Peculiarities of bilingual’s language personality

In the context of globalization of the educational system, it must be said that there are a lot of countries which try to innovate and modernize this system. It is remarkable that Kazakhstan is one of the leading countries that have different educational reforms. This means that the process of reformation is accelerating year by year and the country set ambitious goals to improve the quality of education. Obviously, it is connected with all the spheres including learning languages.

Indeed, today one of the most important aspects occurring in the Kazakh society of economic and social modernization is a new language policy. In this respect in his speeches President Nursultan Nazarbayev has repeatedly talked about the importance and significance of the development of multilingual society. “Kazakhstan should be seen worldwide as a highly educated country repeatedly emphasized the President, where the population can use three languages. They are: the Kazakh languageofficial language, the Russian language the language of international communication and the English language the language of successful integration into the global economy” [1].

At the same time it should be noted that the important strategic goal of education in Kazakhstan is, on the one hand, the preservation of the best educational traditions of Kazakhstan and on the other hand, providing school leavers with international qualification qualities, developing their linguistic consciousness, based on mastering the state, native and foreign languages.

Moreover, R. Absatmarov and T. Sadykov have mentioned bilingualism a lot of years ago. According to their opinion, “in Kazakhstan bilingualism is mainly established as the most important direction in the culture of interethnic communication. Person who owns not only the native language but also the language of another culture, is able to communicate with lots of people, to take up the material and spiritual wealth, worked out by native speakers of other nations, to get acquainted closer and deeper with history and culture”. [2]

Taking into account all the new strategies and programs we should provide better education and innovate teaching techniques based on some specific skills of students. Speaking about multilingual society it is necessary to pay attention to the psychological side. There is no doubt that the program of making a multilingual society is mostly based on bilingual people. The process of transferring a bilingual student to a multilingual person is very difficult and has a lot of specifics. Due to some historical facts and influence of Russian culture, in Kazakhstan bilingualism is widely-distributed phenomenon.

There are a lot of points of view about the origin of the word bilingualism. For example V. Belyanin says that the word “bilingualism” is derived from two Latin words: bi – “double”, “dual” and the word lingua – “language” [3]. According to his opinion, bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages with equal or nearly equal fluency. But if we go into details, the definition of bilingualism is very complex and it is influenced by different factors, like: the age of second language acquisition, continued exposure to the first language (L1), relative skill in each language and the circumstances under which each language is learned. Popular definitions of bilingualism conceptualize language knowledge as being a binary category whether one is classified as having acquired two languages or not. [4] At the same time, V. Khasanov thinks that bilingualism appears as “an instrument meeting the spiritual, moral-aesthetic requirements of a person and society, it is fully expressed in the sphere of artistic and literal contacts between nations” [5].

In general bilingualism can be subdivided into two types: natural and artificial. It is necessary to emphasize that natural bilingualism occurs in the corresponding language environment, which includes also radio and television in spontaneous speech practice. In this case awareness of the specifics of the language system may not occur. Speaking about artificial bilingualism, it must be said that the second language in such type of bilingualism is mastered in the training environment and here it is necessary to pay attention to using conation and special methods and techniques [3].

Bilingualism itself can be subdivided into different groups according to different characteristics.

It should be noted that E. Vereshchagin identifies different criteria for the classification of bilingualism:

Bilingualism which is assessed by the number of actions performed on the basis of this skill. According to this criterion bilingualism can be:

• Receptive, that is, when bilingual understands speech product belonging to the secondary language system. This kind of bilingualism is possible in learning dead languages;
• reproductive, that is when bilingual is capable of reproduction written texts and speech. An example of reproductive bilingualism is an independent study of the non-native language as a means of getting information. In this case the text can be understood, but often is mispronounced;
• Productive (producing), that is, when bilingual understands and reproduces speech product belonging to the secondary language system, and generates them.

The second criterion for the classification of bilingualism is called correlation between two speech mechanisms, when both language systems can operate independently, or can be linked together in the act of speech. According to this criterion bilingualism can be:

• Clean bilingualism (a good example of this type of bilingualism is a case where the family use one language and the language of communication at work, shops, transport and other public places is another);
• Mixed bilingualism is bilingualism in which languages freely interchangeable, and there is a speech mechanisms between the two languages related to the generation of multilingual speech communication [6].

Classification of bilingualism is complex and depends on different aspects. Speaking about bilingualism, it very important to pay attention to the psychological side of the issue. It means that bilinguals have special linguistic perception of the world. The ability of thinking in two languages gives the opportunity to build new connections and associations. Here it should be said about linguistic picture of the world. It is a kind of vision of the world through the prism of language [7]. It is ordered, socially significant system of linguistic signs, which contains information about the world, it is a reflection of objective reality by means of a specific language.

This can be explained in other words. Objective reality is reflected in our consciousness with the help of conceptions. They in their turn are reflected with the help of the words. In this case initial thing is reality and secondary things are concepts and words. Language is closely connected with the culture and society. That is why when we try to explain the reality in different languages we usually choose not direct translation but also different images and symbols.

Assimilation of national linguistic picture of the world of another nation contributes to the formation of linguistic identity or personality, not just speaking in the language using a code, but who has mastered the manners, customs, culture the mentality of native speakers [8].

Assimilation by bilingual national linguistic picture of the world of two nations is associated with the formation of a linguistic consciousness, which is a part of the national consciousness. Linguistic consciousness is individual in nature, but is related to the national culture of native speakers. The degree of linguistic awareness of bilinguals depends on several conditions, such as the degree of language proficiency, the latitude outlook, the degree of education, of social status, etc.

Researchers of bilingualism believe that mastering the content of the concept of the individual can only be made on the basis of available associative a perceptive thinking. Bilingual is an individual with special language configuration, formed under the influence of two existing and constantly interacting languages.

That is why we can say, that bilingual has two linguistic personalities. From psychological point of view, bilingualism is the ability to use for communication two linguistic systems. Bilinguals can without hesitation, goes from one system to another and do not confuse the grammatical patterns and phonetics. They can successfully communicate in two languages as in their mother language. The sign of bilingualism is the ability of quick and correct switching from one language to another at any time and to adapt to the linguistic needs of specific individuals or situations. Most importantly, that bilingual not only use the language, but also think in this language. Often, even the stream of consciousness of bilinguals passes alternately in one, and then in another language.

Thus, bilingualism in general and bilingual’s language personality are very complex and should be taken into account. It should be said, that taking into consideration specifics and peculiarities of bilinguals’ skills, which would be found during the analysis, we can create a multilingual person. Nowadays it is very actual.

REFERENCES

1. Назарбаев Н.А. Социальная модернизация Казахстана: Двадцать шагов к Обществу Всеобщего Труда // Казахстанская правда. 2012. № 218-219. 10 июля.
2. Абсатмаров Р.Б., Садыков Т.С. Воспитание культуры межнационального общения студентов. – Алматы, 1999.
3. Белянин В.П. Психолингвистика. – М.: МПСИ, 2003. – 232 с.
4. Brutt-Griffler, J., & Varghese, M. (2004). Bilingualism and language pedagogy. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters.
5. Khasanov B. Kazakh – Russian artistic and literal bilingualism. – Almaty: Rauan, 1990. – p. 125.
6. Верещагин Е.М. Психологическая и методическая характеристика двуязычия. (билингвизма). М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1969.
7. Яковлева Е. С. К описанию языковой картины мира // Русский язык за рубежом. – 1996.
8. Караулов Ю.Н. Русский язык и языковая личность. – М., 1987.