Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T17:46:13.391Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language and identity in a post-Soviet world: language of education and linguistic identity among Azerbaijani students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Lisa Donohoe Luscombe  and
Vafa Kazdal
Lisa Donohoe Luscombe*
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education, Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), Monterey, CA, USA
Vafa Kazdal
Affiliation:
School of Humanities and Sciences (SHS), Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, Baku, Azerbaijan
*
∗Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Azerbaijan's complex history has weaved a tapestry of linguistic, cultural, and national identities among Azerbaijanis through centuries of political, social, and linguistic integration. In the current post-Soviet era, this identity is undergoing another period of change, with influences from intra-state ethnic, religious, and sociopolitical institutions as well as from regional and international powers. This article centers on linguistic identity among Azerbaijani youth at three types of schools: Azerbaijani-medium, Russian-medium, and English-medium. The authors seek to discover whether and to what extent the language of instruction in each type of school affects linguistic identity, which in turn has implications for national identity. The article first discusses the existing literature on language and identity in second language acquisition and socio-educational linguistics. It then examines Azerbaijan's linguistic and political history through the lens of the latter framework, as a context for an analysis of the data from surveys and focus groups. The article analyzes the relationship between medium of instruction in school and students' perceptions of language and identification with various language groups, and discusses the findings of a significant correlation between language of instruction and linguistic identity, with its implications for national identity.

Keywords

Azerbaijannational identitylinguistic identitynation buildingcultural capitalsocial capital
Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 6 , November 2014 , pp. 1015 - 1033
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiken, Lewis R. 1997. Questionnaires and Inventories: Surveying Opinions and Assessing Personality. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Baker, Colin and Prys Jones, Sylvia. 1998. Encyclopedia of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Block, David. 2007. Second Language Identities. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M. 2003. “Sociolinguistic Nostalgia and the Authentication of Identity.” Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3): 398–416.Google Scholar
Cornell, Svante. 2011. Azerbaijan Since Independence. New York: M.E. Sharpe.Google Scholar
Crystal, David. 1997. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. 2nd ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dörnyei, Zoltán. 2003. Questionnaires in Second Language Research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Freire, Paulo and Donaldo, Macedo. 1987. Literacy: Reading the Word and the World. Hadley, MA: Bergin and Garvey.Google Scholar
Gee, James P. 2000. “Identity as an Analytic Lens for Research in Education.” Review of Research in Education 25 (2000–2001): 99–125.Google Scholar
Gee, James P. 2008. Social Linguistics and Literacies: Ideology in Discourses. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hadjy-Zadeh, Hikmet. 1996. “Azerbaijan: In Search of a National Idea.” FAR Centre, Center for Economic and Political Research Monitoring Group. http://www.zerbaijan.com/azeri/hhz7.htm Google Scholar
Higgins, Patricia J. 1984. “Minority-State Relations in Contemporary Iran.” Iranian Studies 17 (1): 37–71.Google Scholar
Ismayilov, Murad and Tkacik, Michael. 2009. “Nation-Building and State-Building in Azerbaijan: The Challenges of Education Abroad.” Turkish Policy Quarterly 8 (4): 89–104.Google Scholar
Jafarzade, Aziza. 2006. “Memoirs of 1937: Burning Our Books.” Azerbaijan International 14 (1): 24–25.Google Scholar
Kanno, Yasuko and Norton, Bonny. 2003. “Imagined Communities and Educational Possibilities: Introduction.” Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 2 (4): 241–249.Google Scholar
Mathews, Gordon. 2000. Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching for a Home in the Cultural Supermarket. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
May, Stephen. 2001. Language and Minority Rights: Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language. Essex, England: Pearson Education Ltd.Google Scholar
Norton, Bonny. 2009. “Language and Identity.” In Sociolinguistics and Language Education, edited by Hornberger, Nancy H. and McKay, Sandra L., 349–369. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Renan, Ernst. 1990. “What is a nation?” In Nation and Narration, edited by Bhabha, Homi K., 8–22. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Saroyan, Mark. 1996. “Beyond the Nation-State: Culture and Ethnic Politics in Soviet Transcaucasia.” In Transcaucasia, Nationalism, and Social Change: Essays in the History of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, edited by Grigor Suny, Ronald, 401–426. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Tokluoglu, Ceylan. 2005. “Definitions of National Identity, Nationalism and Ethnicity in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1990s.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 28: July, 722–758.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar