Mastering autochthonous and exogenous language: natural and artificial needs

Statement of the problem. Language in general is an instrument of thought and a means of socializing its speaker, moreover, it is an ideal substance for merging the nation into a single whole. The native language ensures presence of a unique mentality of each nation and its own world view. This is confirmed by social, historical and educational practice. The far-fetched attempts as such to artificially exalt or, on the contrary, belittle any of the existing languages have nothing to do with linguistics or any other science. They are undertaken, as a rule, to resolve certain political issues. Studying a foreign language is traditionally explained by individual's desire to expand cultural and educational horizon, to intensify direct international relations, etc. The purpose of the article is to analyze statements on the topic of linguo-didactic needs of society in teaching the native language and a foreign language. Research methodology. The main method of research is discursive analysis, which involves identification of important meanings in texts, depending on social, psychological, educational and historical context. Research results. Today, quite different impulses are gaining relevance, primarily of social nature. Interest in learning foreign languages, especially English, apparent in Russia over the past three decades, has a number of social rather than educational reasons. There is a situation, in many respects similar to the gallomania of the Russian nobility of the 18th - 19th centuries, who opposed themselves to the rest of the nation in terms of linguo-mentality. Conclusions. If the dominant group of a society radically subordinates itself to the paradigms of exogenous language and the stereotypes of thinking and behavior dictated by it, then the more or less optimistic prospects of such a society as a whole are rather vague.