This thesis examines language policy and Russian-titular bilingualism in the Republic of Tatarstan twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Tatarstan is an autonomous and multi-ethnic republic situated within the political framework of the Russian Federation and has its own language policy which was implemented in 1992. Both Russian and Tatar were declared to be of equal status in all spheres of language use. Additionally, as a result of an education policy implemented in 1998, Tatar language learning was made a compulsory subject in schools for all nationalities. These policies were part of Tatarstan's nation-building processes (Sharafutdinova, 2003; Wertheim 2003 and Yemelianova, 2000). In particular this research aims to compare Tatar language use between the Russian and Tatar populations as a way to measure how successful the Tatar language policy as a nation-building process has been. According to Rodgers (2007) and Polese (2011), people's attitudes show the extent to which they are participating in the reconstruction of nation-building and identity. Therefore, if Russians show that they are able to use written Tatar and that they use it in everyday situations without showing resistance, then the language policy could be deemed as successful. Empirical research was carried out during two field trips to Kazan in October 2010 and April-May 2013. The results of the study revealed that overall the language policy seems to have been successful amongst the Russian population, particularly in the sphere of education due to Tatar language being compulsory in schools. However, it does not seem to have changed attitudes towards the Tatar language.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:666629 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Wigglesworth-Baker, Teresa |
| Contributors | Bermel, Neil |
| Publisher | University of Sheffield |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10057/ |
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