Monoglossic vs Multi-/Plurilingual Language-Teaching Approaches in Kazakhstan’s Aktobe District: Perspectives of Key Stakeholders (teachers, school administrators, parents and students).

• In Event: Multilingualism and Quality Education in Post-Soviet Spaces and the Diaspora

Proposal

Notwithstanding the objectives for the widespread implementation of trilingual education reforms in Kazakhstan, questions have been raised concerning the policy's lack of clarity, which led to misrepresentation and misunderstanding among stakeholders involved in implementing the policy (Author 1 et al., 2018; Author 2 et al., 2017; Goodman & Karabassova, 2018; Karabassova, 2020; Mehisto et al., 2014). Little is known about the beliefs and practices of school administrators, teachers, students, and parents towards teaching, learning, and using the state language (Kazakh), the regional language of wider communication (Russian), the global language of wider communication (English), and non-dominant / minority languages of Kazakhstan (Karabassova, 2022). Given the reported gap between educational effectiveness and implementation of trilingual education between rural and urban areas, and developing inequality between Kazakh-medium / Russian-medium rural and urban schools, and the dominance of Kazakh-language in rural areas (Ahn & Smagulova, 2023; Nurbayev, 2021), we argue that more multilingual, even plurilingual approaches to subjects taught via Russian and English-medium, would support not only better learning of these second and third languages, but also of curriculum content, and contribute to improving rural students’ learning outcomes. In support of this argument, it is important to determine to what degree stakeholders support and enact trilingual policy via monoglossic or heteroglossic perspectives in a multinational Kazakhstan, as well as their awareness of research in support of relaxing boundaries between languages via plurilingual approaches, including code-switching / translanguaging, as well as multilingual teaching materials. In our work we are conducting focus group discussions and interviews with school administrators, teachers, students, and parents about their perspectives on the use of monoglossic vs multi- and plurilingual approaches to language teaching in schools in Kazakhstan’s Aktobe district and their beliefs and practices towards teaching, learning, and using Kazakh, Russian, and English at schools. We aim to bring greater understanding of various stakeholders’ beliefs and practices, what they do and why they do it, while bringing them into dialogue with research evidence on these issues as an attempt to focus on changing language policies and practices in society and education. Such research, we argue is necessary for understanding and implementing conceptions of quality education that meet the expectations of key stakeholders, besides the state itself (Author 2, 2012)

Authors

• Stephen A Bahry, OISE, University ofToronto

• Gulzhana Kuzembayeva, K. Zhubanov Aktobe Regional University