Author: Gersonskaya Valentina , Kazakh American Free University, Kazakhstan
At present,
the approach to the Kazakhstani higher education is drastically changing. It is
due to many reasons, the basic one being the 2030 Kazakhstan development program [1].
In his 1998 Presidential Address, President Nursultan
Nazarbaev stated the accomplishments and problems of
the country and announced the priorities of the country’s development for the
period up to 2030. He expressed his belief that each citizen of Kazakhstan “has
ripened a profound awareness of the fact that one can no longer live for the
day only, merely in an incessant turmoil of settling present day tasks” and
they had to well remember that “apart from the goals set for the period of
today, our generation bears tremendous responsibility to future generations,
which is, in fact, responsibility of parents and grandparents to their children
and grandchildren.” Speaking about building a new state, a new market economy
and a new democracy, the necessity to honestly analyze both external and
internal factors of the country’s development and to identify priorities and
elaborate the relevant strategy on the basis of the people’s general
consolidation, on the basis of Kazakhstani history and unique circumstances was
mentioned. The long-term priorities of the country, mentioned in the Program,
were national security, country's political stability and consolidation of the
society economic growth based on an open market economy with high level of
foreign investments and internal savings to gain realistic, stable and steadily
growing rates of economic growth, power resources, health, education and
well-being of Kazakhstani citizens [1].
To
accomplish the above-mentioned goals exploiting only the country’s richest
natural resources - vast land areas, arable lands and natural resources of
enormous wealth – is not enough as it cannot promote development of the
country’s economy without good human resources. The President remarked that “we
may be proud of a highly educated population with a pretty high standard of
scientific and creative potential. This indeed is a tremendous achievement of our
people... and of the former system for that matter. We must do our utmost to
further develop this invaluable asset of ours and grant it ever new, ever
civilized opportunities of development” [1]. But to do it, it is necessary to
transform mass consciousness. Given this, support should be sought in the
younger generation, which is more flexible in adapting to the new system of
values and has a fresh vision of the future.
The ideas
were further developed in other programs and addresses. In the 2007 Presidential
Address New Kazakhstan in the New World [2], President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev
stated it that to ensure the competiveness of the country and its people, the
gradual implementation of the cultural program should be realized. This
objective should be approached with the development of Kazakh as the official
language, Russian as the language of communication, and English as a means of
successful integration into the global economy.
Since then trilingualism as the main country’s cultural program has
been implemented. We should note, however, that the concept of multilingualism
was not new for the country then. Kazakhstan has long
prioritized learning languages of different peoples of the country. In schools,
vocational schools and universities education is provided in both Kazakh and
Russian. Moreover, foreign languages were taught in all educational
institutions. It speaks to the effect, that in Kazakhstan bilingual education was
established and trilingual education as a trend was appearing. However, for
many reasons Kazakhstani educational institutions did not ensure good language
proficiency in the languages taught, so a new approach to language teaching and
learning had to be introduced. The current program states it that the Kazakhstani
education should become high quality to enable Kazakhstani people to become
competitive at the global labor market, to give them an opportunity to enter
best world universities, to be mobile and able to learn all life. Doing that,
one should not forget about the importance of developing a harmonious person
with high moral values and national identity, a person who is world-minded, but
never forgets his “roots” [3].
The program
is very ambitious and many efforts have been made to achieve its goal,
therefore, we consider it relevant to briefly review its main achievements and
challenges. The article briefly summarizes the main steps taken and focuses on
introduction of trilingualism in Kazakhstani higher
education institutions.
In 2012,
the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan
and some universities that had made experiments in introduction of polylingual education developed the Concept of Polylingual Education Development [4] in which the current
state of the Kazakhstani educational system and the possibility of introducing
trilingual education were analyzed and priorities in trilingual education
development were stated. The concept required a review of the
language education content, developing a new strategy in teaching languages in
Kazakhstani education institutions, as well as the language content, which
should be scientific based, and correspond to the overall trilingual
education program.
Among the
main objectives of the program are training university lecturers able to give
courses in trilingual education programs; enhancing prestige of using the
Kazakh language; maintaining the system of language diversity in Kazakhstan;
ensuring functioning of the Russian language in the communicative sphere;
provision of systematic scientific and methodological support to teaching
English and other foreign languages; development of polylingual
education infrastructure; development of intercultural component of language
education; and ensuring the intellectual growth in Kazakhstan by acquainting
its people with cultural values.
The
education principles in the Kazakhstani trilingual system are as follows:
- Kazakh–
Russian –English;
- Language sare learn separately;
- Learning
of the languages is based on the native language;
- Teaching
a foreign language is teaching how to express thoughts in a foreign language,
teaching its culture;
-
Development of trilingual personality;
- Speech
development algorithm: sub vocalization – oral speech - written speech;
-
Communicative ability [5].
Thus,
currently a most important objective of an education institution is teaching
students global cultural values enabling them to successfully communicate and
interact with people of other cultures on the global level. When studying
foreign culture, history, geography, literature, arts and science students will
get better understanding of their own culture and language. Research and
practice of interconnected teaching native and foreign languages prove its
impact on the harmonious development of personality [6].
The tactics
of implementing trilingual education in Kazakhstani higher education
institutions include:
- development of regulations on implementation of trilingual
education programs;
- training teachers for trilingual education programs;
- utilization of world experience, which can be adapted to
trilingual education;
- review of
level model of foreign language teaching and learning in order to develop
similar models of teaching and learning the Russian and Kazakh languages, which
will develop standards in teaching the languages;
- establishment of the national coordination center of
trilingual education [5].
We can
already state some visible results of the program. The Ministry of Education
and Science has promoted publishing trilingual dictionaries of terms (English –
Kazakh - Russian), textbooks, workbooks; it monitors the implementation of the
national budget program of professional training and retraining of teachers in
public education institutions. The Daryn National
center holds seminars and workshops, national English Olympiads, participates
in developing English courses for schools with intensive English learning.
Realization of Bologna Process principles in the Kazakhstani higher education
is monitored which enables one to state the main achievements and gaps and
develop a strategy for improvements. Regional programs of developing trilingualism have been designed. Links of universities
with Kazakhstani and foreign organizations, enterprises and educational
institutions have been reinforced. The number of English-speaking guest
lecturers and professors who work in higher education institutions is rapidly
increasing. More students participate in academic mobility and work programs
abroad. In universities trilingual education centers which coordinate
university policy in trilingual education and provide for the training and
professional development of trilingual specialists, have been established.
Several schools and universities of Kazakhstan have developed
trilingual education programs and a number of integrated courses taught in
English. New school textbooks are published in six languages: Kazakh, Russian, Yigur, Uzbek, Turkish, and German.
The
implementation of trilingualism in Kazakhstani higher
education institutions has been further enhanced by the A Hundred Steps to
Realize Five Institution Reforms Plan of the Nation (20.05.2015) [7] and the
Plan of Enhancement of Trilingual Education for 2015-2016, as of October 30,
2015 [8].
In Part III
of the A Hundred Steps to Realize Five Institution Reforms Plan of the Nation a
gradual transition to English language education in high school and higher
education institution education (Article 79) was stated, in Part IV Identity
and Unity – development and implementation of the “Nurly
Bolashak” National Program and development of the mangilik el values in the school education programs were
mentioned (Article 89) [7]. The Plan of Enhancement of Trilingual Education for
2015-2016, approved by the State Secretary of the Republic of Kazakhstan G. Abdylkalikova [8] is a set of
organizational and informative measures taken in order to motivate Kazakhstani
people of all age to learn Kazakh, Russian and English languages.
It is of
great significance that the concepts of the Trilingual education are being
realized on the regional level. Thus, in August 2015, in East Kazakhstan,
the program of trilingualism development in East Kazakhstan region for 2015-2018 was adopted [9]. The
goal of the program is to establish the necessary organizational,
methodological, pedagogical, and financial support to enhance development of
language competences in Kazakh, English, and Russian. The Program has three
stages. During the first stage (2015-2016 academic year)
the number of English lessons is to be increased and academic groups of 10-12
students are to be formed. All secondary schools of the region are to start
using the same English and Kazakh textbooks and teaching materials. The second
stage (2016-2017 academic year) integrated English,
Kazakh (for secondary schools with instruction in Russian) and Russian (for
secondary schools with instruction in Kazakh) courses in Geography, Biology,
Physics, Mathematics, etc. are to be developed. The system of bonuses for the
teachers of English, Kazakh (for Russian-speaking students) and Russian (for
Kazakh-speaking students) who will provide for high final grades of their
students will be introduced. The final stage, 2017-2018 academic year,
presupposes introduction of assessing communicative competence of students in
four language skills in English, Kazakh, and Russian in accordance with the
European standards А1, А2, В1 [9]. The Program stipulates assistance of the
British Council and Nazarbayev University
and the establishment of three training centers for English teachers where 79
English native speakers will work. Though the program concerns secondary
education, as a result we will get entrant students with better language
proficiency, who will be ready to take trilingual
education programs.
Achievements
in implementation of trilingual education cannot be underestimated,
however, there are some things that can hamper the accomplishment of the goals,
one of them being modification of higher education in accordance with Bologna principles. The SWOT-analysis made by the Center of the Bologna Process and
Academic mobility [10] states it that the state provides support for all
Bologna political and educational aims, the content of graduate and
post-graduate programs is changed in accordance with the Bologna Process in the
majority of Kazakhstani universities, education programs are modified in
accordance with the labor market and needs of the society, development of
international links and partnership with foreign higher education institutions
is possible, as well as greater access to European education and research
facilities. The Bologna Process enhances innovations in the Kazakhstan higher
education system, however, the process is hampered by insufficient
methodological and organizational support and law regulations on implementation
of Bologna principles and parameters in Kazakhstani universities, low
interaction of the universities and the society, difference between Kazakhstani
and European educational systems, lack of regulations in free academic mobility
of students, and few highly-qualified specialists, who could provide for
effective cooperation with foreign education institutions. Besides, Kazakhstani
academic community is not well informed of changes in higher education system
in accordance with the Bologna Process, as well as of its concept. The
situation is worsened by lack of institutions, which would do regular
monitoring of implementation of Bologna
principles in foreign higher education institutions. Therefore, to improve the
situation with academic mobility of Kazakhstani students, which, in general,
can enhance development of trilingual education in the country, implementation
of the Bologna Principles should be accelerated and made systematic not only on
the level of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, but on the university level. We do think it will only be realized
if universities are given more autonomy which is already provided for in the A
Hundred Steps to Realize Five Institution Reforms Plan of the Nation [7].
A real
problem in designing and developing courses for trilingual education programs
is in lack of precise requirements as to the skills and competencies a
trilingual specialist should have on the completion of the education program.
Without filling this gap it is impossible to properly design any course of the
program. Of even greater concern is the focus of those who are in charge for
the realization of the Program on its social and organizational aspects. We
cannot deny the importance of motivating people to learn languages, the
necessity to form closer links with the world leading universities or provide
professional development programs for teachers of English, however, many
efforts may be in vain, if the methodology is not proper. Here there are still
many problems to solve, one of which appears to be with the development of
lingual personality. It is well-known that many problems with acquisition of a
foreign language are connected with insufficient development of language skills
in the native tongue. At the initial stage of language acquisition it is vital
to properly develop phonetic skills, that is, phonemic hearing as well as
connected with it word analysis and synthesis. Otherwise, it will result in
numerous spelling mistakes, more difficulties in learning how to read and write
not only in one’s native, but also in a foreign language the person may study.
Similarly, poor vocabulary, lack of knowledge in combinatory potential,
stylistic stratification of words, and word-building limit the person’s ability
to speak and write properly in any language he/she may use. Poor knowledge of
one’s native language structure not only results in gross mistakes in the
person’s mother tongue, but can make the learning grammar of a foreign language
and, consequently, development of speaking and writing in a foreign language
quite difficult. At times, it is practically impossible, as lack of knowledge
of the native tongue’s structure will lead to language interference which cannot
be compensated. Over twenty years of teaching experience in higher education
institutions have shown significant decrease in first-year students’ language
proficiency in both their native and English languages which may be connected
with the changed school program. In our opinion, successful realization of the
Trilingual Program in Kazakhstan
is only possible if thorough learning of a native tongue is provided at school.
Another issue, which requires consideration, is design and development teaching
materials for Kazakh, Russian and English courses. At present, in an attempt to
develop new language textbooks, educators tend to copy the structure and the
content of some best-selling course books without taking into consideration the
fact that the majority of them are not designed with consideration of the
native tongue of the learners, which can make the process of grammar
acquisition more difficult. Practice shows it that university students who are
learning English with high quality Longman, Oxford University Press and
McMillan textbooks (A1, A2, B1, B2 levels) get good everyday vocabulary and
enough listening practice, however, their grammar
skills are not properly formed. Thus, learning foreign language teaching and
learning from the world experience is necessary, but only on condition that we
remember the goals of language learning in our country, the specifics of the
native, Kazakh/Russian, languages of the learners, and are ready not just to
use the already existing world experience but improve it in accordance with our
ambitious aims.
Another
challenge is design and development of integrated courses as for that not only
good language proficiency, but teaching techniques used in the formation of
language skills are required. Therefore, school and university teachers who are
to give integrated courses should be trained both in the language and in
methods of teaching a foreign language as it is the only way to make a language
integrated course effective. These are only some of many challenges
Kazakhstani educators face, yet there is hope that support of the state,
greater autonomy of the universities and competence of educators will help
realization of trilingual higher education in the Republic of Kazakhstan.