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УДК (UDC) 81'272(574)
Sholpan Zharkynbekova, Damira Akynova, Aliya Aimoldina, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University,
Astana, Kazakhstan
КАЗАХСТАНСКОЕ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКОЕ ПРОСТРАНСТВО: ГЛОБАЛИЗАЦИЯ, ТРЕХЪЯЗЫЧИЕ И ДРУГИЕ ВЫЗОВЫ
THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE IN KAZAKHSTAN: GLOBALIZATION, TRIGLOSSIA AND OTHER CHALLENGES
Abstract
The linguistic resources for the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan are three languages of national and international communication, i.e. Kazakh, Russian and English. Those languages displayed a functional distribution in the multilingual communication, like in the linguistic landscape of the large cities, in the sphere of education and business and in other domains and settings, form an interconnected, complex system. In this context a number of emerging challenges and opportunities of the language planners in Kazakhstan are discussed in the paper, including the empowerment of the state (Kazakh) language in different societal domains, the issues of an eventual switch of the script from Cyrillic to Latin.
Today the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan is considered as a strategic objective, emanating from the existing historical features of the Kazakh nation and Kazakhstan as a whole.
Keywords: Multidimensional language policy in Kazakhstan, triglossia, multilingual educational communication, multilingual business communication, Kazakh language empowerment, Latin script.
Introduction
Kazakhstan has been traditionally a multilingual country. In Kazakhstan, more than 130 different indigenous ethnic groups are living together and each of them has its own language. According to the 2009 census, a majority of the country, the biggest ethnic population is the Kazakhs with 63.1 percent having as their L1 the Kazakh language; the second largest group is the ethnic Russians with 23.7 percent using Russian as their L1 [1]. The position of Russian is however more robust, for it has functioned during Soviet times as the main language of interethnic communication in Kazakhstan as well. With the independence of Kazakhstan in 1992 Kazakh was promoted to the state language, while Russian kept its official status [2]. Although in the new Kazakhstan Kazakh has strengthened its position in several societal domains, like media, education, and trade it has a functional domain deficit compared to Russian. The latter still dominates as a transnational communication language a number of functional domains, like informal, scientific and business communication. The linguistic situation in Kazakhstan has
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actually become more complex than the use of Kazakh, Russian and a number of various indigenous languages. After its independence the country has supported also the introduction of English into its educational system. Apart from the two official languages, namely Kazakh and Russian, English as a global language has also entered the linguistic discourse in Kazakhstan.
In this paper, we will demonstrate that the linguistic resources for the language policy of the Kazakh state are three languages of national and international communication, i.e. Kazakh, Russian and English and that these languages form an interconnected, complex system. We will hypothesize that these languages display a functional distribution, i.e. they are juxtaposed in some domains, like in the linguistic landscape of the capital city Astana; in other domains and settings the use of these languages is overlapping, intersecting and intertwined. We will illustrate this claim by discussing multilingual communication in the domain of education and business in more detail. In fact, we will note that a state of triglossia in Fishmanian sense is developing. This state of affairs leads to a number of challenges for the language planners in Kazakhstan. How will the Kazakh state language be empowered in order to fulfill its function as the state language? What will be the societal and linguistic consequences of an eventual switch of the script from Cyrillic to Latin?
The Multidimensional Language Policy
The ethno-linguistic situation in Kazakhstan has been shaped due to historical, socioeconomic, political and demographic processes that led to the radical transformation of the entire social system and the economy of the newly independent state. In the course of its formation, the country experienced very critical and decisive moments affecting the dynamics of numerical and national composition of the population. The unique ethno-linguistic landscape of the country reflects the multifaceted history of different peoples who happened to find themselves in the territory of one state.
The Russians were not only a demographically a majority group, they were also the dominant group in the economic, political and cultural domains of society. The relatively small number of Kazakh-speaking social and educational institutions and the Russian domination in urban areas of Kazakhstan gradually led to linguistic assimilation among urban Kazakhs. The share of Kazakhs, fluent in Russian, increased from 41.6 percent in 1970 to 50.6 percent in 1979 and reached 62.8 percent in 1989, whereas only one percent of Russians has competence in Kazakh [3]. Thus, the effects of Russification in the country during the Soviet period in due time resulted into the reduction of Kazakh's social function and its considerable passive usage. Hence, Kazakhstan's language situation is best characterized by historically dominated asymmetric Kazakh-Russian bilingualism [4].
Significant changes have occurred since the country became independent however. Kazakhstan has become one of the most dynamically developing countries of the former Soviet Union, not only showing more and more activity in the international arena, but also initiating a foreign policy that has been labelled by commentators as 'multi-vectoral'. Kazakhstan has maintained good ties with Russia but at the same time also with other important actors in the
international arena, including the United States, the European Union, China and other parts of the world [5].57
A new language policy aimed at enhancing the prestige of the culture and language of the titular nation has led to significant changes in the functioning and the instruction of the state language. The state programs of development for languages in the periods of 2001-2010 and 2011-2020 act as drivers for the new language policy of Kazakhstan, which is designed to ensure the full communicative functioning of the state language being the most important factor in strengthening national unity, and at the same time preserving the languages of all ethnic groups living in Kazakhstan. These programs define several basic vectors in their implementation: 1) the state language as the main factor of national unity; 2) the widespread use of the state language; 3) the development of linguistic culture; and 4) development of linguistic capital for Kazakhstan's citizens [6, 7]. The results of the implementation of these programs are positive, which forms the basis for the further development of language planning in the country. It is expected that as a result of the implementation of the developed programs the proportion of the adult population mastering the state language in 2014 will be 20 percent, by 2017 it will be 80 percent, and by 2020 it will be 95 percent [8].
The state's intention to meet international standards involves fundamental reforms in various areas. One of such innovations was the introduction of the project "Trinity of languages" in 2007. Its main objectives were the introduction of Kazakh as the state language, Russian as the language of interethnic and regional, interstate communication, and English as a necessary condition for the successful integration of the country into the world educational and economy space [9].
The survey's findings conducted by the researchers of the L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in 2010-2013 showed that English is becoming increasingly popular in Kazakhstan, mastering various spheres of public life in Kazakhstan [26].
Below we will take up this issue in more detail.
Multilingualism in the Educational System of Kazakhstan
Recent global educational transformations and socio-economic modernizations have influenced Kazakhstan's educational system and have led to significant innovations in this area over the last two decades. These changes have shaped the educational system and determined its main objective, i.e. integration into the global educational system to create competitive human capital.
One of the key aspects in Kazakhstan's educational system is the promotion of language education. The teaching of foreign languages is strongly supported at the political level. The idea of the trilingual educational system has been developed later and supported in legal documents
57 The Republic of Kazakhstan is a member of international organizations such as the Commonwealth of Independent States, EurAsian Economic Community, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Collective Security Treaty Organization, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and United Nations. In 2010, Kazakhstan chaired the OSCE and in 2011 it was chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference.
(the State Program for Development and Functioning of Languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the period 2011-2020, the State Program for Education Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the period 2011-2020). The State Program for Development and Functioning of Languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the period 2011-2020 states that the share of the population which will be familiar with these three languages of instruction should be 10 percent by 2014, 12 percent by 2017, and 15 percent by 2020. It is clear that the priority in the study of foreign languages is assigned to English.According to the State Program, the proportion of the English speaking population should be increased up to 20 percent by 2020 [6]. Recently a lot of measures have been taken to the promote the teaching of English as a foreign language. According to statistics, in 2015 academic year the number of learners using three languages of instruction, including Kazakh, Russian, and English is as follows [10]: From the total number of children in kindergartens, i.e. 758 772, 575 061 children attend Kazakh-medium kindergartens; 183 134 visit Russian-medium kindergartens, and 65 children go to English-medium kindergartens. The number of children studying English is 218 252. From the total number of pupils in secondary schools, i.e. 2 785,400, 1 792 223 pupils attend Kazakh-medium schools; 832 173 pupils visit Russian-medium schools; and 1.801 pupils English-medium schools. From the total number of students in higher educational institutions, i.e. 477 074, the share of students studying at Kazakh-medium groups is 63,2%, 33,2% of students attend Russian-medium groups; and 3,6% of them visit English-medium groups.
The implementation of trilingualism policy has started and will have a huge impact on the future of language education in Kazakhstan. As has been demonstrated by the above-quoted statistics, there is a trend towards the increase of English-medium educational institutions. Thus, English is taught from Grade One in all schools of Kazakhstan, since the 2013-2014 academic year. Since 2016-2017 academic year two academic hours per week is given to English in Grade One, and 3 academic hours in Grades Two, Three, and Four. Transition to the English-medium instruction will be implemented gradually - from 2017 to 2023. Currently there are 117 specialized schools where the three languages concerned are all languages of instruction [11].
The language policy in higher education also supports the promotion of English. According to the state policy on language education, the preparation of multilingual teachers plays an important role in the international positioning of Kazakh higher education. The policymakers in the field of education consider English as the academic lingua franca and the communication language necessary to fulfill the criteria for competitiveness of the educational system in general. As a result, the training of multilingual specialists has been launched in 2011. In 2012, the Centers of Pedagogical Excellence at Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools and JSC "Orleu" (Gpney), the National Centre for Teachers Retraining were opened. National Center "Orleu" was created in 2012 by way of merger of Republican Institute for professional development of leading and research-pedagogical staff of education system. JSC NCPD "Orleu" provides annual professional development of more than 73,300 pedagogical staff of all education levels [10]. In connection with this, some Kazakhstan's universities have introduced a multilingual curriculum on a pilot basis. Since 1 September 2012 special programs with a total enrollment of more than 5.500 students were opened in 32 institutions for higher education in Kazakhstan [12].
In sum, we can conclude that at present in Kazakhstan English is becomimg more and more an economically and politically beneficial tool in the domain of education. As for Russian, it still keeps its position in the educational sphere being one of the main languages of instruction along with Kazakh. Kazakh is being promoted and supported at the state level. However, it should be noted that Kazakh has not reached full competence in all the functional domains and settings yet. Hence, a number of challenges, also in the domain of education need to be addressed. One of these challenges, the use of Kazakh in business communication will be discussed in the next part of this paper.
Multilingualism in Business Communication
With the continuing globalization of markets and internationalisation of trade in the beginning of the 21st century, the economy of Kazakhstan has undergone significant development. With the largest economic potential in the Central Asian region, Kazakhstan is now engaged in international commercial activities with more than 170 countries and has trading and economic agreements with more than 50 other countries under a "Most-Favored Nations (MFN)" regime [13].
As a consequence of the globalization and internationalization of the economic relations many business transactions are carried out between speakers of radically different languages and cultures. Thus, given the conditionsof the country's language situation and the current development of local and international businesses, contemporary business discourse in Kazakhstan has been shaped, and continues to be shaped, under the influence of three languages we met before in this paper, namely Kazakh, Russian and English [14, 15, 16].
The considerable work for language management has been done in different organisations, including the national companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations and other business enterprises within the State Program for Development and Functioning of Languages in the Republic of Kazakhstan for the period 2011-2020 [7]. Since the independence of Kazakhstan, Kazakh has become widespread in business communication, gradually occupying more and more space. In accordance with the planned, sequential, stage-by-stage transfer of office work, record-keeping and statistical, financial and technical documentation from Russian into Kazakh paperwork is carried out entirely in Kazakh in several regions of the country [7]. Although the expansion of Kazakh into the spheres of official and non-official business communication is very real, especially in the state institutions and organisations, some private business companies continue to use only Russian, whilst foreign companies and companies, in which foreigners serve as partners, use English and Russian for transnational communication [15].
Nowadays there is tendency among employees of different companies to become more aware of the language problem. Therefore, to remedy the situation of the state language in business organizations, special training courses on the use of Business Kazakh are organised for their employees. Those trainings are held in such business companies as "KazTransOil", "Astana International Airport", "National Company Kazakhstan Temir Joly", "Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company" JSC, and so on [17].Despite this, the use of official documents in
Kazakh within companies is still very limited. In most cases, the state language is used as secondary source often translated from Russian.
English business discourse, which occupies a leading position among the foreign languages in business communication with international partners and companies, is now an essential component of business communication in Kazakhstan. English started to be used in the sphere of business communication, when it became the working language of modern businesses, including numerous joint ventures and foreign companies [18]. As President Nazarbayev points out Kazakhstan needs English to enter the world stage since "...there are 3.500 foreign companies in Kazakhstan" [19].
Today, around 16.000 companies with foreign capital and 3.411 branch offices of foreign companies are registered in Kazakhstan, including such multinational companies, like Chevron, Siemens, Microsoft, General Electric, Coca-Cola, Danone, Henkel and many others. In addition, Kazakhstan is currently working to attract such companies as the Korean steel giant POSCO, the Hyundai Motor Company, LG Chemicals (Korea), Carrefour, Lafarge (France), Sampo Rosenlew (Finland) and others. Within the framework of the State Programme on the Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development for the Period 2010-2014, Kazakhstan started joint realization of large-scale projects in industry sectors with investors from the USA, Germany, France, Japan, Turkey, South Korea and other countries [17]. In large Kazakhstani national companies English functions primarily as the main lingua franca in business communication. With residents of other countries all agreements and contracts are issued in Russian and English. Business negotiations are taken place in the same two languages.
Undoubtedly, the activity of these organizations and increasing international co-operation naturally create in Kazakhstan an enormous necessity for English-speaking professionals on the labour market. For instance, the analysis of a popular Kazakh job websites (i.e. https://hh.kz, https://www.enbek.kz, etc.) demonstrates that in more than 90 percent of the advertisements on various positions good language skills in English is one of the required criteria for admission to work. Noticeably there are an increasing number of these advertisements, edited in English only as well.
In sum, business discourses in Kazakh, Russian and English possess different genres and functions in diverse spheres of usage. They are characterised by complicated interrelations of mutual influence. Their interplay in modern Kazakhstan and the changes that are expected in their distribution (or redistribution) within the intersection zones of the business communicative area require further analysis.
Other Planning Challenges
Here we will discuss the cases that are not accounted for by the trilingual language policy supporting the use of Kazakh, Russian, and English outlined above. First of all, additional efforts are required to reach full competence in all the domains of Kazakh now it has been upgraded to the level of state language. However the empowerment of Kazakh being actually the junior partner in the Kazakh-Russian diglossic relation will not only be hampered by Russian but also
by global English that is promoted in Kazakhstan. Secondly, an eventual switch of the alphabet in Kazakh from Cyrillic to Latin will seriously affect the language constellation, not only Kazakh itself but also the constellation as such and the writing skills and proficiency of Kazakh speakers. Thirdly, the question arises how the indigenous ethnic minority languages spoken in Kazakhstan that are outside the scope of the trilingual language policy will be managed. Let us discuss these issues.
With the independence and the revival of national ideas, Kazakhstan has experienced serious rethinking of its ethno-linguistic identity. Today we are witnessing a difficult process of state and ethno-linguistic identity building. The complexity of this process is affected both by processes of globalization and internationalization being characteristic of the modern world and influencing the development of the country and the formation of purely national values derived from the peculiar history, culture and mentality of the Kazakh people. However, it is too early to conclude that the state language is functioning fully. The use of Kazakh in public services, government, in science, and in the media leaves much to be desired. Public figures raise very sensitive issues related to the low level of demand for the state language. There is the possibility of Kazakh remaining a language for everyday communication unable to fulfil its function as a state language. Under such circumstances, the rapid advancement of English in different spheres of society causes some concern among public figures and experts. The hegemony of English over other languages can be already observed in several domains of society, like in mass media, in conversational speech, in everyday life, and so on. Experts discuss the feasibility of teaching English in kindergartens, methods of teaching English and the psychological preparedness of children for that.
Multilingual education is generally regarded as one of the main indicators of human adaptation to the new socio-political and socio-cultural realities. But the success of multilingual education is determined by many factors, which include socio-political, socio-economic, national, ethnic, historical, cultural and linguistic development of a country. Above we have discussed the efforts of implementing a multilingual educational policy in order to construct a multi-ethnic and multicultural Kazakhstan. The question arises whether it is possible to develop a comprehensive language education policy, promoting English while maintaining linguistic diversity. Planned reforms, which affect almost all spheres of society have led to increased competitiveness on the global level but can cause serious drawbacks in the field of socio-cultural and ethnic identities. Therefore, the current language situation in Kazakhstan involves the development of certain specific approaches to planning and implementation of reforms in multilingual education.
Another intensively discussed topic in Kazakhstan recently is Kazakhstan's controversial plan to switch to the Latin script instead of the Cyrillic one in the national language. According to President Nazarbayev, this is "determined by the need to develop the country's language," [15] the main arguments in favour of a transition from Cyrillic to Latin are the upgrading of the social status and the expansion of the social functions of Kazakh, the integration of Kazakhstan's position in the global information space and, as a consequence, the increase of the country's competitiveness in the global economy, as well as the strengthening of partnerships with the
Turkic-speaking countries, and within the country itself the facilitation of the teaching and use English. The process of switching the alphabet in Kazakh can, however, have a number of negative consequences both for the languages and speakers involved, however.
One of the important consequences of the switch in script is that there to be expected a sudden "breakdown" of writing skills under the speakers of Kazakh, as is pointed out by Dzhussupov in case of the graphics' type switching [20]. It will have serious consequences for the number of illiterate people.
Another aspect that will be affected is the educational system, where the Latin and Cyrillic graphics will be equally used. The problem will be not the use of the graphic systems itself because this is also the case now but the capacity of usage that will be quite different, disadvantaging the Cyrillic script. This will also be the case in other parts of society, like mass media. Both Kazakh and Russian use the Cyrillic alphabet, while English uses the Latin alphabet. In this constellation, Kazakh and Russian closely belong together opposed to English. But the switch from Cyrillic to Latin in Kazakh spelling will have far-reaching consequences. Russian will get into an isolated position and ethnic Kazakhs who only know Russian will find it much harder to learn Kazakh under those circumstances. They not only have to create a bridge to Kazakh but also to learn a new script, i.e. the Latin one.
Conclusions and outlook
The main directions of language policy in the Republic of Kazakhstan are conditioned by both the current language situation in the country and the advancement of the country into the world economic (political, cultural, etc.) space. In this context, the main direction of modern language policy is the formation of multilingualism where the emphasis is given to the importance of preservation of the native - ethnic language, Russian as a language of international communication and the need to master English for professional and intercultural communication.
In connection with the more active involvement of Kazakhstan in international relations there has appeared a need for knowledge of foreign languages, especially English. Proficiency in English and other foreign languages is becoming important within cultural and educational interests.
All these processes are not simple and are affected by extralinguistic and psycholinguistic issues, which include: the attitude of citizens to the ongoing language policy, their linguistic orientation, real and potential functioning of language, the influence of the language of globalization, including the growing dominance of English, adaptation to the languages of diasporas of Kazakhstan and immigrants, etc.
There are a lot of challenges, but there are potential opportunities and conditions for their solutions are more than enough. So today the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan is considered as a strategic objective, emanating from the existing historical features of the Kazakh nation and Kazakhstan as a whole.
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Information about authors:
Sholpan Zharkynbekova is a Professor at L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan, where she teaches Cross-Cultural Communication, Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Cultural Linguistics, Contrastive Linguistics and other subjects. Her main research interests are issues of language contacts, ethnolinguistic identity, and verbalization of ethno-specific concepts in different linguacultures (zharkyn.sh.k@,gmail.com)
Damira Akynova is a senior lecturer, PhD, at L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University in Kazakhstan. Her main research interests are sociolinguistics, language contacts, especially bilingualism, code-switching in the Kazakh and English languages ([email protected]).
Aliya Aimoldina is a senior lecturer, PhD, at L. N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Philology Department, in Astana, Kazakhstan. Her main research interests are Bilingualism, Cross-Cultural Communication, specifically, intercultural business
communication and business discourse in the Kazakh, Russian and English languages in the context of multilingual and multicultural space of Kazakhstan (aimoldina_aa@,mail.ru).
Funding source - The article has been prepared based on the "The functioning of languages in a Kazakhstani multicultural space: temporal tendencies, possible risks and prospects" projectfor 2015-2017 years within the framework of grant funding by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan
