The Russian Language in the Assessments of the Mongols: the Sociolinguistic Representation

The article is devoted to analyzing the linguistic attitudes, evaluations, and social representations of the inhabitants of modern Mongolia in relation to the Russian language. The empirical basis of the study is based on the results of a comprehensive socio-psycholinguistic survey on the function of the Russian language in the educational system of Mongolia, which was conducted from 2021 to 2023. The survey results show that respondents believe Russian should be taught in Mongolia’s educational institutions. The analysis of subjective attitudes revealed a certain hierarchy of foreign languages in the rating system of adult Mongolians: English comes first, Russian second, and Chinese third. The study showed that there are different motives for learning these languages. English is characterized by integrative attitudes, while Russian and Chinese are instrumental. At the same time, the results showed that the conceptual image of the Mongolian world is more similar and closer to the Russian worldview than to English and Chinese. Respondents consider Russian to be an important and necessary language for getting a good education, achieving academic goals, traveling, and satisfying cultural needs. The analysis of the social perception of Mongolians regarding the importance of the Russian language today, the need to learn it, and the problems in the education system revealed that the main reasons for the deterioration of Russian language skills are primarily problems in the education system, the lack of language and competition with other foreign languages. At the same time, the majority of respondents (82%) believe that Mongolians need Russian language skills in modern conditions. The main factors contributing to the functioning of the Russian language in Mongolia are the prestige of the Russian language as a scientific and educational language, the territorial proximity of the two states, common historical moments, rich Russian culture and art. To solve the problems related to the Russian language, the majority proposes to improve the methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language in the Mongolian education system and to update legal acts at the state and interstate levels.

Russian language, evaluation characteristics, social representations, language attitudes, Mongolia