Conducting Research Multilingually in an English-Medium University: Narratives of a Student and a Supervisor

• In Event: Researching Multilingually: Perspectives, Perceptions, and Possibilities

Abstract

Purposes
Kazakhstan, an independent country from the Soviet Union since 1991, has developed multiple policies to increase its global economic competitiveness and international integration. This includes funding universities to teach in English and to partner with international universities in research and supervision. Within this context, Nazarbayev University was established in 2010 as a research-intensive, highly internationalized English-medium university with 4,828 (Nazarbayev University, 2017) undergraduate and graduate students, and over 400 faculty members from over 50 countries.

The purpose of this presentation is to offer a dual perspective on both communication and research processes for PhD students and supervisors from this multilingual context. The first author is an American Master’s and PhD thesis supervisor who is proficient in spoken Russian and generally plurilingual. The second author is a Kazakhstani postdoctoral scholar who recently completed a PhD on the topic of students’ transition to higher education and is fluent in Russian, Kazakh and English.

Perspective(s)
Previous research on Master’s and doctoral supervision for the students whose first language is other than English has identified that such students often experience difficulties with interpreting supervisors’ feedback, understanding complex epistemological concepts (Harwood & Petrić, 2017) and academic English writing (Strauss & Walton, 2005). In addition to that, in multilingual contexts the doctoral researchers often use a range of languages to collect the data and the process of operating among these languages in data analysis and writing up is not always straightforward (Holmes et al, 2013).

Based on this literature, the authors developed a guiding framework focused around five themes: 1) establishing an understanding of epistemological concepts; 2) teaching and learning new research purposes and practices; 3) developing advanced academic writing skills in English; 4) appropriately translating field-specific concepts among three languages in research documents; and 5) switching among languages in data collection and data analysis.

Modes of Inquiry & Data Sources
The authors wrote separate autobiographical narratives (Clandinin, 2007; McNiff, 2007) framed by the above-mentioned themes. These narratives resulted in a synthesized reflection on challenges that are shared by students and supervisors, and challenges each party might not be aware of.

Substantiated Conclusions
Analysis revealed that issues in understanding concepts, learning research practices, and developing academic English skills are layered with additional, unexpected challenges when practiced among supervisors and students with different language repertoires. In addition, there are frequent practical challenges such as translating consent forms into multiple languages, choosing appropriate language(s) for participant access and data collection, and transcription and translation of data. The need to render final products in English rather than the original language at times poses a burden.

Scholarly Significance
The presenters conclude with suggestions for universities, students and supervisors to have open conversations about language needs and to find resources in the university or community in order to navigate these and other language-specific issues in English-medium university contexts.

Authors

• Bridget Goodman, Nazarbayev University

• Ainur Almukhambetova, Nazarbayev University