ISSUES OF THE LANGUAGE POLICY OF FAMILIES WITH UKRAINIAN ORIGIN IN THE ESTONIAN EDUCATIONAL SPACE

Abstract

The article addresses the family language policies of multilingual families (FLPs) with Ukrainian roots, describing, among others, the language practices of families in different areas. The analysis of the study is based on semi-structured interviews with newly arrived Ukrainian immigrants living in Tallinn. The language ideologies of families in relation to the choice of languages of education are examined. The secondary objective is to find the reasons why some families manage to maintain their national language and culture and others do not. The article shows that the desire to integrate into Estonian society has influenced the choice of language of instruction of the school among newly arrived immigrant parents, whereas, depending on different cases, the choice was both Estonian and Russian-language school. The article also shows the language management of parents of the studied families implemented with a view to maintaining their language of origin, among which, for example, participation in the Sunday school for the study of Ukrainian language and culture is also in focus alongside the language of instruction in a general education school.

Keywords

• family language policy
• language ideology
• language practices
• sunday school
• estonian-language learning environment
• russian-language learning environment
• ukrainian language