INTERNATIONAL AND RUSSIAN EXPERIENCE OF STUDYING A NATIONALITY LANGUAGE IN A MULTI-ETHNIC REGION

The article investigates the process of civil and ethno-cultural formation of school youth in a multiethnic region on the basis of the results of a large-scale longitudinal study (a study conducted on the same contingent of respondents for a long period of time). These surveys have been conducted from 1991 up to the present time in Astrakhan in schools with the study of the Tatar language as a subject. Students are interviewed during their schooling (from admission to graduation) in descending order. The survey is conducted in writing (questionnaire) with 50 % use of open questions, when students have to formulate and write answers to the questions. The use of longitudinal method allows to trace step by step the formation of ethnic and civil identity of schoolchildren at each age stage. The research is carried out within the framework of the international project “Dialogue partnership as a factor of stability and integration” and the program “Youth in multiethnic regions: views, positions, orientations.” The study analyzes the level of Tatar students' knowledge of the nationality language, the motives for its study and possible areas of application. The relevance of this study is due to the importance of studying the process of ethnic identity formation and the state of ethno-social well-being of the population in multiethnic regions, which is necessary for the stable and harmonious functioning of society, the development of nationality languages and cultures of both the ethnic majority and minorities, the identification of conflict potential, prevention and resolution of conflicts. The purpose of the article is to acquaint the scientific and teaching community with the methodology of studying the civil development and ethnic formation of young people at different age stages in order to successfully exert appropriate and timely pedagogical influence on this process. The main results are the creation of an empirical database for the harmonization of interethnic relations in a multiethnic region, namely: Astrakhan for the development and optimization of the study of nationality languages in a secondary school.