Pupils' and Teachers'Attitudes towards Russian as the Second Foreign Language

This diploma thesis deals with the attitude of pupils and teachers towards Russian as the second foreign language in the Czech school environment. The theoretical part of the thesis focuses on the role of Russian in the contemporary world, the history and the current position of teaching the language at Czech schools. What is also described are the linguodidactic and psycholinguistic aspects of foreign language teaching. The practical part of the thesis analyzes the data gained via a questionnaire survey focusing primarily on the aspects of the pupils' motivation to studying Russian and their expectations. It also deals with the attitude of teachers towards teaching Russian as the second foreign language. The main aim of the thesis is to clearly prove or prove false statements about what types of pupils choose Russian and why. The thesis discovers that the most frequent reasons for the choice of Russian as the second foreign language are the simplicity of Russian (resemblance to Czech) and its euphoniousness and language attractiveness. The analysis of the gained data proves false the statement that Russian is chosen primarily by the pupils who dislike foreign languages. On the other hand, it proves the statement that it is often chosen by pupils with special educational needs. The survey also..