|
Together with the adoption with the new
Law on Citizenship, the whole system of tests under went under rearrangement. The Main
thrust was put on the objectivity of the test, the qualifications of examiners and the
administrative management of the testing system. The new language tests were prepared in
cooperation with experts from Cambridge University, under the aegis of the Council of
Europe (Toomsalu and Simm 1998: 51-52). According to this, language qualifications are
monitored through a control system, based on Governmental Decree No. 250 of 20 June
1995, affirming the conducting procedure of the Estonian language exam and the exam on the
knowledge of the Constitution and Citizenship Law. (3) The requirement to know the
Constitution and the Citizenship Law is implemented in the form of a questionnaire
approved by the Decree No. 15 of the Minister of Interior. The level of linguistic
sophistication, however, is heterogeneous and seems to exceed that of the Estonian
language exam, which requires knowledge at a general level. In addition to that, the
terminology belongs to the special-purpose domain. Thus, in order to overcome the
difficulties extending beyond the language requirement, examinees are allowed to consult
the Estonian-language text of the Constitution and the Citizenship Law during their
preparation for the exam.
In 1998 Riigikogu
amended the law further, allowing stateless parents who have resided in Estonia at least
five years to apply for citizenship for their children born in the Republic of Estonia
through simplified procedure. The requirements in this case are the following: the child
must be born after 26 February 1992 and be not older than 15 years.
11.
Corpus planning
Corpus planning
is conscious development, enrichment, stabilisation, and updating of the standard
language. It involves provision of linguistic recommendations and fixation of norms. Language
cultivation is the practical outlet of corpus planning, with implementation of
language-planning recommendations, practical activities for improving the language use and
making it more efficient, explanation of linguistic recommendations, their propagation and
teaching.
Corpus planning in
Estonia has been based on promotion, persuasion and the educational system, avoiding
large-scale legal regulation. Thus, the Language Law states laconically: "Article
1(2) The basis of the official use of the Estonian language, in the context of the present
Law, shall be the standard of the Estonian written language according to the procedures
determined by the Government of the Republic."
The standard of
the Estonian written language was determined by the Decree No. 323 of the Estonian
Government of 3 October 1995. This interprets the norm as a system of orthographic,
grammatical and lexical norms and recommendations, in order to provide integrity and
clarity of the official language use. It is also a part of employees professional
skills. It also establishes the sources, authorities and supervising organs.
Corpus planning
activities are supported through the study of Estonian (knowledge about the Estonian
language, the structure of its varieties, usage, variation, and change) that are based on
language collections. The goals include research quality, providing that Estonian will be
studied on an internationally accepted level in all the contemporary branches of
linguistics and publishing comprehensive academic treatments. Usually the activities under
corpus planning are divided into three:
Standard
language planning aims at the quality of Standard Estonian, preparing language
planning resources (dictionaries and usage guides), and developing the databases,
providing uniform linguistic norms and recommendations.
Name planning
is a system of principles and practical measures that regulates names as identifiable
linguistic forms, guaranteeing clarity, precision, and unambiguity in their usage. It also
protects and develops the Estonian onomastic heritage as a bearer of the Estonian
identity. The existing standards include the 1995 business law (includes the chapter on
business names), the 2003 place-name law and the law of personal names (2004).
Language
collections are vital for the study and planning of the Estonian language. Tasks include
here preservation and constant enlargement of the collections, systematisation and
technological modernisation of the collections (digitalisation, storage of compact discs,
etc.) and making the collections user-friendly (including online access).
Legal regulation
in naming policies is more thorough. Peeter Päll (1997) has listed the legal acts
regulating name usage. The fifth chapter (Articles 19-22) of the Language Law (4) deals with names, designations and
information. Special attention is paid to solving legal disputes concerning the
international form of a name, according to which the international Latin-letter form of a
name of an Estonian place, citizen, item, enterprise, institution or organisation is same
as the name used in Estonia.
In addition,
several separate laws touch on issues of names (cf. Päll 1997). Law on administrative
division of Estonian territory, (5) to this a governmental decree was
attached, in order to effectuate the changes of boundaries and names of smaller
administrative objects. (6) Law on Geographical names was
adopted on December 11 1996. (7) Family law concerning the issues
related to personal names was adopted in October 10, 1994. (8) Business law adopted in February
15, 1995 (9) deals with the issue of business name
in its second chapter (Articles 7-15).
12.
Acquisition planning
The language of
education has been also a concern for both Estonians and speakers of other languages,
inherently linked to conflicting interests of common language promotion and minority
maintenance. This dilemma is reflected in the Constitution. For educational rights,
Art. 37(4) of the Constitution states: "All persons have the right to instruction in
Estonian. Simultaneously, the second clause guarantees the right of educational
institutions established for ethnic minorities to choose their own language of
instruction."
Article 6 of the Language
Law provides for educational guarantees in the Estonian language and in a foreign
language: "State institutions and local governments shall guarantee the opportunity
to acquire Estonian-language education, according to the procedures prescribed in law, in
all the educational institutions belonging to them, as well as the opportunity to acquire
a foreign-language education, according to the procedures prescribed by law." The
same principle was earlier adopted in the Law on Education in 1992.
Language teaching
in other types of school is regulated in the corresponding laws. The Law on Private
Schools (10) gives the owner of the school the right
to determine the language of the school (Art. 14), requiring the teaching of Estonian from
the third grade (third year of primary school). The Law on Vocational Schools (11) prescribes Estonian as the language of
education (Art. 18(3)). The use of other languages is determined by the founder of the
school. The Law on Universities (12) prescribes Estonian as the language of
instruction (art. 22(8)), leaving the use of other languages to be determined by the
University Council.
13.
Current situation
There exists a
documented demand among the Russian-speaking community for increased Estonian-language
learning opportunities. Russian-speaking parents are increasingly seeking opportunities to
help their children become bilingual but are also concerned that children should retain
their cultural identity. Current Estonian-as-a-second-language teaching strategies have
not brought about the required returns. In particular, the majority of high school
graduates from Russian-language schools do not have sufficient Estonian language skills to
be competitive in the job market or to continue their studies in institutions of higher
learning. Thus, this issue constitutes a major priority of the Estonian Government, which
adopted the State Programme Integration in Estonian Society 2000-2007 in 2000.
14. Pre-school education
The main problem
with Russian medium pre-school educational institutions is the low competence of teachers.
In 2002 there were 596 pre-school educational institutions in Estonia, including 125
Russian medium kindergartens (incl. kindergartens with working language being Estonian and
Russian). There are also special preparatory groups in schools for 6-7 year old pre-school
children. There are about 50 000 children in the age range of 1-7 years in pre-school
education. The number of non-Estonian speaking children is approximately 12 000.
These are children attending Russian medium nursery schools (9,917 children) and Russian
language groups in Estonian medium nursery schools (2 068 children).
The number of
non-Estonian children attending Estonian language groups in Estonian medium nursery
schools is about 2,500. In recent years, the number of non-Estonian parents is increasing
who choose an Estonian medium nursery school for their child, but the Estonian-speaking
nursery school teachers do not have sufficient knowledge to develop and teach Russian
speaking children.
In 1995 Estonian
as a second language began to be taught to 5-6 year olds in Russian medium pre-schools. In
2000 the obligation to teach Estonian was extended to the nursery schools and first grade
(reception class) levels (in total 12,000 children in Russian medium nursery schools). At
the same time, the education of teachers at pre-school institutions has little connection
with Estonia; a vast majority of teachers working in Russian-medium schools were trained
outside of Estonia. There are about 750 teachers working in Russian medium nursery schools
(including Estonian as a second language teachers) and about 6,500 teachers working in
Estonian-speaking nursery school. The number of preparatory group teachers for pre-school
children in Russian medium schools is about 40. In order to overcome those challenges
extensive in-service training has been launched for nursery personnel.
15.
Schools
Education is the
most important means of guaranteeing the development and status of the language. The role
of education is to provide general literacy and professional competence. Secondary
education, especially compulsory education, is of fundamental importance because of its
impact on language use. The requirement of the Estonian language environment deriving from
the Estonian Constitution implies the task of providing proficiency in Estonian language
in the framework of compulsory education. However, several challenges are confronted in
the implementation of this task.
The challenges
here are the large number of non-Estonian pupils and their isolation from
Estonian-speakers. In line with the corresponding demographic trend, the number of
Russian-speaking pupils increased up to the year 1990, when their share comprised 37% from
the total number of pupils. Currently, qualitative changes are taking place in this
respect. In 1993, 17% of the schools used Russian as the medium of instruction. In the
2003/2004 school year, there were (in addition to 521 Estonian-medium schools) 87
Russian-medium schools and 25 mixed schools. Currently, however, there are less than
40,000 pupils in Russian-medium schools, a figure which decreases by 4-5% every year. The
main reason for this drop is the repatriation connected with withdrawal of Russian troops
in September 1994 and an extremely low birth rate (ca 3,000 children born to
Russian-speaking families annually), consequently resulting in a shortage of pupils. Due
to this, several Russian schools have been closed down. The second highly visible reason
for decrease is Russian parents' desire to place their children in Estonian pre-school
educational establishments and schools in order to immerse them in the language (ca. 5% of
the places in Estonian schools, over 4,000 pupils). This has resulted in a lower
proficiency level in Estonian as well as in other disciplines for all pupils. To avoid
these negative effects, the number of Russians in the Estonian-medium educational
institutions has been limited. Simultaneously, alternative programmes for Russian children
are being started.
According to the
national curriculum, the teaching of non-Estonian children is provided also in the Russian
language. In this way, the monolingual Russian-medium educational system with Estonian
taught mainly as a subject, adopted during the Soviet occupation is maintained. To improve
the situation, since 1996 Estonian has been taught from the 1st grade (first year of
primary school). Some Russian-medium schools use Estonian as a medium for teaching certain
subjects (history, geography), in the form of a partial immersion.
For Russian
students, Estonian-medium total immersion programmes, both early (since 2000) and
late (since 2004) have been introduced. Currently over 1,000 students study in programmes
of early (7 schools) and late immersion (4 schools). In addition, Annelinna Secondary
School offers partial immersion programmes.
The
most challenging issue in education is definitely secondary education of Russian
students in Estonia. Due to minute numbers (ca. 4,000), full-scale secondary
education via Russian is not considered expedient. The solution seems to be the gradual
introduction of bilingual programmes, providing satisfactory knowledge in the national
language. About 25 per cent of secondary-school students study through the medium of
Russian. Most school-leavers of non-Estonian-medium secondary schools have an insufficient
knowledge of Standard Estonian. The main reasons for this are as follows:
most subjects
are taught in Russian;
the scope of
teaching Estonian and the methods used do not guarantee the acquisition of Estonian;
the knowledge of
Estonian among teachers (including teachers of the Estonian language) fail to meet the
standards.
|