Language Policy At The Micro-Level : Challenges Teachers Face In The Multilingual And Multicultural Classroom In Moscow

The present study looks at the micro-level language policy and how it is implemented in the state Moscow school with a high degree of ethnically diverse students. More specifically, we analyze the measures that the school administration takes as well as teachers’ educational practices when it comes to immigrant children’s linguistic and cultural integration into the Russian education system. On the one hand, the school has to stick to the official curriculum where the language of instruction is exclusively Russian, and on the other hand, it has to linguistically and culturally socialize and adapt students whose proficiency in Russian is either low or non-existent. Taking into account the fact that the vast majority of teachers of the Russian language and literature have not had any training on how to teach in culturally and linguistically diverse educational settings, the present research aims to identify the major challenges that teachers face working such conditions