Polylinguality and Transcultural Practices

This study traces the change-over from the Saussurean structural linguistics, with its focus on language form, to anthropological Firthian sociolinguistics that branched into the contemporary World Englishes (WE) paradigm, interlocked with the Intercultural Communication Studies launched in the USA. This change-over became possible to the semiotic position of Saussure’s theory. The author analyzes Saussure’s differentiation between langue and parole and how these concepts are applied to the WE paradigm: changes started in speech of educated users modify the norm and alternate the language system. Finally, issues of effective intercultural communication are discussed based on knowledge of World Englishes.

The study discusses the prospects for maintaining English as the official and working language of the European Union after Brexit. Contrary to the hopes of some member states, the use of English is not decreasing, but, on the contrary, is constantly increasing. This is due to the emergence of a new variant of English, Euro-English, which, according to EU leaders, should become the common second language of Europeans, necessary for life in a single global village. Variants of English in the outer circle countries have, like variants from the inner circle countries, their own endonormative features, and lead to the abandonment of the mono-model approach focused on native speakers and to a polymodel concept. This dynamic polymodel also includes variants of English used in Western Europe as second languages by speakers who do not share a common first language. As a result of the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, the sociolinguistic space for the European variant(s) has even expanded because Britain is no longer the arbiter of correctness and the source of linguistic norm. Therefore, in post-Brexit Europe, a variant called Euro-English is being recognized. Although the United Kingdom officially left the EU on January 31, 2020, English remains the most used foreign language in the EU, thanks to the fact that over the past 20 years it has become the lingua franca for European institutions and speakers of other languages. Today, English is the official language of only two small EU member states (Ireland and Malta), where it has second language status after Gaelic and Maltese respectively. But these two countries have not declared English as their official language in the European Parliament, so today English has no legal basis to remain an official or working language of the EU. Although English no longer has the status of an official EU language after Brexit, it has strengthened its position by becoming the lingua franca of the European Union. The goal of the supranational European leadership is to make it the second language of all Europeans, essential for competitive life in a single global village.

The humanitarian policy of the Russian Federation prescribes active promotion of the principle of multilingualism in the activities of international universal and regional organizations, including the preservation and expansion of the use of the Russian language. For three years, the Centre for Language Policy and International Education of the Pushkin Institute of Russian Language has been conducting a scientific experiment under copyright, which is complex research aimed at determining the rating of the Russian language in countries near and far. In 2023, the third edition of “The Index of the Position of the Russian Language in the World,” dedicated to the Year of the Russian Language in the CIS, was published. It not only collects and analyses relevant data compared to the previous years, 2020 and 2022, but also introduces new parameters for assessing the position of the Russian language abroad. Among the latter, there is the parameter “Russian language in the space of cultureˮ, designed to reflect the degree of activity of the Russian language in the post-Soviet space in such social institutions as libraries, museums, and theatres, trace the integration processes in the humanitarian sphere in the countries of the former USSR, determine the systems of interaction in these areas of humanitarian knowledge. The demand for the theme of this project overall has been repeatedly confirmed by state and public organizations in Russia and other countries around the world.

The study discusses the artistic features of the poetic work of Gennady Oyar, who is one of the most prominent representatives of modern Mari literature. The poems included in the collection “Flashes of the Heart” are analyzed in the context of the realities of the formation and development of Mari literature, taking into account the stage-typological specificity of the Finno-Ugric literatures of Russia. The motive-figurative cluster of Gennady Oyar’s works is examined, and the conclusion is drawn that his creative statements are deeply philosophical, actualizing universal human themes. It has been established that the poet in his poems “misses” a number of promising strategies that are important from the point of view of the implementation of his own creative concept, so the folklore and mythological component, going back to the traditional beliefs of the Mari, is poorly represented in Oyar’s figurative and symbolic system. At the same time, it was revealed that Gennady Oyar in his poetry pays great attention to the process of returning the historical truth of the Mari, without which the truthful construction of ethno-humanitarian intellectual reality is impossible. The work examines ethnically relevant topics and characters (the fate of the native language, the national intelligentsia, the tragedy of the poet and actor Yyvan Kyrli). The quality of the literary translation of Gennady Oyar’s texts into Russian is assessed. It is emphasized that his work corresponds with the main trends in the development of Mari literature at the turn of the 20th - 21st centuries.

This study examines current trends in contemporary British multicultural romance. The topic is revealed on the example of the work of the famous British-Turkish writer, feminist, human rights activist and active civic figure Elif Shafak. Her English-language novel “10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World”, which we have taken as a basis for literary analysis, is one of the most inteersting texts in contemporary British literature of the last decade. The purpose of this study is to explore the thematic diversity and issues of the text. The novel touches on topics traditional for this author as women's rights, freedom of speech, the right of various kinds of minorities, the complex relationship between East and West, Istanbul as a city of attraction for many peoples, attitude to power, historical past, traditions and religion. The text, written in a postmodern spirit, raises the philosophical problems of death, faith in man, the saving power of friendship. It is argued that for all the difference in cultural, ethnic, religious, sexual characteristics, people are essentially very similar, basic, spiritual tablets are one, and freedom of choice is one of the most basic values of modern civilization. The relevance of the work is determined by the study of the work of Elif Shafak precisely in the context of British literature and with the focus of the contribution of this author to the history of the contemporary British novel.

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Translingual fiction i.e. works by those writers who have chosen to write in a language other than their native one has been extremely popular in the academic community. Domestic and foreign linguists and literary scholars have already identified certain features of translingual literature (for example, a particular worldview of a translingual author, certain stylistic devices that help to convey translingualism). However, not only academic community, but also the book market respond to the phenomenon of translingual writers with a need to translate this literature into different languages. Unfortunately, modern translation theory and practice lack full and comprehensive description of the translation strategies to be applied when translating literary translingualism. The objective of the present study is to identify the strategies used by translatorsto preserve and convey the writer’s transcultural identity, as well as to answer the question: howto preserve otherness that an English-language reader of translingual literature experiences, and which can be lost when it is translated into the writer's native language. This paper aims to study the strategies used by translators of novels by Russian-American and American-Bosnian authors. “Super Sad True Love Story” by Gary Shteyngart and “The Lazarus Project” by Aleksandar Hemon were selected as research material. As a result of the research based on the comparative method, linguacultural, contextual and syntactic analysis, it was possible to form a list of techniques for conveying the author’s translingualism when translating into the author’s native and non-native languages and also to draw a conclusion about the cases in which the main feature of translingual works (the feeling of otherness) is preserved and lost when translating foreign inclusions and other examples of translingual creativity into Russian.

The authors consider the forms of the influence of digitalization on the processes of training future teachers of Russian as a foreign language, analyze changes in the education system. Based on the analysis of the results of teaching RFL, special attention is paid to those trends that have introduced effective technologies and tools into the system of university education and created conditions for the organization of appropriate adaptation of students. At the same time, studies of the problems and transformations of university education under the influence of digitalization are considered.

The study analyzes the methods of motivation for teaching Russian to Iranian students; methodological approaches to using them in teaching technology are presented. The active methods of teaching, their features, and effectiveness for improving the quality of mastering the subject are considered, taking into account the opinions of Western and Russian scientists and teachers.In accordance with the task, the study is based on the results obtained in a survey concerning assessments and opinions about “emotional” methods of influencing the process of language acquisition. This inclusive concept applies to all pedagogical methods concerning students’ emotions. 114 undergraduate students in Russian at Iranian state universities took part in the survey. The survey was conducted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and focused on 1) determining the preferences given by students when choosing full-time or distance learning; 2) evaluating game tech-nologies (Role-playing), watching films, conducting discussions, staging performances by students; 3) evaluating the feasibility of using social networks and training programs, as well as the use of an interactive hybrid learning method. According to the survey results, 85.9% of students expressed dissatisfaction with the virtual learning process. 53% positively assessed the combined use of the above-mentioned methods.