IMPLEMENTATION OF TRILINGUAL EDUCATION IN KAZAKHSTAN: REVIEW OF PECULIARITIES AND DIFFICULTIES

Abstract

Global changes in the modern world of economy, politics, culture and education impose more attraction to multilingualism. Multilingual members of the society outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population, and the first group is constantly and rapidly growing. This article is an attempt to shed light on the process of trilingual education implementation which is now being introduced in Kazakhstan at all levels of education. Firstly, the authors highlight the main motives for choosing Kazakh, Russian and English as the target languages for the “Cultural Project of Trilingualism”. They offer a brief outline of the historical development of multilingualism in the country and characterize the language policy of trilingualism pursued in Kazakhstan now. The article explores some peculiarities of trilingual education in Kazakhstan in comparison with other multilingual countries. Furthermore, the authors dwell on the main difficulties and give recommendations for successful implementation of trilingual education in the country.