Since Ukraine proclaimed its independence from Russia in 1991, the status of Ukrainian has risen significantly. However, the major part of Ukraine, specifically the Central and Eastern regions, consists of the Russophone population who continue to use Russian daily. Legislative efforts are aimed toward government entities, including the education system that supports only Ukrainian-medium education. Children of the Russophone population have been exposed to the Ukrainian language during secondary education
(which is equivalent to K through 12 in the U.S.) and, if they chose to do so, in college, amounting to 16 years of instruction in all subjects in Ukrainian. There are controversial attitudes toward language policies among the population of the Eastern Ukraine, which effect the process of reviving of Ukrainian in that area. The negative evaluation of the Ukrainian language leads to resistance by the Russophone population toward language shift. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the language shift from Russian o Ukrainian is happening among the younger generation, specifically among college students of the Zaporizhzhia National University, the major university of Zaporizhzhia, a city in the Eastern region of Ukraine.
Keywords: Ukraine, language laws, monolingual legislation, bilingualism |