In Armenia, Russian is recognized as a foreign language.

The building of the Government of Armenia on the Republic Square in Yerevan. Photo: Depositphotos

Russian now has foreign language status in Armenia, reported in an interview TASS Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Levon Mkrtchyan.

According to the minister, “the only state language in Armenia is and will remain the Armenian language, since we are an independent, sovereign state.” “This is an axiomatic truth. All other languages ​​are foreign,” he emphasized.

Russian language had no status

As the minister recalled, according to tradition, dating back to Soviet times, the Russian language “is widely spoken in Armenia, but until now it has not had any status.” For example, “when our children enter universities today, they take an exam in English, French, German, Spanish or Italian in the foreign language subject,” Mkrtchyan noted. “Russian is not among these languages, and applicants cannot take the exam in Russian.” “From now on, we record that the Russian language has the status of a foreign language in Armenia,” the head of the department emphasized.

The Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia has developed a separate concept for teaching the Russian language, which has been submitted for public discussion. Among the measures envisaged are the opening of schools and an increase in the number of classes with in-depth study of the Russian language, with a number of subjects taught in Russian.

“Today, the method of teaching the Russian language is designed for small audiences and many teaching hours per week,” recalled the head of the department. “We are currently working with Rossotrudnichestvo to create large classrooms and classes to teach Armenian youth Russian as a foreign language.”

Formation of the foundations of language policy

Mkrtchyan said that while working on concepts for teaching foreign languages ​​in secondary schools, the department clarified the basics of language policy in Armenia. “The ministry has completed almost two years of work on concepts for teaching foreign languages,” said the head of the department. “The most important result of the work done was that we tried to clarify the foundations of language policy in Armenia.”

“If we want to operate nuclear power plants, have our own drones, and restore our military-industrial complex, then we must, along with the sciences, focus on high-quality teaching of foreign languages,” the minister is convinced. Meanwhile, in this area in Armenia “there is a very alarming reality: a decline in the qualifications of teachers, a lack of teaching hours and huge classrooms,” which make it difficult for high-quality language learning.

“We should change the methodology of teaching foreign languages, be able to formulate teaching a technical rather than a communicative language,” believes the head of the department. He called training good specialists in technical sciences a “very important task.”

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