VECTORS AND KEY FACTORS OF THE DYNAMICS OF LANGUAGES IN THE SECONDARY EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE REPUBLIC OF AZERBAIJAN IN 1990-2020

Abstract

This article analyses the dynamics of the language policy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the field of general secondary education from the moment when the country gained independence down to our days. It also considers the questions of strategies in the choice of languages of teaching and languages learned as a discipline. The study shows that this choice is due to a number of factors of the geopolitical, economic, social, cultural and religious origin. It also demonstrates the growth of the role and influence of the Azerbaijani language and its transformation into the dominant language in the field of school education. Three periods are distinguished in the dynamics of the functions of the Azerbaijani language: the first period refers to the first years of independence and is characterized to a greater extent by symbolic decisions in the spirit of national romanticism. The second period (the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries), pragmatic, was aimed at strengthening the state independence of the Republic and its unity. We focus here on the issues of language policy. The third period began in the 2010s and is characterized by enhanced measures aimed at both corpus and status planning. Here, the main efforts were focused on language planning. The paper investigates the status and functions of the Russian language, the former “language of interethnic communication” of the peoples of the USSR, which, in fact, was the state language on the territory of the USSR. In this paper we discuss the place of the languages of national (ethnic minorities) in the education system of the Republic of Azerbaijan.