Shaikhyzada Zh. G., Khajayeva Zh. B.

Academician Н.A. Buketov Karaganda State University

Some issues of foreign language teaching at Kazakhstan’s universities in conditions of multilingual education

Nowadays Kazakhstan’s society is characterized by transparency to the world community and expansion of communication with representatives of various world countries in all fields of professional activity. As far as science and education concerned, significant advantages in terms of expanding opportunities for international cooperation in these fields and full participation in the international educational space have been offered with the introduction and the consistent implementation of the Bologna Process in the country, which is an essential condition for a high level of education in terms of teaching foreign languages.

The issues of developing foreign language teaching have been of prime importance in the country for the last years. This need for enhancing foreign language education is being caused by the changes Kazakhstan’s education system is presently undergoing which are aimed at developing international activity of higher educational institutions, increasing academic mobility of students and teachers, providing possibilities for Kazakhstan’s citizens to participate in international educational and scientific projects, etc. All this has led to the introduction and the development of multilingual education in the education system of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The turn of the country’s education system to multilingual education is explained by the fact that multilingual education, at its best, (1) multilingual in that it uses and values more than one language in teaching and learning, (2) intercultural in that it recognizes and values understanding and dialogue across different lived experiences and cultural worldviews, and (3) education that draws out, taking as its starting point the knowledge students bring to the classroom and moving toward their participation as full and indispensable actors in society - locally, nationally, and globally [1;12].

Multilingual education in Kazakhstan is based on the principles of the national project "Trinity of languages". According to the project multilingual education in conditions of Kazakhstan’s system implies the compulsory acquisition of three languages during the training process: the study of Kazakh as the state language, Russian - as the language of interethnic communication in the country and English - as the language of the successful integration into the global economy and international community. Teaching these languages is not considered only as teaching a subject directed on the formation of linguistic competence and personal development of students but also as the process of mastering the basic knowledge and skills for effective professional activity in each of the three languages. In addition, in Kazakhstan’s education policy the study of foreign languages (not only English) is one of the most important criteria for practical and professional life activity of an individual in the modern multilingual and multicultural world.

Studying Kazakhstan’s standards of higher education in recent years, it should be noted that there is the increased level of foreign language proficiency requirements for the students of non-linguistic faculties in terms of the ability to produce professional information and exchange information at the understandable level for recipients. In this case, the analysis of such skills in practical terms allows us to identify insufficient level of development of communication skills. From this it follows that there is a need for such an organization process of teaching foreign languages, which would encourage integrating didactic, psychological, linguistic, socio-cultural and methodological tools that contribute to the successful development of communicative competence especially in professional fields of interaction [2; 32].

Thus, it can be stated that alongside with the mastery of professional knowledge and skills the successful acquisition of the specialty language is of a great significance as well. Consequently, the purpose and the content of the training process should be also focused on the communication profile of the specialty.

The use of new teaching technologies for improving the efficiency of professional competence of future specialists is an important part of the government’s policy in the modernization of the system of higher education. The most productive and promising among them are professionally-oriented educational technologies which allow to organize the educational process in the view of professional specialization as well as to focus on the individuality of a student, his interests, attitudes and abilities.

The purpose of professionally-oriented language teaching in universities is the future specialist’s acquisition of communicative competence required for professional communication, mastery of oral and written communication in the language of specialization as a means of information activities and further self-development. It involves the mastering of a foreign language for both the development of personal qualities and professional skills, the knowledge of the culture of the country of a studied language and the acquisition of specialized skills based on professional and linguistic knowledge. The essence of professionally-oriented foreign language teaching also lies in its integration with subspecialties in order to obtain additional professional knowledge and professionally significant qualities of a person. The basis of these requirements and standards relate to the Common European Framework of Foreign language proficiency level unifying requirements for the level of language learning for all of Europe. Hence, as it is stated in the Concept of the Development of Kazakhstan Republic's Foreign Language Education the studying of professionally-oriented foreign language can be structurally and meaningfully presented in the form of the following formula: level В2 + LSP (language for the specific purposes), that corresponds to the international standard level of foreign language proficiency [3;15].

The analysis of the practice of professional education in Kazakhstan’s higher educational establishments shows that the process of teaching foreign language is facing a number of factors negatively affecting the quality of education. These are the low level of language knowledge and skills of the majority of school leavers entering higher education and the mismatch of educational and methodological, technological, organizational and human resource bases of educational establishments with the modern requirements of the modernization of education system and international standards.

Despite growing numbers of students with diverse language backgrounds attending multilingual school systematic and structured professional training of teachers and educational managers to work in multilingual schools is still relatively rare. If there is no shortage of language teachers in the country, universities are experiencing a great lack of teachers of other subject fields like physicists, mathematician, biologists, etc. who are able to teach in a foreign language. In the world in general there are few leadership education programmes for educational managers which address the challenges of running multilingual educational establishments and, thus, managers are typically ill-equipped to deal with the complexities of language education policy and practice [4; 16].

However, it should be noted that systematic studying of process of language teaching at Kazakhstan’s universities in conditions of multilingual education has just started. Methodological, theoretical and technological bases of training professional-oriented foreign language discipline are not fully developed. Yet professionally-oriented foreign language teaching is recognized now as a priority in higher education system and in the country there is a new modelling of teaching in general and teaching a foreign language in particular.

References

1. Multilingual Education Policy and Practice: Ten Certainties (Grounded in Indigenous Experience) Nancy H. Hornberger “Working Papers in Educational Linguistics” 24/2: 1-18, 2009.

2. Shaturnaya, E.A. Methods of teaching foreign language professional discourse by means of training-speech situations and role playing. PhD thesis – Tambov, 2009.

3. The concept of Development of foreign language education Republic of Kazakhstan - Almaty: Kazakh Ablai Khan University of International Relations and World Languages, 2006. [ER] www. ektu.kz›media/140700/conception.pdf 24.10.2015

4. Jim Anderson, Christine Hélot, Joanna McPake, Vicky Obied - The linguistic and educational integration of children and adolescents from migrant backgrounds//Studies and Resources. Document prepared for the Policy Forum ‘The right of learners to quality and equity in education - The role of linguistic and intercultural competences’Geneva, Switzerland, 2-4 November 2010. - 33p.