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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 468

Part of Session 143: Language Change in Central Asia (Other abstracts in this session)

The revival of Kazakh: Achievements and challenges

Authors: Smagulova, Juldyz
Submitted by: Smagulova, Juldyz (KIMEP, Kazakhstan)

The paper focuses on revival of Kazakh in urban areas. The purpose of the paper is to gain understanding of educational language choices and the language policy decisions at the state and public levels with reference to the specific social, demographic, political, and economic processes at work in urban Kazakhstan. My approach is analogous to other research on multilingualism and language in education in bilingual contexts which are grounded in poststructuralist and critical theory (e.g., Gal 1989; Heller,1999; Tollefson, 1991, 1995).

 

The paper first outlines the wider sociolinguistic and historical context by identifying factors that lead to the drop in Kazakh-medium school enrollment and language shift from Kazakh to Russian in urban areas the late 1960s and re-emergence ofKazakh nationalism and native language revitalization efforts after 1991 Independence. This is followed by the description of the mass-survey results (2555 respondents) on reported proficiency and use of Kazakh across age groups. The material for the paper comes from a variety of sources: past and current legislative and official documents, mass-media coverage, the results of questionnaire-based survey among various groups of population collected in Kazakhstan in 2005-2006.

 

The survey data suggests that the state intervention in education (re-establishing Kazakh-medium schools, curriculum changes and introduction of Kazakh as a required subject in Russian-language schools) effectively led to Kazakh revitalization in urban areas. However, despite the measurable success of the “Kazakhization” campaign, the survey data detects issues that signal complications and contradictions in the revival movement: Russian remains the dominant language of public domains; Kazakh lacks appeal to socially powerful middle-class urban Kazakhs; and lack of natural intergenerational transmission of Kazakh in urban families.

 

References

Gal, S. (1998). Multiplicity and contention among language ideologies: A commentary. In B. Schieffelin, K. Woolard & P. Kroskrity (eds.), Language Ideologies: Practice and theory, 317-331. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heller, M. (1999). Linguistic minorities and modernity. London: Longman.

Heller, M., & Martin-Jones, M. (Eds.). (2001).Voices of authority: Education and linguistic difference. Westport, CT: Ablex.

Tollefson, J. W. (1991). Planning language, planning inequality: Language policy in the community. London: Longman.

Tollefson, J.W. (Ed.). (1995). Power and inequality in language education. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.