TY - JOUR T1 - Language And Social Structure TT - JF - mjltm JO - mjltm VL - 8 IS - 2 UR - http://mjltm.org/article-1-212-en.html Y1 - 2018 SP - 151 EP - 159 KW - bilingualism KW - language competence KW - cross-cultural contacts KW - speech orientations KW - spheres of communication KW - language behavior KW - language situation N2 - The relevance of the study is conditioned by the intensification of language contacts, as well as the development and active use of the majority international languages, that significantly narrows the scope of the ethno-national languages ​​and contributes to their devaluation. However, despite of the universalization the actions aimed at the preservation and development of ethnic cultures get more intensive. Dialectically contradictory trends of modern verbal space are caused by the influence of the homogenization of cultural types and ethnic consciousness increase. The purpose of the article is to establish the dependence between the communicative competence and social differentiation of society in the conditions of growing trends of globalization and the spread of assimilation processes. The leading method of this problem study is sociological survey of bilingual population in the areas with a high level of ethnic composition mosaicity (the case of the Siberian region). The sample volume is 1006 people. The survey revealed that at the present stage the formation and development of contacts in the multicultural region is determined by the objective conditions of the social environment, as well as the subjective personal characteristics of linguocultural interaction participants. Communicative competence is influenced by such factors as: national and demographic characteristics, population density, dispersal of ethnic groups in the region, presence of subnational entities, correlation of urban and rural groups, as well as age, socio-status, vocational and educational differentiation and speech orientation of communicants. Urban lifestyle, violation of generations linkage, language pragmatic functions predominance in the minds of its speakers and high socio-professional activity form “social habit” of using a convenient language of an ethnic majority in all the spheres of life, that leads to the spread of receptive, incomplete, highly ineffective forms of language contacts. The information can be applied in the management and politics in order to minimize conflicts in the field of international and interethnic relations and in order to preserve the multiethnic cultural image of a region and state. The authoring are applicable in the field of national and cultural, educational and linguoecological activities to address the ethno-national and ethno-linguistic issues M3 10.26655/mjltm.2018.2.4 ER -