Multilingualism and the Current Language Situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to review modern research in the field of multilingualism in terms of the main problems and issues related to the definition of the concept of multi-lingualism, and its main types and elements. The article discusses various forms of the existence of multilingualism and discusses the problems associated with various scientific ideas about multilingualism, a multilingual individual, and its main characteristics. An analysis of the language situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan is also carried out based on the results of the population census 2021, features of the functioning, and interaction of languages in the multinational Republic of Kazakhstan. The article contains quantitative data related to the composition of the population; the level of proficiency in the Kazakh, Russian, and English languages as well as the language of their ethnic group; the level of trilingual proficiency of the population (Kazakh, Russian, and English); the specifics of the development of the state language on the Internet, etc.

Keywords

• multilingualism
• bilingualism
• kazakh-russian-english trilingualism
• mother tongue
• language policy