Polylingual Buryat’s interlanguage: The correlation between (bi-)polylinguism and educational multilingualism

The article considers interlanguage as a cognitive object of scientific research using the example of a polylingual Buryat, representing the younger generation and studying foreign languages as special subjects. The function peculiarity of the interlanguage as the subject under consideration is that the Buryat language, being native by birth, however, has the lowest degree of functional activity compared to Russian and the studied foreign languages. The purpose of the article is to theoretically substantiate the inclusion of the so-called “artificially studied foreign languages” in the structure of interlanguage as a significant component of polylingualism within the framework of cognitive competition. The author comes to the following conclusions: 1) as one of the factors of the subject’s (bi-)polylingualism, one should consider the level of language proficiency that allows for successful communication, which is possible without achieving absolutely free or perfect proficiency; 2) since the subject uses their languages unevenly (in general, and during the day in particular), the aim of our research is to study the cognitive reasons for the imbalance of their functioning both in the natural environment and in the educational environment; 3) the interlanguage of a polylingual Buryat, who speaks his native (functionally second) Buryat, Russian (functionally first) and foreign languages, represents a cognitive space of relationships between these languages, constructed by the principle of competition; 4) in cognitive competition, the code of the Buryat language is inferior in the volume of functions performed and therefore is in the reversible stage of the subject’s (bi-)polylingualism. The results of the study may be of interest to researchers of (bi-) polylingualism in psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic aspects.

1. Koryakov, Yu. B., Davidyuk, T. I., Kharitonov, V. S., Evstigneeva, A. P., Siuriun, A. A. (2022). Spisok yazykov Rossii i statusy ikh vital'nosti. Monografiyapreprint [List of Languages of Russia and Their Vitality Statuses. A Monograph-preprint]. 80 p. Moscow, Institut yazykoznaniya RAN. (In Russian)

2. Dyrkheeva, G. A. (2018). Yazykovaya situatsiya v Respublike Buryatiya [The Language Situation in the Buryat Republic]. Mir Bol'shogo Altaya, No. 4 (2), pp. 302‒320. DOI: 10.31551/2410-2725-2018-4-2-302-320. (In Russian)

3. Gottardo, A., Grant, A. Defining Biliguism. Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267152186_Defining_Bilingualism (accessed: 01.11.2022). (In English)

4. Khashimov, R. I. (2019). Dvuyazychie i interferentsiya: Sushchnost', tipologiya i funktsionirovanie [Bilingualism and Interference: Essence, Typology and Functioning]. 320 p. Moscow, Flinta. (In Russian)

5. Kozhemiakina, V. A., Kolesnik, N. G., Kriuchkova, T. B. [i dr.] (2006). Slovar' sotsiolingvisticheskikh terminov [Glossary of Sociolinguistic Terms]. 312 p. Moscow, Institut yazykoznaniya RAN. (In Russian)

6. Starichenok, V. D. (2008). Bol'shoi lingvisticheskii slovar' [Large Linguistic Dictionary]. 811 p. Rostov-na-Donu, Feniks. (In Russian)

7. Khekett-Dzhons, A. V. (2016). Ot bilingvizma k polilingvizmu: kontseptsii mnogoyazychiia v usloviyakh novoi obrazovatel'noi real'nosti [From Bilingualism to Polylingualism: Concepts of Multiple Language Competences in the Modern Educational Paradigm]. Mezhdunarodnyi nauchno-issledovatel'skii zhurnal, No. 3(45). Ch. 4, pp. 104‒106. (In Russian)

8. Shirin, A. G. (2006). Bilingvizm: poisk podkhodov k issledovaniyu v otechestvennoi i zarubezhnoi nauke [Bilingualism: Search for Approaches to Research in Domestic and Foreign Science]. Vestnik Novgorodskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta, No. 36, pp. 63‒67. (In Russian)

9. “Russkaya v Germanii, v Rossii – nemka…” [“A Russian in Germany is a German in Russia…”]. URL: https://zabrab75.ru/articles/politika/russkaya-v-germaniiv-rossii-nemka/ (accessed: 04.11.2025). (In Russian)

10. Vachedin, D. Rossii ne nuzhno proshloe. Ona ustremlena v svoe strannoe budushchee [Russia Does Not Need the Past. It Is Directed towards Its Strange Future]. URL: https://www.goethe.de/ins/ru/ru/kul/mag/20964816.html (accessed: 20.05.2025). (In Russian)

11. Rogoznaya, N. N. (2012). Bilingvizm. Interyazyk. Interferentsiya [Bilingualism. Interlanguage. Interference]. 172 p. Irkutsk, izd-vo IrGTU. (In Russian)

12. Dashinimaeva, P. P. (2009). Interyazyk, evoliutsiya yazyka i novye metodologicheskie orientiry [Interlanguage, Language Evolution and New Methodological Guidelines]. Yazyk kak natsional'noe dostoianie: problemy sokhraneniya lingvisticheskogo raznoobraziya: sbornik trudov Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii, 9‒13 sentyabrya 2009 g. pp. 257‒270. Ulan-Ude, izd-vo BNTs SO RAN. (In Russian)

13. Dashinimaeva, P. P. (2008). Buryatskii yazyk: reversivnaya stadiya bilingvizma i metodologiya voprosa v kognitivnom aspekte [The Buryat Language: Reversed Type of Bilingualism and Methodology of Question in Cognitive Aspect]. Vestnik ChitGU, No. 5 (50), pp. 92‒97. (In Russian)

14. Loseva, N. V., Aleksandrovskaya E. B. (2022). Mul'tilingvizm i interyazyk v zerkale introspektsii [Multilingualism and Interlanguage in the Mirror of Introspection]. Vestnik VGU. Seriya: Lingvistika i mezhkul'turnaya kommunikatsiya, No. 2, pp. 13‒21. (In Russian)

15. Jackendoff, R. (2017). Linear Grammar as a Possible Stepping-Stone in the Evolution of Language. Psychon. Bull. Rev. V. 24, No. 1, pp. 219‒224. (In English)

16. Zhukova, I. N., Lebed'ko, M. G., Proshina, Z. G., Yuzefovich, N. G. (2013). Slovar' terminov mezhkul'turnoi kommunikatsii [Dictionary of Intercultural Communication Terms]. Pod red. M. G. Lebed'ko i Z. G. Proshinoi. 632 p. Moscow, FLINTA, Nauka. (In Russian)

17. Dashinimaeva, P. P., Dyrkheeva, G. A., Zhalsanova, Zh. B., Khilkhanova, E. V. (2010). Buriatsko-russkii bilingvizm: psikholingvisticheskii aspekt [Buryat-Russian Bilingualism: A Psycholinguistic Aspect]. 166 p. Ulan-Ude, izd-vo BNTs SO RAN. (In Russian)