Where to turn to those who want to learn the Kazakh language?

“Аbai.institute”. On November 18, 2020, a web portal “Аbai.institute” developed within the framework of Kazakh language learning and promotion program in Kazakhstan and abroad had been presented to the public. This is a unique project popularizing the Kazakh language, literature and culture, allowing the citizens of the country, the Kazakh diaspora abroad and foreign citizens to learn the Kazakh language. The “Аbai.institute” is also available in a mobile application supported by Android and iOS. The project was developed by analogy with the Goethe Institute or Pushkin Institute.

The portal is available in 6 languages (English, German, French, Russian, Turkish, Persian).

The Kazakh language courses were held for the Kazakh diaspora in the USA, Turkey, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Belgium, Russia, Iran, the Czech Republic, Uzbekistan, and Mongolia.

Also, within the framework of this project, in-service training courses were held for teachers of the Kazakh language from the USA, Russia, Turkey, France, Germany, Belgium, Iran, Mongolia, Uzbekistan , etc.

In addition, a universal Kazakh language study edition was developed for the Kazakh diaspora abroad. The content of the edition in A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 levels was developed in the Kazakh, Russian, Turkish, English languages and posted on the “Abai.institute” platform.

The Kazakh language study rooms with offline and online format were opened in Turkey, the USA, Russia, France, Germany, Belgium, Iran, Mongolia and Uzbekistan. The “Otandastar Foundation” NJSC plays a special role in the project, which organizes the work with the compatriots abroad and ensures the smooth operation of the Kazakh language study rooms in the above-mentioned countries. The portal is available in a mobile application supported by Android and iOS.

"Tilqural.kz" is a web service for a state language step-by-step learning. This is an online course designated for the adults who do not speak Kazakh to learn the language by A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 level. Once being registered for the course, the user takes a Kazakh language proficiency test to determine the current level. Based on the test results, the system offers a training course (one of 5 levels).

The site enables to expand the vocabulary, understand the meaning of new words and use them in the everyday life, read freely, express the thoughts both orally and in writing, pronounce the words correctly, and compose the sentences correctly.

The user can view the statistics on the completed lessons in the personal account. Its structure is similar to "Duolingo" and "Lingualeo". The service is available for download via Android and iOS platforms.

"Tilmedia.kz" is a trilingual site that teaches state language in an interesting and effective way.

The site's work is aimed at promoting Kazakh, Russian and English languages, expanding the scope and methods of their application. The languages teaching methodology is based on the audio and video content.

The site provides Latin and Arabic graphics.

The site consists of 5 blogs: "information", "listen", "read", "watch", "question-answer", where the following is presented: news about the current issues in the sphere of language policy, lessons, educational, informative audio recordings, videos for children and adults, audio books, teaching aids, fiction and children's literature, etc.

"Balatili.kz" is the site intended for children over three years old, as well as for educators and teachers, parents who are raising and teaching children. The site operates based on an online platform with an intuitive search engine and a convenient navigation system.

The site contains worksheets for self-work by children, methodological sheets for teachers, educators and parents. There are provided materials for studying grammar and spelling, including an interactive alphabet and games, audio dictations by children’s age, as well as tasks, and applications for developing calligraphic skills.

Artistic reading texts were grouped by children’s age, including interesting stories, thematic poems, dramatizations, riddles and proverbs.

Articles and scientific works of specialists concerning linguistic problems, as well as manuals and lesson’s curricula for kindergarten and primary school teachers were published.

“Qazaq sozi” is a mobile application for Kazakh language self-study based on lexical minimums, providing the Kazakh language students with an initial vocabulary that is required at the most basic level. The mobile application is developed on the basis of teaching aids “Kazakh sozi” released in 2016-2017.

"Tilorta" is a database aimed at increasing the effectiveness of language learning, Kazakh language teaching methods improvement, and creating a required base for Kazakh language teachers and students.

Consumers: teachers, methodologists of state and private language centers, educational organizations of all levels, citizens interested in Kazakh language learning in the country and abroad.

The database contains information about public and private language centers, teachers, teaching aids, books, audio and video materials for Kazakh language learning.

"Tilalemi.kz" is a portal that posts news in the field of language policy implementation, articles of scientists-linguists, provisions of national contests, events, etc. The portal also provides books, multimedia programs, dictionaries and magazines, etc.

Screen narrator

In 2023, a screen reader (speech synthesis) in Kazakh language was developed for visually impaired people. The project is aimed at providing people with visual disabilities with access to information in Kazakh language. Today, a speech synthesis plugin is available for Windows operating system and an application for Android. A special Python library and an API system have been developed to use a screen reader in Kazakh language in various applications.

In accordance with Article 8 of the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan “On Access to Information”, the screen reader is placed on the Internet resources of 3,330 institutions and is also sent to other information owners (local executive bodies, universities, national companies, etc.).

 

Telegram bot

The “National Scientific and Practical Center “Til-Kazyna” named after Shaisultan Shayakhmetov”, through integration with Azure Text-To-Speech, has developed and launched a unique Telegram bot that converts text in Kazakh language into an audio file. The @kztts_bot is available on the Telegram channel.

In just one year, the bot processed 15 million enquiries.

"Emle.kz" is a website created for envisioned enhanced linguistic culture of the population, as well as enhanced spelling proficiency. The database contains an established current Kazakh language dictionary for spelling, spelling rules, and related scientific literature.

The "Literary Language Standards" block of the website presents words, their meanings, rules and principles of application in the fiction and everyday life. The "Spelling" block presents spelling rules. It also describes the features of writing borrowed words and terms, their use in the past and present. The "Punctuation" block specifies the rules related to the order of punctuation marks. The "Abbreviation" block provides abbreviated words, their full names, the order of abbreviation, rules and patterns to be relied on abbreviating the names and words. The "Articles" block provides scientific articles by scientist in this field. The reader has the opportunity to contact the author and receive an answer by leaving a comment under the article.

"Termincom.kz" is a website designed for continuous introduction of terms into a single e- terms database approved by Terminology Board under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as inter-industry terminology fund unification and improvement in modern science, education, technology and economics, public and social directions.

This is a kind of general public information manual for the purpose of vocabulary terminology unification, terminological fund replenishment, regulation of terms and names in accordance with norms of Kazakh language, and increasing the efficiency of the terminology names use.

The site consists of the following blocks: “Approved Terms”, “Chronology of Terms”, “Current Industry Terms”, “Discussion”, “Regulatory Framework”, “Scientific and Methodological Framework”, and “Search”.

The “Approved Terms” block contains terms approved by the Republican Terminology Board, and the “Chronology of Terms” block contains information about dates of approval of terms and replication in the vocabulary composition.

The “Current Industry Terms” block contains terminology dictionaries approved by the Republican Terminology Board.

In the “Discussion” block, the reader can leave his opinion regarding the terms proposed for approval.

The “Scientific and Methodological Framework” block presents papers related to the issues of terminology formation.

An automated foreign language terms system in accordance with Kazakh language consistency provides for systematization and identification of terms with common suffixes (the project facilitates the work of the Republican Terminology Board and increases the number of approved terms).

"Sozdikqor.kz" is the first universal platform that enables to get acquainted with words and set phrases in various industry dictionaries and encyclopedias, with obsolete Kazakh words, borrowings, the meaning of new technological words at the stage of development of information technologies.

The database contains 400,000 words and 1,243,850 language units.

The portal contains about 60 different industry dictionaries and encyclopedias. In particular, the 15-volume dictionary of the Kazakh literary language, the dictionary of Abay, the encyclopedia of Akhmet Baitursynov, the dictionary of synonyms of the Kazakh language, the phraseological dictionary of the Kazakh language, etc.

Using the portal's search system, the one can find out the definition of words, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, and occurrence in phraseological combinations of words.

In 2021, a "synonymizer" function was added, a testing stage is underway. There is a function for voicing keywords. The portal's mobile application can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store. A Telegram bot @Sozdikqor.kz is functioning.

“Qazgramma” is a platform that enables to check the text correctness in accordance with the Kazakh language rules. Developed as an analogue of international platforms such as "Qrammarly", "Text.ru", "Languagetool.org". The "Qazgramma" enables to correct the errors in compliance with the Kazakh language text norms, analyze the sites and check the documents by style, identify the spelling, orthoepic, punctuation, grammatical errors, etc. It draws out the homonyms, synonyms, etc.

"Qazcorpora.kz" is a sub-corpus of journalistic texts of the National Kazakh Language Corpus.

The Corpus is an information and reference system based on e-texts accumulation in a certain language. The main purpose of creating a corpus is to collect the natural language resources, normalize and systematize the language, and provide the results to a wide public for their rational use.

The corpus is not only a base of all the Kazakh language materials integrated into the system, but also a mechanism for enhanced functioning, semantic space of state language in the virtual space, enhanced information dissemination, public access to language resources. This open information and reference system that reflects a text base in the Kazakh language in the form of a digital system, accumulates and provides the consumer with all the types of literature language styles, linguistic applications at a certain stage (or stages) of the national language existence.

The most of the world's major languages have their own national corpora, which differ from each other in their completeness and the level of scientific text processing.

The Corpus’s capabilities:

- is required for teaching a language as a native or foreign language (in the world, textbooks and curricula are oriented towards the corpus. Any foreigner, schoolchild, teacher, journalist, editor and writer, using the corpus, can quickly and effectively check the usage features of an unfamiliar word or grammatical form);

- is required for scientific study of a language vocabulary and grammar, changes that have occurred in it over the hundreds of years;

- optimizes an information search;

- simplifies an analysis, processing of extensive materials, statistical data retrieve;

- required dictionaries can be compiled on the basis of corpus;

- the corpus base is constantly being improved and expanded.

12-20 parametric meta-markups (text author, text title, text style, genre, text type, chronotope, source, publication date, etc.) have been compiled for the text.

In the future, coverage of other internal journalistic style genres, as well as an increase in the edition periods and expansion by source name are envisaged.

"Qazlatyn.kz" (a portal and converter) is the main national portal accompanying the process of transition of the Kazakh language to a Latin alphabet.

The multifunctional converter of the portal enables to convert the texts from Cyrillic to Latin and to Arabic script (“тoте zhazu”). The internal core (codes) of the converter is located on the world web service (Yandex-translator). Currently, Kazakh language has entered the number of international languages with the name "Kazakh (Latin)".

"Qujat.kz" is a portal that facilitates the provision of current documents in state language, as well as document handling, an e-document fund, document flow automation, and increased use of documents in state language.

Scientific e-library for Kazakh linguistics is an e-portal designed to ensure public access to scientific materials in the field of Kazakh linguistics.

"Korneki.kz". The purpose of the "Korneki.kz" database is to expand the scope of application of state language, to assist business entities in assigning names to housing residential complexes, shopping facilities, entertainment centers, service locations, charitable foundations, commercial products (confectionery, etc.), etc.

The database is a collection of cultural and semantic words in Kazakh language. The search system is aimed at forming a sequence of names on various topics, provision of option to choose words, consideration of etymology of these words, and familiarization with their meaning.

The database contains 15 thousand words in Kazakh and 15 thousand words in Russian.