Untitled

saxelmwifo enis swavlebis sakiTxebi:
problemebi da gamowvevebi
Issues of State Language Teaching;
Problems and Challenges
Unfortunately, we do not have the data about the methods which schools use for teaching second and foreign
languages and about the effectiveness of these methods. The TALIS (2007/20008) research of teachers
conducted within the frames OECD revealed the fact that is worth paying attention to: viewpoints of teachers
in Estonia are liberal and modern, although the teaching practice is considered more traditional as compared to
other countries (Loogma, Ruus et al, 2009). The question of the teacher’s Estonian language fluency is no less
important since the mother tongue of the majority of teachers using content and language integrated learning
methodology is Russian.
The overview of the academic performance of pupils from Russian-medium schools is provided in reports
of OECD PISA researches (2006, 2009), according to which schools with Russian as the language of
instruction have showed poorer results (see the overview:
http://www.ekk.edu.ee/vvfiles/0/PISA_2009_Eesti.pdf). A relatively small number of subjects 11 taught in the
Estonian language could not have had a considerable effect on the indexes of the development level of main
skills. According to the data of state examinations (the system has been in operation since 2000), the academic
results of Russian-speaking youth are lower (as compared to the ones of their Estonian-speaking peers),
primarily in the area of history, civic science, geography and foreign languages. It is noteworthy that those
first Russian-medium schools where Estonian-medium instruction is applied to a much larger extent, showed
academic results equal to the ones of Estonian-medium schools (data of the Ministry of Education and Research
for the academic year 2010/2011). Directors of Russian-medium schools have recently been attracting
the public attention via mass media to the problem of the most talented children’s going to Estonian-medium
schools (“Õpetajate Leht (Teachers’ Newspaper)”, 14 January, 2011, p. 2). The Russian-medium school of
Estonia is at the crossroads: it is important to define the status of the basic school with Russian as the language
of instruction and decide its destiny. In the new conditions an essential role is given to Russian-speaking
teachers who are to keep and preserve the culture of their nation.
The success of further application of the content and language integrated learning methodology (the
methodology which has already proven its effectiveness on the international scale) in Estonia depends on the
state educational policy, teachers’ preparedness and readiness to use it, availability of corresponding study
materials and teachers’ skills to adopt the study materials they already have.
The current state educational policy categorically allows secondary education in the Estonian language,
while secondary vocational education can be obtained in the Russian language. According to the data of the
Ministry, the number of Russian-speaking youth who choose to study in vocational educational institutions is
10 % higher than in the case of their Estonian-speaking peers. According to the “Law on Basic and Secondary
Schools”, the owners of Russian-medium secondary schools, local governments, can apply for the delay in
transition to the Estonian language of instruction, and private secondary schools have the right to keep the
Russian-medium instruction. Up to this moment, six months before the beginning of the school reform, the
corresponding applications have not been submitted. Thus, today the main issue is not the necessity of introducing
changes in the area of education, but the way of doing that.
Training of teachers for Russian-medium schools already was the subject of discussions over a decade
ago (Vassiltšenko, Asser, Trasberg, 1998). The participants of that discussion focused on the teacher’s language
fluency and also on the issues of the possibility of teacher training in Russian (mother tongue) and linking
the Estonian context with the national culture of a pupil. The alterations made in the teacher training curriculum
are, unfortunately, not enough: the subject which would pay much attention to multicultural education
is rather an exception than a rule in the teacher training curriculum. In today’s Estonia all teachers need special
preparation for using the content and language integrated learning methodology; it is important to pay
special attention to training of teachers who work both in the Estonian and in the Russian languages. Content/subject
teaching in the Russian language should be introduced, first and foremost, in the basic school in
the case of exact and nature sciences. Education of teachers of Russian as the mother tongue should be in
compliance with their new role: the preserver of the language and culture who shapes the identity and supports
Russian-medium content/subjects instruction.
The above-mentioned content and language integrated learning is an issue not only for Russian-medium
schools in Estonia. In Estonia besides schools with Russian as the language of instruction there are English-
11
The participants of the research were pupils under 15 years of age.
248