Scholarly record

FORMATION OF KAZAKH-RUSSIAN BILINGUALISM AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION: PAGES OF HISTORY

Dina M. Zharylgapova, S. A. Kulieva, U. M. Bakhtikireeva

Abstract

The formation of independent Kazakhstan after the collapse of the USSR (1991) led to a change in the language situation, the formation of language policy and language construction. The most urgent topics in society were the questions of the revival of the vitality of the state - Kazakh language, the narrowing of the spheres of functioning of the Russian language, the transition from Cyrillic to Latin. A large number of scientific articles analyzing the language situation of Soviet Kazakhstan and post-Soviet Kazakhstan appeared. Many articles are devoted to the asymmetric interaction of the two languages (Russian and Kazakh in the ??th century) and the formation of asymmetric Kazakh-Russian bilingualism, but very few publications highlighting the emergence of this kind of bilingualism in the XIX century. It was in the second half of the ??th century that the Kazakh-Russian bilingualism was formed. One of the main goals of this article is to fill this gap so important for a deeper understanding of the object. The authors analyze the primary sources about the formation of Kazakh-Russian bilingualism and bilingual education. That why our article is based on the study of the fundamental work of the Russian orientalist, historian, ethnographer, educator, member of the Society of Archeology, History and Ethnography in the Imperial Kazan University (in present – Kazan, Tatarstan, Russian Federation) member of the Orenburg and Astrakhan provincial scholars of archival commissions Alexander Efimovich Alektorov (1861-1918). This is about "Index of books, magazine and newspaper articles and notes on the Kirghiz", 2013 [1]. Here, it’s important to note that under the ethnonym "Kirghiz" in the studies of Russian scientists before the beginning of the twentieth century, both modern ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Kyrgyz were implied. This book is devoted to the Kazakhs, the formation of Kazakh-Russian bilingualism and bilingual education. Despite the fact that this "Index" was published in 2013, it managed to turn into a bibliographic rarity. Modern linguists investigating Kazakh-Russian bilingualism, practically do not turn to this fundamental work. It collected over 3,000 articles of geographical, historical and economic, ethnographic nature, folklore, etc. with an exact indication of the place of their publication. It is the richest material carefully selected from books, magazines and newspapers of the time. The primary sources have their enduring value for various branches of knowledge: History, Anthropology, Pedagogy, Ethnography, Linguistics, Ethnolinguistics, Geography, Economics, Jurisprudence, Culturology, Literary criticism, Translation studies, etc. The article aims to draw researchers' attention to this understudied research, hence it relies on primary sources, and not on their transposition and criticism, so that the reader can get acquainted with the original sources and comprehend the present language policy in sovereign Kazakhstan.

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