Comparison of the Described Cases
The comparison is done so that differ-
ences and similarities between the cases be-
come clearer.
When it comes to the use of the state
language, the minority language and the for-
eign language in education, differences can be
found between the two cases.
In Finland, the Finnish language is usu-
ally the first language to be used as a medium
of instruction and English or Swedish is the
second school language. Thus English can also
be the third language and in a few schools
German or French can be the third language.
However, some schools start with Swedish
immersion for children with Finnish as their
mother tongue and then introduce Finnish and
English.
In primary education in the Basque
Country there are three models with respect to
the three languages. In Model D schools,
Basque can be considered the medium of in-
struction, Spanish the school subject and Eng-
lish is always the third language of instruction.
Model A schools use Spanish as the medium
of instruction and Basque as the school subject
and then there are Model B schools in which
both languages are used equally.
The one thing the two cases have in
common is the fact that the trilingual schools
are in a bilingual region instead of a trilingual
region where all three languages are spoken in
daily life. The third language, English, is
taught as a language that can be used in the
international communication. What is different
between the cases is the function of the minor-
ity language in daily life. Basque is perhaps
much higher valued by the population than
Swedish and Frisian in relationship to the na-
tional language.
Trilingual primary education in the re-
gions at issue has different backgrounds.
Finland has had experience in bilingual pri-
mary education since 1968, when the learning
of two languages became obligatory. In 1991
it became possible to use not only Finnish or
Swedish as a medium of instruction. However,
approval was necessary of the teaching staff,
the students and their parents. Since then, sev-
eral experiments in trilingual education were
initiated.
In the Basque Country bilingual pri-
mary education was regulated in 1982, when
schools could be divided according to three
models. The educational system in the Basque
Country has adopted a third language into
primary education in the early Nineties.
The design of trilingual primary educa-
tion in the different regions is largely depend-
ent on the different attainment goals that are
set for every language.
In the Finnish case, it is mentioned that
ЛИНГВОДИДАКТИКА
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88
it is the intention of the Swedish immersion
programs to better prepare the students for the
labour market, specifically on the Nordic
common trade market. English, as a third lan-
guage is not used in daily life in Finland as
such, although pupils are exposed to English
in the media. Therefore English is less directly
instrumental for most students, although the
foreign language enables them to communi-
cate on an international level. This is probably
the same for the other two cases selected.
In the Basque Country the goals of lan-
guage teaching differ per model. Model A
schools use mainly Spanish and have adopted
Basque and English as additional subjects in
enrichment programs. Model B schools try to
promote proficiency in both Spanish and
Basque and on those schools English is an en-
richment program. The model D schools rein-
force the Basque language in school so chil-
dren become fully competent in Basque and
Spanish, but these schools also try to raise the
level of proficiency in English. Whereas the
pupils in Finland and in the Netherlands are
exposed to a relatively high amount of English
in the media, the pupils in Spain do not regu-
larly see or hear English in daily life.
The age-factor is an important issue in
the discussion about trilingual primary educa-
tion. Different theories exist as to when a sec-
ond and a third language should be introduced
to pupils. The belief that children learn a lan-
guage more easily when they are young is
widespread.
As primary school starts in Finland at
the age of seven, all pupils involved in trilin-
gual primary education first receive teaching
in Finnish and Swedish at the age of seven.
Some pupils already receive language instruc-
tion in two or three languages in pre-primary
school. When that project first started, Swed-
ish was introduced to the children at the age of
six and English was introduced at the age of
nine. Nowadays pupils start with Swedish at
the age of five and English at the age of seven,
whereas Finnish is used for a couple of hours /
week in grade 1 to approximately half of the
instruction time in grade 6.
In the Basque Country the pupils attend-
ing the trilingual programs are younger than in
Finland. Most pupils are introduced to the
three languages successively between the age
of four and six, although primary school does
not start until the age of six, when compulsory
education starts. A few schools introduce Eng-
lish at the compulsory age of eight.
It is difficult to teach a language or use
a language to teach a particular subject, if
teaching materials are not adequate for the
teaching process. This might even have a
negative effect on the motivation for pupils to
learn the target language.
In Finland traditionally a textbook and
an exercise book are used for the teaching
process. Teachers at the primary school use
more and more self-made materials or com-
bine information from different materials. The
teachers also use the library and the possibility
to exchange books on a regular basis, so that
each group of pupils has access to different
books addressing the same subject. This way,
pupils also have the opportunity to learn to
enjoy reading books and get acquainted with
literature. Despite all these provisions there is
still a need for more flexible instruction mate-
rials, developed especially for immersion edu-
cation.
In the Basque Country the materials for
Basque and Spanish are very diverse: text-
books, exercise books, audio-visual materials
and multimedia. All of them are being pub-
lished on a large scale. Teacher trainers and
teachers themselves usually specially develop
the materials for the teaching of English be-
tween the ages four and eight. Teaching mate-
rials for the teaching in English between eight
and twelve are widely available and have been
published by commercial institutions.
For a trilingual program to be effective,
a certain number of hours per week over the
primary school period must be spent in those
languages. In Finland usually Finnish is the
language most used in class. Swedish is used
for only a couple of hours. Where English is
used as a medium of instruction, the time allo-
cated to this language is comparable to Swed-
ish. By contrast, the school in Vaasa uses the
first language (Finnish) in grades 1 and 2 for
two hours per week, while English is used for
one hour per week. The immersion language
(Swedish) is used for the remaining hours (17
hours per week). In grades 3 and 4 Finnish is
used for seven hours per week. English is used
for two hours per week and Swedish is used
for 14 hours per week. In grades 5 and 6 Fin-
nish is medium of instruction for 7-11 hours
ЛИНГВОДИДАКТИКА
Вестник КАСУ
89
per week, English two hours per week and
Swedish 13-17 hours per week.
In the Basque Country the time allo-
cated to the teaching in the three different lan-
guage differs per school model. In model A
schools Spanish is mainly used as medium of
instruction and Basque and English are taught
for three to four hours per week. In model B
schools time is divided equally between Span-
ish and Basque as medium of instruction and
English is taught for three to four hours per
week. In model D schools Basque is used a
medium of instruction and Spanish and Eng-
lish are taught for three to four hours per
week. In some schools English is also used as
a medium of instruction. For example, in three
experimental D type schools, English was
used to teach content for seven hours per week
in grades 3-6.
Not all subjects lend themselves equally
well to be taught in a foreign language. In
Finland practically all subjects can be taught in
Swedish. Mostly environmental studies, music,
mathematics and arts are taught in either Swed-
ish or English. In Vaasa the subjects are taught
in thematic units of different length. It is there-
fore difficult to state what subjects are taught in
which language.
In the Basque Country Spanish is used
for all subjects in model A schools, and Basque
in model D schools. In model B schools each
for them decide when to use which language
for which subject. In principle Basque and
Spanish are both equally used for every subject.
English is usually used for handicrafts, but
some schools teach science, music and sports in
English. Some schools use English in a content
based approach and include units on mathemat-
ics, science or social sciences.
Opportunities for multilingual education in
Kazakhstan
As we have already mentioned multilin-
gualism can be the result of different factors.
Kazakhstan is a unique place, since in com-
bines several of the factors, which determine
the use of two languages on its territory and
stimulate learning of English as the language of
globalization.
There are lots of reasons which deter-
mine use of both Kazakh and Russian lan-
guages on the territory of Kazakhstan because
Russian and Kazakhstan have long established
ties. Historically Russian people lived on the
territory of contemporary Kazakhstan, and Ka-
zakhstan once was a part of the Soviet Union.
Thus, its population has been exposed to the
Russian language for more than one century.
Kazakhstan and Russia have strong eco-
nomic and cultural ties, which were established
ling ago and are still existent. Russian has long
been the language of science, research and
technology, and is still of great importance.
According to the census of 2009 63% of the
population are Kazakhs and about 24% of the
population are Russians [6].
Everything mentioned above creates the
situation in which two languages co-exist and
are necessary in everyday communication.
Beside English and Russian, English has
gained importance as the language of global-
ization and intercultural communication.
Both Kazakh and Russian are used in
governmental organizations, local government
institutions, documentation of state and gov-
ernmental institutions, constitutional docu-
mentation, arbitration courts, military, field of
science (including defense of dissertations);
names of state institutions, texts of seals and
stamps regardless of the form of ownership,
labels of goods, all texts of visual information
[5].
Either Kazakh or Russian may be used
in postal-telegraphic messages and customs
documentation.
Both Russian and other languages (if
necessary) may be used in localities of com-
pact residence of ethnic groups in: documenta-
tion of non-governmental institutions, courts,
documentation of administrative offences,
contracts of individuals and legal entities, re-
sponses
of
governmental
and
non-
governmental institutions to requests of citi-
zens, paper forms, information signs, an-
nouncements, advertisements, price catalogs
and lists; pre-school institutions, orphanages;
high, vocational and higher education; cultural
events; press, radio and TV programs.
The Republic of Kazakhstan has adopted
a policy according to which a lot of attention
should be paid to learning and being able to
communicate in these two languages equally
well. State educational standards imply inte-
grating the three languages into the school cur-
ricula.
Now let us consider school education ac-
ЛИНГВОДИДАКТИКА
Вестник КАСУ
90
cording to the same criteria we used for de-
scribing trilingual schools in Finland and the
Basque country.
Kazakhstan is a bilingual country: the
Kazakh language, spoken by 63% of the popu-
lation, has the status of the "state" language,
while Russian, which is spoken by almost all
Kazakhstanis, is declared the "official" lan-
guage, and is used routinely in business.
In the previous two cases we described
two of the three languages belong to the same
language family: English and Swedish, English
and German. The languages involved in the
trilingual education in Kazakhstan also belong
to two different language groups: English and
Russian both belong to Indo-European lan-
guages of West-Germanic and East-Slavonic
groups respectively, Kazakh is a Turkic lan-
guage.
Attempts to establish trilingual education
have been made since the early 90s when Ka-
zakhstan gained independence. Like in the
Basque country there were established different
models of schools:
Model A schools are intended for native
speakers of Russian who choose to be in-
structed in Russian. Kazakh is taught as a sec-
ond language for five hours a week since the 1
st
grade.
Model B schools are intended for native
speakers of Kazakh who want to be instructed
in Kazakh. Russian is taught as a second lan-
guage for five hours a week since the 1
st
grade.
In both types of schools English is taught
as a foreign language beginning with the 5
th
grade for three hours a week (like in immersion
schools of Finland).
Like in Finland, the national language
program encourages early introduction of sev-
eral languages. Traditionally, the languages are
introduced during specific language lessons and
thus are kept separate from other content les-
sons and are not used as languages of instruc-
tion.
We have already mentioned that teaching
a second and foreign language can be done
through a second/foreign language program or
by immersion language program. It turns out
that none of our secondary schools actually
suggests language immersion programs since
only 13% of the curricula is taught in the sec-
ond language (in Russian for schools with the
Kazakh language of instruction, and in Kazakh
in schools with instruction in Russian), and
even less – 8% of the curricula is taught in Eng-
lish. At that none of these learning is a content
learning; it is acquiring second or foreign lan-
guage for practical purposes. This is probably
the main reason why school graduates are not
proficient in speaking three languages as it is
intended to be.
We have considered the phenomenon of
multilingual education as a social and linguistic
phenomenon. To complete the project we set
certain objectives which have been fulfilled in
the current research.
1) First, we studied the phenomenon of
multilingualism and found out that multilin-
gualism is the ability of an individual speaker
or all members of the community to speak mul-
tiple languages. We described reasons which
contribute to the development of multilingual-
ism, including colonialism, migrations, political
and cultural ties, education, etc.
2) To get a better understanding of what
multilingual education is we studied the experi-
ence of two European countries in establishing
trilingual schools. We studied the language
immersion program in schools of inland and
different models of schools in the Basque coun-
try (Spain).
3) We found out that being different by
their organization trilingual schools in Finland
and Spain have some common features. In par-
ticular, in both cases languages are introduced
to school children at a quite early age and a part
of the content learning in these countries is
done through the second language.
4) Finally we studied the possibilities for
multilingual education development in Kazakh-
stan. We started with reasons that promote use
of several languages in the Republic of Ka-
zakhstan, compared the system of language
learning in Kazakhstan to two described cases
of Finland and Spain, found out similarities and
differences between them. We managed to find
out that in terms of reasons, experience, teach-
ing materials, age of students and etc. our sys-
tem of language learning does not differ much
from the systems of language learning in
Finland and Spain. The reason why Kazakh-
stan’s attempt to establish trilingual education
is less successful in our opinion lies in the fact
that we approach it a second/foreign language
program, not as a language immersion program,
which provides content learning in the language
ЛИНГВОДИДАКТИКА
Вестник КАСУ
91
other than native and thus guarantees better
results.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Beetsma, D. (ed) Trilingual Primary Educa-
tion in Europe. Inventory of the provisions
for trilingual primary education in minority
language communities of the European Un-
ion
2. Delpit, L., Dowdy, J. K. (ed) The skin that
we speak. Thoughts on language and
culture in the classroom. The New Press.
New York
3. Gorter, D. et al. Cultural diversity as an as-
set for human welfare and development.
Benefits of linguistic diversity and multilin-
gualism. Position paper of research task 1.2
4. Hoffmann, C., Towards a description of
trilingual competence. International Journal
of Bilingualism, Vol. 5, No. 1 (March)
2001, pp. 1-17
5. The Constitution of the Republic of Ka-
zakhstan
УДК 378.14:81’243
О РЕАЛИЗАЦИИ КОНЦЕПЦИИ РАЗВИТИЯ КАФЕДРЫ ИНОСТРАННЫХ
ЯЗЫКОВ ПО ПОВЫШЕНИЮ КАЧЕСТВА ПОДГОТОВКИ ПО
ИНОСТРАННОМУ ЯЗЫКУ БАКАЛАВРОВ, МАГИСТРАНТОВ И
ДОКТОРАНТОВ
Сарсембаева А.А.
Концепция развития кафедры ино-
странных языков по повышению качества
подготовки по иностранному языку бака-
лавров, магистрантов и докторантов была
разработана на кафедре иностранных язы-
ков ВКГТУ им. Д. Серикбаева и обсуждена
на УМС университета в 2011 году. Данная
концепция разработана на основе Закона
Республики Казахстан от 27 июля 2007 го-
да «Об образовании» (4); ГОСО РК
5.04.019 – 2011 Бакалавриат. Магистратура.
Докторантура (1; 2; 3); Концепции разви-
тия иноязычного образования Республики
Казахстан (Каз УМО и МЯ им. Абылай ха-
на) (5); Общеевропейских компетенций
владения иностранным языком: Europarat.
Rat für kulturelle Zusammenarbeit: Gemein-
samer europäischer Referenzrahmen für Spra-
chen: lernen, lehren, beurteilen (Strassburg,
2001) (6).
Согласно ГОСО РК 5.04.019 – 2011
(Бакалавриат), дисциплина «Иностранный
язык» входит в цикл ООД, и на данную
дисциплину определяется 6 кредитов, кро-
ме этого, в обязательный компонент цикла
БД
включается
«Профессионально-
ориентированный иностранный язык» в
объеме не менее 3 кредитов.
Согласно ГОСО РК 5.04.019 – 2011
(Магистратура), (магистратура по научно-
му и педагогическому направлению, маги-
стратура по профильному направлению)
дисциплина «Иностранный язык (профес-
сиональный)» входит в обязательный ком-
понент цикла БД, и на данную дисциплину
определяется 2 кредита.
Согласно ГОСО РК 5.04.019 – 2011
(Докторантура) (доктор PhD и доктор по
профилю),
дисциплина
«Иностранный
язык» входит в обязательный компонент
цикла БД, и на данную дисциплину опре-
деляется не менее 4 кредитов.
В связи с поставленными в ГОСО
требованиями, концепция развития кафед-
ры определяет основную стратегическую
цель своей реализации – повышение уров-
ня и качества подготовки бакалавров, ма-
гистрантов, докторантов по иностранному
языку путем формирования у них комму-
никативной, профессиональной, лингвис-
тической, прагматической, дискурсивной и
социо-культурной компетенций.
В содержание лингвистической ком-
петенции входит знание и умение приме-
нять в коммуникативной и профессиональ-
ной деятельности фонологические, лекси-
ческие, грамматические явления иностран-
ного языка в определенном программой
объеме.
Дискурсивный компонент предпола-
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