English language choices in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

This article examines English language choice amidst dynamic social and linguistic change contexts in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan has formally committed to an official trilingual language policy – Kazakh, Russian, and English. In comparison, Kyrgyzstan has a dual language policy – Kyrgyz and Russian. However, its Ministry of Education and Science has demonstrated an informal commitment to developing English competency in-country through various English language teaching/learning initiatives. Using data collected between 2014 and 2017 in both countries, this article explores how English language teaching/learning is positioned differently in these two Central Asian Republics, while also aiming to understand how participants’ language choices were informed both by the particularities of their contexts and the intersectional nature of language choice.