct the survey as it is a border town and people there are not inclined to talk to a stranger as they are afraid of being caught by military or the police.Only 12 people (7 females and 5 males) participated in the survey and the results are discouraging as the participants did not want to talk about their nationality, origin or the time they have lived in the town.We can only state that they all spoke the Russian language.We consider this result invalid as the people who agreed to participate in the survey were under stress and their lives might be in danger due to their co-operation.
We also got to know that on the territory of Ukraine which is under Russian control at the moment the Ukrainian language is studied only at secondary school (1-8 year of studies, 1 hour per week).In the 9-th form it is among optional subjects and is taught only if there are enough students who want to learn it.No further instruction in Ukrainian is provided.The population is not encouraged to use Ukrainian in everyday life.The Ukrainian language is forbidden in mass media.Higher educational establishments use the Russian language as the language of instruction and are trying to maintain ties with Russian educational establishments.So, the language policy on the temporarily occupied territories today does not support diversity of language usage and does not promote the right of an individual to speak and be taught in the language the individual chooses freely.