Russian as a school subject in Germany: between politics and the market
Since the 1990s the Russian language has had an increasing presence in the public space in Germany. As a result of migration in the past decades, it has become one of the most spoken migrant languages in Germany. Russian is used predominantly in families from post-Soviet countries with a Russianspeaking population. With regard to acquisition processes, language socialization and attitudes, migrants are not a homogeneous group: the majority are resettlers of German origin, then there are Jewish émigrés and Russian-speaking refugees of other ethnic origins. On the basis of recent statistical data, Anstatt (2011) states that these groups together make about 4.5 million. There are a lot of factors supporting the vitality of Russian under migration conditions. In multilingual cities like Berlin, as well as in some smaller localities, Russian speakers have developed a widespread infrastructure (shops, bilingual kindergartens and primary schools, medical care institutions, libraries, radio channels, regional newspapers, social media, etc.). Such developments seem to be part of a worldwide trend. Russian is gaining increasing visibility and this is not linked to tourism alone. Russian as a foreign language has been studied at schools and at the tertiary level for more than half a century, although teaching took different paths in West and East Germany. The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of the recent situation of Russian as a school subject in Germany, taking into consideration the factors that determine the status of Russian as a part of foreign language teaching system, the societal value of the Russian language as well as the ‘key actors’ involved. The history of Russian, more than other school subjects, clearly shows that in the times of societal transformations or even changes in the political systems, the educational system responds to this change. Undoubtedly, every citizen of EU must have an opportunity to learn English as the language of global communication. Therefore, it is offered as a first foreign language in all federal states of Germany, starting not later than in the third grade. This opens an opportunity to learn a second foreign language already at the lower secondary level and a third and fourth language later. While it is obligatory to learn a second language, the language can be chosen according to the school profile. Russian is primarily offered as a second, third or fourth language. A few schools with a bilingual profile offer Russian either as a first foreign language or as a language of instruction in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). Depending on the grade at the entry level and the number of class hours, the proficiency level B1 or B2 is reached in secondary schools (Table 1).
Heritage Languages: In the 'Wild' and in the Classroom
Heritage speakers are people raised in a home where one language is spoken who subsequently switch to another dominant language. The version of the home language that they have not completely acquired – heritage language – has only recently been given the attention it deserves from linguists and language instructors. Despite the appearance of great variation among heritage speakers, they fall along a continuum based upon the speakers’ distance from the baseline language. Such a continuum-based model enables researchers and instructors to classify heritage speakers more accurately and readily. This article discusses the results of research on lower-proficiency speakers, identifying recurrent features of heritage languages in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Preliminary results indicate that different heritage languages share a number of structural similarities; this finding is important for the understanding of general processes involved in language acquisition. The article also presents implications of the main findings for language education and identifies areas needing further study.
Efficacy of life skills training on general health in students
BACKGROUND
With regard to the importance of life skills, the present study deals with the effect of life skills training on general health of the students.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
This was a one-group, pre-test, post-test, quasi-experimental research. Forty students were selected through purposive sampling method. The data collection tool was Goldberg General Health Questionnaire.


RESULTS
Paired t-test showed a 22 score significant decrease in general health after education compared to before education (P < 0.01).


CONCLUSION
This study showed that life skills education increases general health level of the students.