Cognitive Mechanisms of Language Interference

This article examines the phenomenon of interference in the language use of Russian-speaking students of Kazakh ethnicity who study Kazakh as a second language. The study is based on oral and written assignments produced by students whose native language is Kazakh. However, they received their secondary education in Russian and predominantly use Russian in educational, social, and information environments. The participants use Kazakh within a limited functional domain, mainly in family communication, during Kazakh language classes, and in everyday situations. The article views interference not as a linguistic error or deviation from the norm, but as a natural mechanism of cognitive adaptation in bilingual consciousness and as a result of the interaction between the semantic and conceptual systems of two languages. The study analyzes the role of such cognitive mechanisms as associative transfer, metaphorical calquing, conceptual dominance, and frame shifting in the formation of interference patterns. The research employed cognitive-interpretative, discourse, comparative, and pragmatic methods of analysis. The findings indicate that interference among the students in this group manifests primarily at the lexical-semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic levels. The results demonstrate that interference is a natural cognitive process activated during the formation of a new linguistic worldview in bilingual individuals. In addition, the study revealed a tendency toward the stabilization of interference patterns in both oral and written language use. Such a phenomenon may lead to a decline in the active use of the cultural and conceptual content, phraseological resources, and natural usage patterns of the Kazakh language, thereby increasing the risk of language attrition. Therefore, interference should be regarded not only as an error requiring correction but also as an important indicator of the cognitive development of individuals learning Kazakh.

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