School of Education

Implementing a Translingual Approach in a Trilingual Environment (Kazakhstan)

In 2015, Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Culture and Sport put forward an ambitious policy, the Roadmap of Trilingual Education Development for 2015-2020. This policy stipulates the learning of three languages simultaneously starting with the early years and continuing into Higher Education: Kazakh (state language), Russian (interstate language in CIS countries), and English (international language). The major challenge since the activation of this policy has been the development of appropriate pedagogies, materials and technical resources, the lack of coherent teacher training and the variable competency of teachers, as well as the lack of a unified methodology of trilingualism (Moldagazinova, 2019; Umurzakova, 2017).

To meet these critical needs, this project collaborated with primary and secondary teachers in Almaty (coordinated by Dr. Pak and Dr. Agbo), as well as with creative artists to develop new teaching approaches and materials for the classroom. Using the theoretical framework of translanguaging and a translingual pedagogical approach, the research team implemented, developed and tested the applicability of these frameworks in the context of the translingual environment in Almaty, Kazakhstan. This project drew on the success of a similar project implemented in Glasgow which resulted in a toolkit (https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/gc/creativepracticestranslang/resources/) that we adapted and expanded in the context of English language learning in Almaty.