Factors of Language Shift from Kazakh to Russian in University Students

Abstract

Being a post-Soviet country, the language policy of Kazakhstan involves two languages, Kazakh and Russian, which accomplish different functions since Kazakh is a state language, while Russian is an official language. However, the Kazakhstani population, especially the young people, still use Russian as the main language for communication though some of them are not proficient in Kazakh at all but were fluent in childhood. Consequently, such bilingualism has led to the language shift from Kazakh to Russian. This could result in the eventual loss of the Kazakh language, identity and culture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influenced this shift, which is guided by the following research question: what are the factors of the language shift from Kazakh to Russian among university students? The research employed a qualitative interview-based research method, where six ethnic Kazakh university students in Nur-Sultan were recruited by purposeful and snowball sampling strategies. The findings of the study showed that among De Klerk’s (2000) influential factors on language shift from one language to another, the most prevalent factors were linguistic networks (people from the surrounding environment), language attitude (the participants’ stance towards these languages) and mass media (the effect of mass communication on the participants), while economic (financial benefits) and gender factors were designated as being less prevalent. Also, it was identified that the educational environment, institutional support, the status and function of each language, and educational and literacy levels have a partial influence on the language shift from Kazakh to Russian. Additionally, despite the fact that the participants have shifted from Kazakh to Russian, five of them try to use Kazakh daily and intend to speak it fluently but face some barriers to improving their language level. Thus, the community, represented by parents, relatives, nurses, teachers, educators, staff, friends, plays an important role in students’ language shift as they are surrounded by them from their childhood and it, in turn, shapes their attitudes towards the language.