In an article entitled “Trilingualism in Kazakhstan: whim or necessity? it attempts to answer both the question contained in the title and another: does Kazakh society need trilingualism? And is it necessary to master Kazakh, Russian and English to acquire the knowledge necessary “for a comfortable life”?
The author believes that these questions remain open.
Analyzing how much a citizen of Kazakhstan needs each of these languages, Madenov argues that, for example, knowledge of Kazakh is beyond doubt. And not only among national patriots, but also among many Russian-speaking citizens who understand that the state language will have to be mastered “at least for use in simple life situations.”
The study of English does not cause rejection among Kazakhs. The author, for example, advances the following argument: today more than 90% of scientific articles published by scientists from different countries are written in the language of Shakespeare.
And, finally, Russian. It is he who arouses the greatest disputes in the republic. Most often, writes the author, during discussions they ask the question: what function can a Russian perform in the future, if sooner or later the bulk of the population begins to communicate with each other in Kazakh? And isn’t it time to follow the example of the Baltics and the Ukrainians, who have completely abandoned Russian?
However, there is no clear and unambiguous answer to these questions yet, Madenov is sure. In addition, when studying Kazakh, quite serious problems arise. “Russian-speaking parents,” writes the author, “who want their children to master it, complain that the teaching methods do not stand up to criticism.”
It seems that methodologists, authors of textbooks and teachers are absolutely “not interested in the fact that schoolchildren master the official language at a good level”. And even the former Minister of Education of Kazakhstan, Askhat Aimagambetov, now an MP, recognizes this problem. And this is a man who over the past few years has received “full information about the state of affairs in educational institutions.”
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p class=””>Another issue is how the transition to the Latin alphabet, designed in the country, will affect the study of the state language? After all, Russian-speaking schoolchildren (and this is more than a third of the entire student contingent) “find it difficult to master Kazakh in Cyrillic, which is close to them.” According to the author, “one can imagine how difficult the task will be for them after ‘Latinization'”.
“With the study of English, the situation is generally awful”, exclaims the author. Thus, he deplores the results of a recent test conducted by the international educational center Education First, where Kazakhstan took only 99th place out of 111 countries covered by the test and fell into the group with “a very weak mastery from English”.
“We proved to be inferior even to our Uzbek (89th) and Kyrgyz (91st) neighbors, than to the Azerbaijanis (92nd).” All other post-Soviet republics are located above, with the exception of Tajikistan (Turkmenistan did not participate).
Madenov further cites the following data: Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia and Armenia took the average level according to the test results. “Meanwhile,” he summarizes, “after the collapse of the USSR, all of these countries were on equal starting conditions and at that time had roughly the same level of English proficiency. ”
Madenov also points out that while such assessments are not the ultimate truth, “they are food for thought.”
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