• The Conference
  • Home
  • Programme
  • Venue & directions
  • Organizing Committee
  • Scientific Committee
  • Exhibitors & sponsors
  • Satellite events
  • Conference Party
• Past & future
  • Previous symposia
  • Finland 2014
  • Spain 2016
• About FU Berlin
  • University homepage
  • Humanities at FU

Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 841

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

Language shift in education in Kazakhstan

Authors: Altynbekova, Olga
Submitted by: Altynbekova, Olga (Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Kazakhstan)

During the Soviet times, the Russian language occupied a privileged position in communicative domain of the Republic of Kazakhstan, pushing the Kazakh language outside the framework of the social and political life of the population. Particularly, the Russian language dominated in urban language realm – education, toponymy, media, everyday life, etc.

After disintegration of the Soviet Union and acquisition of sovereignty by Kazakhstan in 1991, ethnic and language situation has dramatically changed. It was mainly due to the processes of migration of the population to and from the country. In particular, emigration of the Russian-speaking population in the first years since disintegration and the increasing repatriation of ethnic Kazakhs – oralmans from foreign countries have considerably influenced the ethnodemographic and language situation of the Republic.  The spheres of usage of the State Kazakh language have widened while the functionality of the Russian language has decreased.

Considerable language shift that took place in education can serve as an indicator of the language future of Kazakhstan. If in 1991 in schools only 32.4% of pupils studied in the Kazakh language, 65.1% - in Russian, and 2.5% in other languages, then in 2011 - 20 years after independence of Kazakhstan, the situation for Kazakh and Russian is diametrically opposite: 62.5% studied in Kazakh and 34.7% students chose Russian as the language of instruction in schools. Another clear illustration of the language shift is in the example of language choices in technical institutes: if in 1991 only 12.6% of students studied in the Kazakh language, in 2011 – this number was 55.0%. 

In regards to university education, the Russian language dominated for a longer period of time - this can be explained by the fact that most of the Universities are located in the cities of Kazakhstan. Only from 2009, more than half of students began to choose to study in Kazakh. In 1991, only 13.7% of university students chose to study in Kazakh; in 2011 - that number was 51.6%.

However, these data is generalised for the whole country and does not illustrate historically developed differences in ethnolinguistic situations in the regions of Kazakhstan, as well as the differences between urban and rural areas. Notably, the proportion of pupils studying in Russian in cities is higher than proportion of pupils choosing Russian in rural areas: out of all pupils who studied in Russian, 64% lived in cities and 34% in rural areas and out of all pupils who studied in Kazakh, 58.5% lived in villages and 41.5% in cities.

Thus, there are significant disproportions in the language realms between urban and rural areas of Kazakhstan, which can be demonstrated with the choice of the language of instruction by pupils and graduate students. This is due to different ethnic composition of cities and villages, regional differences and continuing processes of internal and external migration. Nevertheless, the general dynamics of changing language priorities among the students of schools, colleges or universities clearly demonstrates the strengthening of the position of the State language in education in Kazakhstan.