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
Достарыңызбен бөлісу: