Empirical study for educational and General purposes Language Allergy: Myth or Reality? Mariya Sergeyeva mariya.sergeyeva@gmail.com Anna Chesnokova chesnokova@voliacable.com I do not understand the header…

How do foreigners feel in Ukraine? AAAAA!!!!! Is there anyone who speaks English here???

How many Ukrainians speak English? 47% EU citizens (Eurobarometer Survey 2001) ??? Ukrainians 28 Ukrainians 4 – excellent 2 – sufficient ≈ 1 out of 5

Why don’t Ukrainians speak English? Europeans* lack of time (34%) motivation (30%) expense of language classes (22%) * Eurobarometer Survey (European Commission 2006:5) Ukrainians educational motivational geopolitical environmental emotional

≈ 10 years of learning English 1. Educational Factor primary => higher education (Ukrainian system) secondary => higher education (Soviet system) ≈ 10 years of learning English

2. Motivational Factor practical benefits*: using the skills at work (32%) working abroad (27%) getting a better job inside the country (23%) *Special Eurobarometer 2006: 5

2. Motivational Factor 50 employment ads salary higher than $1,000* 32 of them (about 65%) require a “good knowledge of English” * the official average wage 1,475 UAH ≈ $ 292 50 resumes 14 (fewer than 30%) indicate “fluent English” in their CVs 92% youth - priority “high level of payment”

3. Economic Factor ≈ $5 per 1 hour ≈ $8 Tuition Fees $ 90-130 a month Compare a cinema ticket ≈ $5 per 1 hour ≈ $8

4. Geopolitical Factor absence of an English language environment collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 cultural influence of Western civilization (the United States in particular) on Ukraine No significant result for English language knowledge Did not understand the phrase in red…

5. Emotional Factor research on the role of emotion in learning (Christianson 1992) “the memory advantage for highly affective material was the same for negative as for positive reactions to the material” (Bower 1992:15) it is only positive affect that has a powerful and facilitating effect on memory and learning (Isen 1999).

5. Emotional Factor: Questions Can emotions enhance or hinder the process of language learning? positive emotions => success negative emotions => failure Does “language allergy” exist? Is it “language allergy” that prevents Ukrainians from learning English?

Historical Background 1991: official language – Ukrainian Russian as a second state language bilingualism = Russification?

Russification vs. Ukrainization “forcible introduction of Russian language and culture” (Busel 2006: 1279) Ukrainization “introduction of Ukrainian language, culture, and traditions” (idem: 1502) historical periods when secondary and higher education was mainly carried out in Russian or Ukrainian respectively

Historical Background before 1920s - hardly any Ukrainian schools 1926 – 97% of students - Ukrainian 1958 – 21% 1990 – 7% 1995 – 55%

Hypothesis possible impact of Russification and Ukrainization policies on the attitude of Ukrainians towards foreign, in particular English, language learning people who had negative experience with instruction in their non-native language are likely to experience the same reaction when learning another foreign language

Methodology: Participants 3 regions: 31 - Kyiv, the bi-lingual capital 36 - Western, Ukrainian-speaking region 29 - Eastern, Russian-speaking region Age: from 17 to 52 (mean 27.96)

Questionnaire Part I Age Gender Occupation Place of birth Native language Language of instruction at secondary and higher education institutions Level of English Part II ranking attitude towards being instructed in non-native language - Russian or Ukrainian evaluating experiences with learning English

Methodology: Adjectives Ukrainian / Russian easy / difficult interesting / dull exciting / boring useful / useless pleasant / unpleasant optional / forced English easy / difficult interesting / dull exciting / boring useful / useless pleasant / unpleasant possible / impossible to learn 36 respondents; free associations

Methodology: Participants Group 1: “native” (control group) - language instruction was in native language Group 2: “non-native positive” – positive experience with instruction in a non-native language Group 3: “non-native negative” – negative experience with instruction in a non-native language

across Ukraine according to “pleasant-unpleasant” experiences Groups distribution across Ukraine according to “pleasant-unpleasant” experiences with non-native language instruction

Distribution of respondents in “pleasant-unpleasant” category of non-native language of instruction and English language learning

Distribution of respondents in “unforced-forced” category of non-native language of instruction and “pleasant-unpleasant” category of English language learning

and “interesting-dull” English language learning “pleasant-unpleasant” “unforced-forced” non-native language and “interesting-dull” English language learning “pleasant-unpleasant” non-native language and “interesting-dull” English language learning

Conclusions unpleasant experiences with non-native language of instruction => unpleasant experiences with English language learning; forced non-native language of instruction => learning English as unpleasant forced non-native language of instruction => English language learning as dull unpleasant experience in non-native language => learning English as dull

THANK YOU! Need to finish with this.