RUSSIAN-ESTONIAN BILINGUALISM RESEARCH AND ITS PRACTICAL MEANING FOR ESTONIAN SCHOOLS

The article deals with the researches done in the field of Russian-Estonian bilingualism for the modern period of Estonian life, comparing to the results drawn from the times when Estonia formed a part of the Soviet Union. The authors present the situation of bilingual students distribution in the Estonian-medium schools. The problem proved to be topical - the number of bilingual students in Estonian-medium schools has been growing. It means that methods of teaching Russian language for this people have to be modified. Within the research the data on amount of bilingual students in Estonian schools gotten from the Ministry of Education and Science has been specified. The questionnaire was sent to all Estonian schools, and the received data were processed and systematized according to the regions and levels of study, which enabled to present the distribution of Russian-Estonian bilingualism in Estonian-medium (with Estonian as a language of instruction) schools. The data on using Russian in the families of the students were also received.