ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the historical tensions and challenges with respect to language policies in Kazakhstan, and explores the ideological issues which have framed these policies. The Republic of Kazakhstan is a land-locked country spread across a huge geographic expanse in Central Asia, bordering Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and in the west the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan was colonized by the Russian Empire in the 19th century as part of the “Great Game” for regional dominance in the area, as a response to the efforts of the British Empire to extend its own influence in India and Southeast Asia. Language policy and language-in-education policy in particular, are complicated and sometimes controversial issues in modern Kazakhstan, as they are in many other parts of the world. In the Kazakhstani case, there is a complex kind of diglossia in which the status and role of Russian remain significant even as the government engages in efforts to promote Kazakh as the national language.
