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Abstract:

The article aims to analyze the evolution of language policy in Turkmenistan after its independence on the basis of the theory “language policy - a policy based on the need for identity and the need for mutual understanding, according to which language policy is seen as based on the interaction of two natural but opposing needs: the need for identity and the need for mutual understanding. The article considers two stages in the development of Turkmenistan’s language policy. The first stage is the time of S. Niyazov, when language policy was aimed at the need to construct a national identity. At the second stage (after G. M. Berdymukhamedov came to power), against the background of globalization, the need for mutual understanding with the outside world is emphasized in the language policy. Therefore, two changes are made in the language policy of Turkmenistan - great attention is paid to teaching foreign languages and Russian language teaching is restored in order to strengthen cooperation with international society and to participate more effectively in globalization. In short, in the context of nation-state building and the influence of globalization, coordinating the two opposing needs for languages becomes an urgent task in the language policy of today’s Turkmenistan.

Keywords: language policy of Turkmenistan, identity, construction of a nation state, globalization, Russian language.