The problems of modern communication: lessons of the book “The Native Word” by K. Ushinsky

Recently, both government and society have been making efforts to strengthen the position of Russian as the state language and language of international communication. The authors of the article reveal modern problems of communication in Russian, which correspond to the pedagogical ideas of K. D. Ushinsky on the importance of the native language in the spiritual and moral upbringing of children. These ideas are presented not only in books for younger students, but also in other works of the scholar, including his article “Native Word”. Themes of reverent attitude toward the Russian language, the importance of imagery, expressiveness, emotionality, and purity of Russian speech permeate Ushinsky’s writings and encourage reflection on the role of the Russian language in the world and the problems of modern communication. The authors of the article are deeply concerned about the following problems. First, the distribution and use of the Russian language in the education system of many countries has decreased, which not only narrows the base of economic, business and scientific cooperation with Russia, but also impoverishes cultural and spiritual life in these countries. Secondly, there was a risk of losing the emotional factor and reducing the communicative culture as a whole in the transition to a virtual format. Virtual communication, to a certain extent, interferes with the full expression of emotional mood, depriving the statements of the partners in communication of originality and semantic completeness. Third, there is the threat of unjustified contamination of native speech with words recently borrowed from the English language and other foreign words and expressions. The use of foreign words in the economic, political, financial and informational spheres is more widespread today than in any other period of Russian language development in the past. In the year of the anniversary of K. D. Ushinsky’s authors were interested in the question of how familiar modern students were with his pedagogical ideas about the importance of the native language. Moreover, the authors attempted to identify a number of problems of modern communication in Russian in the abovementioned context. In order to find out the students’ attitude towards the Russian language as a subject of study and a means of communication, the authors conducted a survey of 240 students of the 1st-5th years of pedagogical profiles. The survey showed that students believe that K. D. Ushinsky’s idea of the priority of the native language is relevant and are in favor of strengthening the Russian language in the world, suggesting such measures as creating Russian-language programs for foreign students, expanding the range of distance courses for studying Russian as a foreign language, opening branches of Russian universities abroad. The analysis of the use of Russian as the state language, as well as the language of interethnic and international communication allowed us to identify a number of problems of modern communication in Russian. To these problems the authors of the article attributed: first, the reduction of the scope of distribution and use of the Russian language in many countries; second, the threat of the decrease of the emotional expressive function of the native language in the transition to a virtual format; third, the risk of unjustified use in the native speech of foreign words and expressions that make it difficult to understand the content and meaning of both individual statements and the communication process as a whole. As the study showed, the dissemination of K. D. Ushinsky’s ideas can contribute to the generation of ideas by the younger people that can help to overcome the revealed difficulties.

K. D. Ushinsky, Russian language, communication, language policy, language protection, purity of speech