Interference Errors in the Frame of Subordinate Multilingualism

The aim of this research is to study the specificity of interference errors as a part of multilingual settings in Kazakhstan. Nowadays, bilingualism and multilingualism caused by the multi-ethnicity of Kazakhstan population should be considered as peculiar characteristics of the contemporary language context in Kazakhstan. In this context, the development of a trilingual educational context is treated as one of its main innovative components and presupposes the necessity of identification and prevention of various interference errors. The object under analysis is various types of interference errors (errors in pronunciation, collocation errors, structural errors (use of incorrect word structure or breaking grammar rules), and syntagmatic errors). The material of the research is specific error cases; in total, the authors identified and analyzed 1 200 cases of such errors elicited from texts produced by the respondents (31 057 words in total). In accordance with the objectives of the research, the authors used the research methods of observation of bilinguals' verbal behavior in specific communicative situations; identification and classification of typical errors presupposed by bi-/multilingual settings; analysis of the influence of the errors on communication; specification of typical errors. The authors surveyed 20 people with university degrees whose native language is Kazakh, whose proficiency in Russian was B2 or C1 and in English from A2 to C1, and 25 people with university degrees positioning themselves as native speakers of Russian (regardless of their nationality), their proficiency in Kazakh was B1/B2, and in English, like in the first group, from A2 to C1. As it follows from the survey, the most typical errors for respondents with dominant Kazakh are related to breaking semantic collocations (48% of errors); breaking rules of Russian/English sentence structures (syntagmatic errors) are considered to be typical errors as well (45%); errors in pronunciation (substitution, wrong stressed syllables, etc.) are somewhat less frequent (31%); finally, structural errors occur much more rarely (23%). As for the respondents with dominant Russian, the overwhelming number of errors (58%) was based on the influence of Kazakh/English language grammatical systems, the structure of Kazakh sentences (especially interrogative); the least number of errors is associated with pronunciation (12%). The study of interference errors provides us with perspective approaches and appropriate error-preventing techniques. It also enhances the use of such errors as a kind of a language game and as a social marker of the respondents. In the authors' opinion, one of the most important results of the research is the representation of interference errors in national elite speech patterns. This fact provides new insights into the specific characteristics of multilingualism at the highest levels of language command. The second important result is related to the high level of “language tolerance” towards interference errors.

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