Language Choice Among the Youth of Kazakhstan: English as a Self-Representation of Prestige

2014

Full text Open access: Gold Metadata (CSL-JSON)
DOI 10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.393
Data confidence 70 medium
How this score is calculated

It is built from checkable properties of the record itself: whether the article has a DOI, how many independent sources confirmed its data, whether the required fields are filled in, and how recent the latest confirmation is. Disagreement between sources and a missing identifier lower it. A value of 80 or above means the record was published without further checking; 60 to 79 means it is published at reduced confidence, with a manual check advisable. A record verified by an editor by hand is never pushed below 90 by a recalculation. This scores our data about the article, not the article itself.

Abstract

Due to its popularity in the world, the scope of English functioning is changing nowadays. In Kazakhstan, English is the most taught foreign language in the educational system of Kazakhstan and the world. It is an education discipline as well as the medium of instruction both at secondary and tertiary schools which is supported at the state level. Being in the Expanding circle, English in Kazakhstan is perceived as a language of developed world and prestige. It is clearly observable among the young people. Based on sociolinguistic and discourse-analytic approach, the paper focuses on the analysis of students’ speech. By examining daily conversations and social networks of students, the present paper demonstrates that the use of English in Kazakhstan's linguistic landscape serves as a means of constructing identity and communality. The results demonstrate that English is perceived as a language of developed countries, developed economies, therefore, prestige.