Доклады казахской академии образования Ежеквартальный журнал издается с 2008 года

57 
should be noted that the influence of English is much broader and deeper: 
Latin was the “caste language of the literate few” [1, p. 40], while English 
covers different layers of society and occurs in all spheres of human activity. 
Due to the rapid development of international contacts in the world in the 
second half of the XX-th century and the beginning of the XXI-th century, 
English has strengthened its position in intercultural and interethnic 
communication.
Researchers link the spread of English with the process of globalisation. 
Widespread use of English has contributed to political, economic, and 
strategic alliances, scientific and cultural cooperation, the media, 
multinational corporations, and the internationalisation of professional and 
personal spheres of individual activities [2]. According to some scholars, the 
emergence of English as the world language is a relatively new phenomenon, 
hence, ‘interpretations are highly controversial; furthermore, assessments of 
these tendencies are often emotionally charged’ [3]. Opponents of the spread 
of English ‘link the struggle against the expansion of English to anti-capitalist 
or anti-imperialist causes, and to the protection of human and community 
rights’ [3, p. 3]. They assume that English can be a threat to other languages 
and the growing dominance of English can be considered as a form of 
“linguistic imperialism” [4]. Other researchers hold an environmentalist 
position, considering linguistic diversity, politics and ecology in a unity, and 
linking the vitality of languages to the culture and the population. Thus, the 
emergence of English in the world as the global language has generated a 
number of conflicting opinions. Despite the positive attitude towards English 
as a lingua franca in interethnic communication, this phenomenon is 
considered a “killer language” [3, p. 2], which has a negative impact on the 
development and the spread of other languages. 
English has undoubtedly become the language of politics, economy, 
science and education. One of the striking examples is the expansion of 
English in education, where English plays an important role in the 
internationalisation of education in general and higher education in particular. 
Pennycook attributes this to the academic mobility of students, because when 
students have the opportunity to study in another country, proficiency in 
English becomes important for a successful intercultural communication [5, 
p. 114]. The process of “Englishisation” of higher education has spread all 
over the world. The issues of expansion of English in higher education have 
been extensively studied in Europe, some countries in Africa, and South-East 
Asia. Promotion of English through the educational environment has recently 
begun in Kazakhstan. Today, Kazakhstan's educational space is undergoing 
significant transformations.  

58 
The research was conducted using higher educational institutions in the 
city of Nur-Sultan. For the most part, it was held at L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian 
National University. To conduct the study, two questionnaires were 
developed: for students and teachers, respectively. The structure of the 
questionnaire was as follows: 
Section A – Information about participants. 
Section B – Attitudes toward promotion of English. 
Each question had several answers using a 5-point Likert scale which 
is differentiated from 1 - Strongly agree, 2 - Agree, 3 - Disagree, 4 - Strongly 
disagree and 5 - Not given. The data were analysed with SPSS 16 programme. 
467 students from courses 1 to 4, learning English as a second language, 
and 53 English language teachers participated in the questionnaire. 21 
students and 12 teachers participated in the interviews.
65% of the students were female, 35% were male. 96.5% of the teachers 
were female, and only 3.5% were males. Coverage of respondents-students 
on the year of study was evenly distributed: 27% of students were freshmen, 
22% were sophomores, 25% were junior students and 26% were senior 
students. The native language for 61.5% of students was Kazakh, 34.2% of 
them indicated Russian, and 4.3% indicated Uzbek as their mother tongue. 
53.2% of the teachers indicated Kazakh as their mother tongue and for 46.8% 
of the participants it was Russian. Most of the students assessed themselves 
as Intermediate users (47%) and Upper-Intermediate users (31%). 12% of 
students referred themselves to the Beginner level of English. 12% of 
respondents assessed themselves as Pre-Intermediate English language users, 
and only 1% of respondents believe that they spoke fluent English. The vast 
majority of teachers (86%) considered themselves as Upper-Intermediate 
users of English, and 14% referred themselves to the Advanced level.
Survey data of students on the promotion of English in Kazakhstan are 
presented in Table 1. 
Table 1 - The attitude of students on promotion of English in the 
educational space of Kazakhstan 
№ 
Possible answers 

жүктеу/скачать 2,64 Mb.

Достарыңызбен бөлісу: