Teachers’ perceptions and practices of implementation of student discourse in a selective school in Nur-Sultan

Abstract

Until the end of XX to the beginning of XXI century rote-learning approach and grammar-translated method were widely used in language classes in Kazakhstani schools (Poloz, 2017). However, due to the low effectiveness of traditional education the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan issued a State Program in favour of modern teaching methods conducive to forming communicative and problem-solving skills and the ability to manage information and technology (State Program, 2010). Student discourse is an indispensable part of student-centered approach and thus this study is thought to have vital importance to meet the needs of the State Program in Kazakhstan. Based on the studies and literature, this research pursues the aim to understand how language teachers perceive and implement student discourse in their classrooms in a selective school in Nur-Sultan. The case study design was employed because there was a need to obtain an in-depth study (Crowe et al., 2011). With the help of purposive sampling strategy, two teachers of Kazakh and two teachers of English language were selected as the participants of the study. To receive a good quality data and gather the most important information on how these four teachers carry out student discourse practices, individual interviews and lesson observations were conducted with the consent of the teachers and with due consideration of all NUGSE ethical norms. The qualitative data were analyzed accordingly, which involved such steps as a preliminary data review, the interviews were decoded and categorized. During the interviews teachers had the opportunity to reflect on their practice and start to improve it, also understand the importance of student discourse on the teaching process.