Abstract—Large parts of the titular population in
Kazakhstan have a better command of Russian than of their own
‘mother tongue’, or they could not speak their mother tongue at
all.Some Kazakhs prefer to use the Russian language in daily
conversation, and do so without any pangs of guilty conscience.
Some Russian-speaking Kazakhs had started sending their
youngsters to Kazakh-medium schools in the hopes that the
school could provide them with skills in Kazakh that they
themselves lack. The study focuses on these issues of the
language policy in Kazakhstan in general, and bilingualism in
particular. There are voices that additional languages present a
threat to the national language. Besides, teaching of Russian and
English threaten the development of national identity. The
problem under investigation is whether younger generations
will keep the retention as to the bilingualism. Or else the
trilingual policy offered by the President Nazarbayev will make
the country a multilingual community.
Index Terms—Large parts of the titular population in
Kazakhstan have a better command of Russian than of their own
‘mother tongue’, or they could not speak their mother tongue at
all.Some Kazakhs prefer to use the Russian language in daily
conversation, and do so without any pangs of guilty conscience.
Some Russian-speaking Kazakhs had started sending their
youngsters to Kazakh-medium schools in the hopes that the
school could provide them with skills in Kazakh that they
themselves lack. The study focuses on these issues of the
language policy in Kazakhstan in general, and bilingualism in
particular. There are voices that additional languages present a
threat to the national language. Besides, teaching of Russian and
English threaten the development of national identity. The
problem under investigation is whether younger generations
will keep the retention as to the bilingualism. Or else the
trilingual policy offered by the President Nazarbayev will make
the country a multilingual community.
The authors are with the KIMEP University, Almaty, Kazakhstan (e-mail:
ziash@kimep.kz, atursun@kimep.kz).
Cite: Ziash Suleimenova and Altynay Tursun, "Will Bilingualism Be Valid among the Younger Generations in Kazakhstan?," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 153-156, 2016.