Challenges of teaching Russian to bilingual children abroad

Some 35 million native Russian speakers are estimated to live outside of the Russian Federation. The larger the Russian speaking diaspora is, the more important teaching Russian to immigrant children is. The paper analyses the definition and main types of bilingualism, some characteristics of childhood bilingualism, the educational role and status of the Russian language in Russia and abroad, the challenges of teaching Russian abroad, the influence of attitudes and behavior of parents on their bilingual children’s Russian language development abroad.