Modern Language Policy Implementation in School Foreign Language Learning in the Russian Federation and the European Union

School foreign language learning improvement, which means better school children’s linguistic knowledge and skills, nowadays is an urgent educational challenge for it is school where the basics of foreign communication standards are formed. In the context of open information society good foreign language communication skills are the means which provides access to the world information and intellectual resources, allows making contacts with people from other countries and developing intercultural collaboration in both formal and informal ways as well as feeling confident in an unfamiliar environment while travelling abroad. In spite of education reform and schoolchildren having such stimuli for learning languages as the internet, international social networks, opportunities to travel abroad, foreign language learning quality on a larger scale remains quite low. For a better understanding of the current situation within the framework of the studies a comparison of Russian and European school foreign language learning was carried out in the context of each multinational community’s language policy. During the research the notions of language policy and linguistic rights were specified, analysis of the statutory and regulatory documents of the Russian Federation and the European Union was carried out, on the basis of which the main RF and EU general and specific language policy trends as well as the main language policy implementation mechanisms in primary and secondary foreign language education were identified. The comparison of the RF and the EU school foreign language learning in the context of language policy allows concluding that language policy significantly affects foreign language leaning quality at school. KEY WORDS: language policy, school foreign language education, language learning, language legal status, foreign languages