One of
the main priorities of “Kazakhstan-2030” strategy is education and the state
policy in the field of language education in the Republic of Kazakhstan is
based on its distribution and providing support in educational sphere. Also, our
President set an ambitious task to join the top 50 most competitive countries
in the world. These were key reasons for implementing “multilingualism” in
Kazakhstan. The study of foreign languages is very crucial at the present time,
especially in the context of internationalization of education.
Primary
and secondary educations have already launched three languages in their
curriculum. These include 200 pre-schools that are piloting trilingual
education, the 29 Kazakh-Turkish Lyceums, 31 trilingual schools and about 20
Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools. (Bridges, 2014). The problem is with graduates
of trilingual schools, who would not know where to go after finishing trilingual
school. What is a purpose of this policy when we are lack of the higher
education institutions with programs in English language? There are several
universities with programs taught in English: Nazarbayev University, KIMEP and
KBTU. Despite of this, the main problem we face with is a lack of highly
qualified and experienced teachers who can teach different subjects in English.
To hire foreign staff is really expensive and not many institutions may allow
inviting teachers from another country. Students cannot practice and use
English apart from schools. Moreover, universities experience a lack of books
and text books in English. In a result, “we cannot overcome the dependence in
Russian language” (Borlykbayeva). Our government supports teachers giving them
an opportunity to train in different countries in the world through “Bolashak”
program but again teachers should know English. Unfortunately, on the regional
level there is no much support. I think different language centers should be
opened where people can start to learn English, practice and improve it.
In
conclusion, the multilingual education program implemented in Kazakhstan is one
of the steps forward to realization of President’s goal to be in the list of
top 50 most competitive countries in the world. Besides, it is an opportunity
for children to develop communication skills, to get postgraduate degree
abroad, to be highly skilled and competitive person.
Reference
Borlykbayeva, R. Multilingualism in Kazakhstan.
Mehisto P., Kambatyrove A., Nurseitova Kh. 2014. Three
in one? Trilingualism in policy and educational practice. In Bridges, D. Education reform and internationalization.
The case of school reform in Kazakhstan 8 p. 152-177
As for the most countries, multilingual education has become an issue of importance for Kazakhstan as well. You mentioned number of reasons for that. According to the “Trilingual policy”, the government started promoting the study of English language as well as the study in English. Unfortunately, the government does not take into consideration how it should be implemented and in what way. And one of your suggestions was to launch language centers.
ReplyDeleteHaving worked as a teacher in higher education, I could share my own concerns about the language and professional development centers that have already been launched for students and for teachers as well. The language center in the university where I worked had not appropriate programs that are good enough for teaching professional English for subject teachers. The materials they used concentrated on studying grammar, translating texts and so on, and there were less speaking activities among the learners. There were no language learning materials with a high quality, specifically for teaching English as well as for teaching in English. Hence, teaching the subjects in English without sufficient qualified staff and professional development affected the quality of multilingual education. It results that the students could not enhance their competence in a foreign language they learn at the professional level which is vital in their field of study. That is why, successful experience of other countries’ in language policy implementation has to be taken into consideration first, which will further be helpful prevent any negative effects, and only then initial action plans should be developed.
The first president of Kazakhstan Nurasultan Nazarbayev made a first attempt to regulate higher education by international standards, although there were no territorial boundaries with English spoken countries. He invested in various projects and called Kazakhstan citizens to learn English language. For example, there is a Presidential program “Bolashak” which gives an opportunity to study abroad. Since 1991 thousands of students obtained their bachelor, master, PhD degrees and got an experience in their field of work in developed countries. Nowadays, everyone is free to choose which language to speak: Kazakh, Russian or English.
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