Kazakhstan should be seen in the whole world as highly educated country, whose population uses three languages: Kazakh language – the state, Russian as a language of international communication and English language – the language of successful integration into the global economy.
N.A. Nazarbayev
In the annual Message of the President of Kazakhstan N.A. Nazarbaev to Kazakhstan people “Socio-economic modernization – main direction of development of Kazakhstan” the relevance of multilingual education was noted, because “one of the most important values and the main advantage of our country is a multicultural and multilingual”. In accordance with the objectives, set by the President in the State Program of Education Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011–2020, State program of functioning and development of languages for 2011–2020 and cultural program “Trinity of languages” by 2020 all people of Kazakhstan should seize Kazakh language, 95 % – Russian language and 25 % – English.
The program of multilingual learning provides the creation of the new model of education that promotes the formation of a competitive generation in the context of globalization, which owns the language culture. Knowledge of Kazakh, Russian and English languages will give to young people the key to world markets, science and new technologies, will create the conditions for the formation of ideological setting for constructive cooperation on the basis of initiation to ethnic, Kazakhstan and world cultures. This year, the first steps towards the introduction of a new model of education in higher education institution were done: education standards are reformed, in the higher education institution special department were opened where teaching is conducted in three languages. It should be noted that multilingual education program, implemented in Kazakhstan, is unique and involves, unlike Western counterparts, parallel and simultaneous training in three languages. The purpose of this program in the Karaganda State Technical University is the implementation of multilingual education, aimed at training highly qualified, competitive professionals of technical specialties, who have a linguistic competence based on parallel learning of the Kazakh, Russian and English languages, mobile in the international educational space and the labor market, capable to intercultural communications. In this regard, in the university were developed the concept and development of multilingual education program (2012–2016 years), aimed at the creation of a continuous multi-leveled phased multilingual training of students of undergraduate, graduate and Masters programs on basic technical specialties – “Mining”, “Thermal Engineering”, “Electric Power”, “Mechanical Engineering”, the Center of multilingual education and language Center, Department of teaching of disciplines in three languages were opened, structure of integrated educational programs was designed, multilingual groups by specified specialties were formed, amount of students was defined, their knowledge was monitored, skilled personnel of teachers with academic degrees, with experience in teaching and working abroad, was involved, defined language competence of teachers, who conduct classes on basic and core disciplines. Educational process is organized in accordance with the requirements of multilingual education: their methodology of foreign language teaching was introduced, methodological framework of multilingual education (educational-methodical documentation in three languages, syllabus, UMKD) was developed.
Currently elaboration of legal and theoretical issues of multilingual education, its scientific, methodological, educational and organizational support with program documents of MES and international experience, as well as retraining of faculty in accordance with the requirements of multilingual education, training of teachers and students of multilingual groups of English and Kazakh languages in linguistic education center of university is carried. Planned to participate in programs of international and intra republic academic mobility, training PhD on seminars and trainings by polylingual education, publication of textbooks, manuals, dictionaries in three languages, the invitation for lectures and master classes of foreign and Kazakh experts in the field of multilingualism and polylingualism.
Further measures for the implementation of multilingual education at KSTU are: the creation of the Center of extracurricular employment of learners of multilingual programs, the development and introduction of new multi-disciplinary, gender sensitive elective courses in three languages, in accordance with international standards, reform of curriculum, the organization of a proficiency test (TOEFL, IELTS) of lecturers, doctoral, master students and undergraduate students of multilingual groups, grants for the study of foreign languages. Implementing of multilingual education requires an expansion of educational space, sharing of experiences, increasing linguistic capital of Kazakhstan people and formation of multicultural personality, effectively functioning in conditions of globalization and pluralistic emocratic society.
Trilingualism – a basic requirement in the educational process of Karaganda State Technical University. For 15 years, according to the requirements of KAU in subjects of foreign languages, Kazakh and Russian philology every hour must be assigned to specific lexical and grammatical topics with full coverage of all possible life topics with taking into account the growth of the knowledge of the student. In the work programs on language subjects should be indicated levels of language groups. In the outline of the class descriptive terms should not to be, and abstracts, revealing the basic essence of the topic should be presented, including definitions, formulas, examples of calculations, tables, graphs, charts, diagrams, drawings, etc. The volume should be no less than one page and should be prepared at least on two languages from the fifth classes:
– Kazakh language (required), and the language of instruction.
– For the disciplines, taught in the Kazakh language, second language – English.
In all training units of KAU during the development of handout is required to make a glossary by the subject, which should include new terms used in the study of the given topic (from 7 to 15 terms), for linguistic disciplines from 10 to 15. Glossary is prepared in three languages: Kazakh, Russian and English. By the first, term is indicated on the language of instruction and its interpretation, then on the two other languages – only translation of the term. Considering that the terms of art are specific and difficult to remember, for these subjects in elementary school the number of words in the glossary should correspond to the age peculiarities (from 4 to 7). It is just part of the innovations of KAU by introduce three languages in which students of Karaganda University work and study. They contribute to the development of communication skills of students. In addition, training in three languages and, as a consequence, their almost perfectly possession by it will promote academic mobility of students, their ability to navigate freely in the international space and culture, and traditions of different peoples. And this is something different, as the formation of diverse, educated and polylingual personality. Already from this year in higher educational institutions of the country on the Russian offices of universities of Kazakhstan are introduced disciplines in foreign and state languages. KSTU is among the few universities in Kazakhstan, where the system is used in practice. “Our university implements multilingual education, which about the Head of State said in his Message”. We use the world experience of the best schools. There are lectures of foreign scientists. In this year 7 foreign teachers visited KSTU. They hold master classes and talk about innovative techniques. KSTU is involved in a pilot project, approved by the Ministry of Education and Science. In the University developed and published educational and methodological literature for teaching new subjects of undergraduate program – “Professional Kazakh (Russian) language”, “Professionally-oriented foreign language”. Scientific research in the field of development of languages in the sociolinguistic laboratory center is conducted. According to the program of academic mobility, doctoral, master students and undergraduate students of KSTU have the opportunity to study and internships in countries near and far abroad – the U.S., Germany, Japan, Poland and others. To the educational process scientists and consultants are involved from Germany, Japan, USA, Italy, Brazil and other countries that offer lessons in English.
“Polylingualism – the basis of the formation of multicultural personality”.
It is known that only the state can successfully develop and blend well with a number of leading countries in the world, which will be able to create for its citizens decent working conditions for the acquisition of high-quality and modern education. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has set a high bar to the domestic education. It should become a competitive, high-quality, so that graduates of the Kazakh school could easily continue their education in foreign universities.
Obviously, the effectiveness of multilingual education in our country is directly linked to a comprehensive solution of the existing problems in this area. Purposeful work by ensure the quality of training and further training of teachers, including multilingual education is done by Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MES). The realization of proposed (by the State Program of Education Development in the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011–2020 years) mechanism of extension of volume of loans by foreign language in cycle of basic disciplines with introduction of changes in the standard curricula is a consistent step in solving the pressing problems of language training of future specialists. Expansion of credits for learning languages is already reflected in the state standards in the direction of “Education”. Now the students of the third year of study in the amount of 2 credits will learn discipline “Professional Kazakh / Russian language”, “Professionally Oriented Foreign Language”. Ministry of Education and Science has also initiated the implementation of the Republican budget program “Further training and retraining of staff of state organizations of education”, which provides improving the linguistic qualifications of lecturers by professional oriented English language from all regions of Kazakhstan.
In accordance with order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated 02.07.2011, № 281 “About the extension of the experiment on early learning of English in secondary schools” based on a model curriculum for in-depth study of subjects, approved by Order of the Executive responsibilities of MES from 06.09.2010 № 445, in all schools in the Republic of Kazakhstan in 2 classes English language (2 hours) was introduced. In associated UNESCO school at KAU an experimental program was developed, which’s aim is to introduce a unified model of learning of the Kazakh and American (Senior High School) schools for training and education comprehensively harmoniously developed personality,who is capable to freely navigate in the international space, to fluent by Kazakh, Russian and English languages,who already decided and chose profession and gained knowledge of its fundamentals in school, who tends to find its rightful place in society and to be a true patriot of his homeland. First of all, education must become a competitive, high-quality, so that graduates of Kazakh schools could easily continue their studies in foreign universities. Today we can say about the finalization of the institutional support of the realization of State Program of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011–2020 years, one of the basic competencies that are trilinguism, Eurasian multiculturalism, communicativeness and technocratic. In basic provisions of concept need of qualitative knowledge of a foreign languages of graduate of the modern school is referred – this is the most hot topic in issues professional education of young people, because intense paces and level of development of science and technology in the world require perfect knowledge of foreign languages for better and proper obtaining of the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge and skills. Problems associated with polylingualism cause problems on the way of implementation of international standards. The most important strategic task of education is, on the one hand, keeping the best Kazakh educational traditions, on the other hand, provision of school leavers by international qualification qualities develop their linguistic consciousness, based on it – acquisition the state, native and foreign languages. Kazakhstan, remaining ethnic and confessional state, is experiencing today a complex and contradictory period of its cultural and linguistic development is demonstrated by the language situation, the characteristic of which is given in the Concept of the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It should be noted that virtually in all the documents in the language policy a core idea is the necessity of mastering several languages. The concept of expanding of the scope of functioning of the state language, improving its competitiveness in 2007–2010 is aimed at improving the quality of teaching the state language, ensure of the functioning of the state language in all spheres of public life, enhancing its role as a factor in strengthening inter-ethnic harmony and Kazakhstan patriotism. The concept of the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan determines the Russian language as the main source of information on various fields of science and technology, as means of communication with the near and far abroad. In this regard, the problem of language education has a new sound. Source in this case is the idea that learning any language must be accompanied by the study of culture of native speakers. Moreover, this process should be sinkretly, not in separate planes. In this regard, it would be correct to speak about poly-lingual cultural education, which’s result should be multilingualism of citizens of society. Terms of multilingualism should form the native language, that reinforces the awareness of belonging to their ethnic group, the Kazakh language as the state, ownership of which contributes to the successful integration of civil, Russian language as a source of scientific and technical information, and other non-native foreign languages, which develop the human capacity for self-identity in the world Community. Therefore, the study of language as one of the main indicators of human adaptation to the new socio – political and socio- cultural realities is now an actual scientific and theoretical, scientific and practical task. In addition, was objectively occurred necessary to rethink the traditional concepts of language policy and language situation, which were established in period of independence.
Most clearly this problem in relation to the language situation of modern Kazakhstan is reflected in the Message of President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev “New Kazakhstan in a New World” from 2009, where in order to ensure the competitiveness of the country and its citizens was offered a phased implementation of the cultural project “Trinity of languages”, according to which we need to develop three languages: Kazakh as the state language, Russian as a language of international communication and English as the language of successful integration into the global economy. Under these conditions, the problem of formation and development of multilingual education is updated, including issues of development of its theoretical and methodological grounds. Answers to questions related to the problem of multilingual education due to its versatility and diversity, can be found only on the condition of the study, systematic and comprehensive analysis of the theoretical concepts of various scientific schools. Therefore, for our study works of scientists in the field of philosophy, ethnology, pedagogy and ethnopedagogy, sociology and ethnosociology, psychology and ethnopsychology, linguistics and ethnolinguistics serve as a methodological reference. Thus, the ideological positions of our study are defined by philosophical teachings of A. Kunanbaev, which has directly relevant to the issue of identity and its formation by the essence of the sociological concept of Sh. Valikhanov and by the ideas of Kazakh educators and teachers Altynsarin I., Aimauytov J., Baitursynov A., Zhumabaev M. And etc., that allow to realize the importance of the mother language in the development of personality.
It is known that only the state can successfully develop and blend well with a number of leading countries in the world that will be able to create for its citizens decent working conditions for the acquisition of high-quality and modern education. Kazakhstan, remaining ethnic and confessional state, is experiencing today a complex and contradictory period of its cultural and linguistic development is demonstrated by the language situation, the characteristic of which is given in the Concept of the language policy of the Republic of Kazakhstan. It should be noted that virtually in all the documents in the language policy a core idea is the necessity of mastering several languages.
Polylingualism – the way to the future.In modern world due to the processes of self-determination of nations, formation of multinational states, the active migration of population the legal solution of issues of language in society became very important task of the state. At first, problem concern the legislative enforcement of languages in the formal and informal communication, in language teaching in schools and universities, in the relations between nations.
Currently, different countries have accumulated some experience of bilingual education. This occurs in regions with natural bilingual environment (Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.), and in states where there is an influx of immigrants who are forced to get used to grow into a foreign culture ( the U.S., Germany and others). In these countries, there are various bilingual courses in which languages are studied not only as a means of communication, but as a way of acculturation in country of studied language, introduction with its history. There is an experience in creating of bilingual schools in several cities of the CIS, which is based on the idea of implementing the concept of continuous bilingual education, from kindergarten to higher education institution.
The aim of education at the present stage are not just knowledge, but also the formation of core competencies that should equip young people for life in society. Five core competencies, required for any specialist today are identified by Council of Europe. Among them – the ability to communicate orally and in writing, that naturally implies the mastering several languages. The main aim in teaching foreign languages to the citizens of European Council is multilingualism: possession of every person in Europe at least two foreign languages, one of them – actively. We can designate the hierarchy of the most studied foreign languages in the Old World, which determine the language policy for the new millennium: the French – Russian – Spanish (Italian – Portuguese). A study, conducted in Germany, showed that for 80 percent of European countries requires knowledge of at least two foreign languages, especially English and French (in conjunction 25:1), and 45 percent – at least three languages (Spanish, Italian, Russian). Not only the exporting firms need knowledge of language, but also importing firms need. In determining the language policy, all three hypostasis are taken into account: the history, present and future. Isolation of only one of them, according to experts, violates the essence of language, preserving a history that enables to live in the present and opening the way to the future. Therefore, literature and culture of the country of the studied language are integral parts of the content of teaching foreign languages. The European Union is one of the compelling examples of aspirations of the modern world to keep polylingualism. Achieving this goal is conceived on the basis of the preservation and support of all the languages of national minorities in Europe. This program is funded and supported by the government and parliament. Modernization of the education system, which is carried out in our country, is primarily concerned with updating of the content, ensuring of its active, developing, culture consistent character with demands of the modern labor market for the mobile professional, communicative competence and creatively thinker professionals. In connection with updating of the content of education, attention is focused on the creation of conditions for the development of the creative personal potential of the student’s and expansion of opportunities of in-depth education, including language training. One of the important tasks of any educational institution is the communion of the younger generation to the universal, global values, the formation of children and young people‘s ability to communicate and interact with representatives of neighboring cultures and in world space. Along with the Kazakh language, which has the status of the state language, and Russian – language of interethnic communication, an important tool in this case, of course, is foreign language. There is a need to consider the role of foreign language in language education of students. It can not be considered as complete if students did not learn at least one foreign language or doing it with a break and bad. We can say quite definitely that not only educational, but also psychological damage is applied to deprived of this right students. The graduates of such schools has a “complex of humanitarian and linguistic inferiority”. In a multicultural ethnogeographical space the substantial part of the population is bilingual. Enriching the student by the heritage of two cultures, bilingualism puts him in more favorable conditions, compared to the conditions of the student who is embarking on the study of a foreign language with knowledge of only mother language. As it is well known, thanks to the phenomenon of transfer, studied foreign language, native and Russian languages enter into the complex interaction, which stimulates or conversely inhibites the process of learning a new language. Comparing three languages, you can pre-identify challenges, anticipate and take into account the typical mistakes, understand the nature and cause of the errors, establish an order of sequential study of linguistic material. At the same time, practice shows that, for example, in rural schools, where social burden usually falls on the mother language, conscious mastery of the material in a foreign language can be successfully implemented under the condition where the teaching is carried out with the support it in own native language. Learning the state language, Russian as a language of international communication, and one foreign, as one of the strategic objectives, defined by the Concept of Development of Education until 2015, guarantees the achievement of educational goals through initiation to a different culture, history, geography, literature, art, science. In doing this, increasing knowledge of own native culture as part of a single world culture, and more conscious and deep mastery of the mother language. Research and practice of interconnected training to native and foreign languages show the enrichment and the positive impact of languages on the full development of personality of students. In this context, transition to learning a foreign language from the 2nd class appears as scientifically valid and legitimate transition. Early learning of foreign language, continuity and coherence in foreign language education allow the use of language, not only in its communicative, but also in cognitive function. The concept of “learning of subject knowledge in a foreign language” suggests the use of language as a means to give students defined knowledge on the subject. Effectiveness of teaching some subjects in a foreign language, taking into account characteristics of the national educational system is proved by experience of several schools in the CIS. Polylingualism and polylingual teaching to foreign languages are an absolute necessity, the imperative of our time, because the whole world is poly ethical, polylingual. And in solving the main problems of the modern world – harmony and understanding between people, overcome the difficulties of interethnic communication, intercultural communication, the maintenance and promotion of situation of polylingualism in each country and between countries can contribute in a greater extent. In my opinion polylingualism – it is not only the development of the country but also the development of itself, as a man of the XXI century. If you want to know the culture of the country you have to learn its language.