TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN A MULTILINGUAL CLASSROOM Abstract English learning received a big boost in 2010 when the Ministry of Education and Science
of the Republic of Kazakhstan launched the State Program of Education Development in the
Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020. The reforms provide a number of initiatives, including the
introduction of the trilingual education system at all levels of education, which aims to shape the
future generation, fluent in Kazakh, Russian and English languages. In this regard, this article aims
to discuss some of the major challenges faced by the teachers of English in the multilingual classes
in higher education of Kazakhstan. For this, 20 teachers and 60 students from Karaganda State
Technical University were sampled with separate questionnaires. The data was collected through
interviews and classroom observations. Major findings revealed a number of problems faced by
teachers and students. The study suggests some strategies to cope with these challenges.
Key words: multilingual classroom, teaching English, challenges, language of instruction.
I ntroduction. Speaking more than
two languages means that you are
multilingual. Multilingualism is not a rare
phenomenon. It’s the norm for the country
like Kazakhstan where representatives of 130
nationalities live here. According to the 2016
census, there are two dominant ethnic groups
in Kazakhstan: ethnic Kazakhs (66.48%) and
ethnic Russians (20.61%) with a wide array of
other groups represented, including Ukrainians,
Uzbeks, Germans, Tatars, Uyghurs, Koreans,
and Meskhetian Turks. Current reforms in
language policy are focused on the need of
trilingual education. The objectives of language
policy of the modern Kazakhstan are reflected
in the Address of President of Republic of
Kazakhstan, N. Nazarbayev, "Kazakhstan in the
New World" (2007), in which the framework
of competitiveness of country and its citizens,
proposed phased implementation of the cultural
project called "The Unity of Three Languages",
aimed to the development of three languages:
Kazakh as the state language, Russian as the
language of international communication
and English as the language of successful
integration into the global economy. Moreover,
the educational issues on trilingual policy
are mentioned in the policy documents of the
State program of education development in
the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020.
According to this State program, the English
language should be studied not only as a foreign
language but also be used as the language
of instruction at all levels of education [1].
Language plays a crucial role in terms of the
internationalization of cultures, the globalization
of intercultural tour communication. As some
linguists consider the language is a whole world,
able to lexically and semantically embrace the
entire multifaceted culture, all the multisyllabic
society [2].
Many linguists define bilingualism
/multilingualism as ‘master over two or more
languages’. Although, ‘bilingualism’ can mean
knowing any two languages at any proficiency
level, in this paper it is used to refer to a person
who has two native languages. ‘Multilingualism’
is used to refer to someone who has two or more
native languages. In this study, ‘native language’
is used to a language that is learned from birth,
which is Kazakh, and ‘second language’ is used
to refer to a language that is learned at a late
stage, which is Russian. This paper primarily
examines learners of English as a Foreign
Language (EFL).