Vytautas Magnus University

Linguistic and Cultural Contacts of Lithuanian National Minorities

Research overview

Multilingualism and multiculturalism, as well as dynamics of socio-cultural situation are characteristic of modern Lithuania and Europe in general. These phenomena particularly actively manifest themselves in South-eastern Lithuania, where the most numerous Polish and Russian minorities live in a compact way. The goal of the cluster is to investigate and describe the current socio-linguistic situation in the region, the regional peculiarities of languages and cultures of ethnic minorities in Lithuania, their general and specific tendencies of development.

The objectives:

  • To investigate and describe structural and socio-cultural peculiarities of languages of Polish and Russian minorities in Lithuania and their interaction with other languages.
  • To investigate and describe the peculiarities of functioning of these languages in the space of modern multicultural communication, different areas of language use and within different groups of users.
  • To investigate and describe didactic and psycholinguistic problems of teaching/learning the Polish and Russian languages as a mother tongue in the non-native linguistic environment; to provide methodological recommendations related to teaching/learning of the Polish and Russian languages as a mother tongue as well as scientific methodological support to educational institutions.
  • To reveal the dynamics of the Polish and Russian language development and functioning in Lithuania that is in parallel predetermined by globalization and localization processes.

Main researchers