Russian-language Education in Discourse of Russian-speaking Media Outlets in Kazakhstan: Policy, Semantics, Pragmatics

This article presents an analysis of publications from the news portal “Zakon.kz” regarding Russian-language education in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The methodology includes statistical, semantic, contextual, and content analyses of these publications. A novel approach is proposed that focuses on the social concept of Russian-language education. It highlights how dominant meanings reflected in texts mirror different stages of the country’s three-language policy over time periods such as 2015–2018, 2018–2022, and since 2023 to present day. Data are provided illustrating the evaluative nature of media coverage. Emphasis is placed on the contrast between neutrality explicitly claimed by articles and implicit techniques used for evaluating language triads — Kazakh, Russian, and English. These include lexical substitutions, order of components within parallel structures, euphemization, and mixing absolute with relative quantitative indicators. Findings show that distribution patterns across years reflect socio-political context: (1) heightened interest in Russian-language educational issues during 2015–2018 corresponds to the adoption of a state three-language education program for 2015–2020; (2) increased media activity starting from 2023 reflects current geopolitical dynamics concerning the role of Russian as an international communication medium.

Russian-speaking mass media outlets in Kazakhstan, Russian-language education, media discourse, conceptual framework, multilingualism