The Changing Role of Language in Kazakhstani Secondary Education

• In Event: Implementing and sustaining systemic educational change – a three year study of the challenges and key issues

Proposal

The trilingual education policy reform in Kazakhstan requires secondary school teachers to change their approach to teaching in multiple ways. First, it requires science teachers who previous taught their subject in Kazakh or Russian to teach in English—and to have sufficient proficiency in English to teach their subject in English. Second, it requires teachers who previously taught their subject in students’ first language (L1) to now teach that subject in a second (L2) or third (L3) language. In policy documents, the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach is prescribed as the means by which teachers can achieve learning goals in the L2 or L3 (Karabassova, 2018). This
approach both outlines new pedagogical strategies to scaffold learning in the L2 or L3, and demands that content teachers see themselves as language teachers who integrate teaching of content and language in their classes.

Previous case study research has shown the adjustments, challenges and opportunities that teaching content in a new language poses for teachers (Goodman, 2014). The purpose of this presentation is to interpret survey and focus group data from a larger-scale, longitudinal project in this area. To this end, a framework has been developed which integrates conceptualizations of language policy, curriculum reform, CLIL (Karabassova, 2018; Makenova, in preparation), and teachers’ perceptions of the changing role of language (Skinnari & Nikula, 2017, as cited in Makenova, in preparation).

The analysis shows that 1) teachers feel they do not have enough English language knowledge for teaching in English; 2) content teachers across languages privilege teaching of content and do not feel obligated to offer explicit instruction in language in their courses; and 3) teachers do not have sufficient training in CLIL approaches to apply them effectively in their teaching.

Authors

• Bridget A. Goodman, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education

• Moldir Makenova, Master's student at Graduate School of Education, Nazarbayev University

• Laura Karabassova, Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education

• Laila Saparbekkhyzy Abdimanapova, Nazarbayev University