Linguistics Field Methods Class Makes National News in Kazakhstan

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Nursultan Assylov, PhD student in the College of Education working as the Kazakh language consultant for a graduate-level Department of Linguistics course on Field Methods, made national news in Kazakhstan for his work.

Assylov, who has a strong following on Instagram and YouTube, documented his role in the course on social media with Professor of Linguistics Seth Cable and linguistics PhD students Mariana Calderón, Satoru Ozaki, Jia Ren, and Ayana Whitmal.

His videos caught the eye of several high-profile folks in Kazakh media and government, including its Minister of Education Sayasat Nurbek, who reposted a video of Assylov in the classroom with Cable. Several leading universities in Kazakhstan shared a different video that features Assylov teaching Kazakh to students three times per week.

Following his social media success, Assylov was featured on Qazaqstan, a Kazakh state television broadcaster; Azattyk Radio, an independent media outlet; and in newspapers such as Turkystan and Zhas Alash.