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EMI and CLIL in Kazakhstani Higher Education: Current Policies and Future Possibilities

  • Bridget Goodman

    Bridget Goodman is Associate Professor and Director of the MA in Multilingual Education at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. She is Principal Investigator of the Nazarbayev University Collaborative Research Program (CRP) grant, “Building Capacity for Teaching and Research in STEM Teacher Education in Kazakhstan: A Research-Practice Partnership” (2021-2024). Her research and supervision interests focus on the policy and practice of English as a Medium of Instruction in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

    , Aliya Assylbekova

    Aliya Assylbekova is a research assistant at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. Her research interests concern higher education policy and quality assurance in higher education.

    and Almira Yembergenova

    Almira Yembergenova is a research assistant at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include applying CLIL in STEM, and professional development of school and university teachers in terms of multilingual education.

Published/Copyright: February 28, 2025
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Abstract

Since joining the Bologna Process in 2010, the Kazakhstani government has increasingly encouraged universities to develop full or partial (i.e., trilingual) English-Medium Instruction (EMI) programs. In other contexts, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) has simultaneously been advocated as an approach to teaching English and additional languages in higher education and treated as a separate entity from EMI (Macaro, 2018). Whether CLIL is advocated in policy or practice in Kazakhstani EMI contexts remains an empirical question. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic overview of national policy documents and select institutional curriculum documents. The analysis will consider not only concrete policies and pedagogies but also ideological and implementational spaces (Hornberger, 2020) for CLIL pedagogy development. The paper concludes with recommendations for what may be possible and beneficial for the implementation of CLIL pedagogies in Kazakhstani higher education.

About the authors

Bridget Goodman

Bridget Goodman is Associate Professor and Director of the MA in Multilingual Education at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. She is Principal Investigator of the Nazarbayev University Collaborative Research Program (CRP) grant, “Building Capacity for Teaching and Research in STEM Teacher Education in Kazakhstan: A Research-Practice Partnership” (2021-2024). Her research and supervision interests focus on the policy and practice of English as a Medium of Instruction in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Aliya Assylbekova

Aliya Assylbekova is a research assistant at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. Her research interests concern higher education policy and quality assurance in higher education.

Almira Yembergenova

Almira Yembergenova is a research assistant at Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include applying CLIL in STEM, and professional development of school and university teachers in terms of multilingual education.

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Acknowledgments

This paper was supported by the Nazarbayev University Collaborative Research Program (CRP) 20212024 grant, “Building Capacity for Teaching and Research in STEM Teacher Education in Kazakhstan: A Research-Practice Partnership” (021220FD2210).

Published Online: 2025-02-28
Published in Print: 2025-02-25

© 2025 BFSU, FLTRP, Walter de Gruyter, Cultural and Education Section British Embassy

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