Students` Perceptions and Experiences of Academic Kazakh in one Kazakhstani EMI University

Abstract

Across many contexts, there has been an upsurge of interest in developing the requisite language skills to effectively communicate in academic discourse. This implies that language skills have specific features in academia that are inconsistent with everyday language (Christison & Krahnke, 1986; Cummins, 1999). Although academic language is commonly associated with English as the academic lingua franca, it is crucial to develop students’ academic skills in any language due to the emerging field of multilingual language education. In this sense, this study focuses on the use and development of Kazakh as an academic language which can be considered as an embodiment of the Kazakh language modernization. Thus, the current study explores students` perceptions and experiences of academic Kazakh in one Kazakhstani English-medium instruction (EMI) university. It also explores whether or not English for academic purposes (EAP) as a part of EMI influences students` Kazakh academic language development. This study used an interview-based qualitative research design in which eight students were interviewed after taking academic Kazakh language courses. The findings revealed that students perceive academic Kazakh as a scientific language aimed at developing the Kazakh-medium academic and research community in Kazakhstan. The majority of students believe that academic Kazakh courses are necessary for expanding the use of the Kazakh language in educational domains. It was also found that students` experiences are predominantly related to academic writing, which has developed under the influence of EAP, concerning writing style and organization. The significant challenge was to translate the English discipline-specific terminology due to the lack of equivalents in the Kazakh language, which might result in the limited use of discipline knowledge in the academic Kazakh communication. From a multilingual perspective, the study concludes that there are implications for academic biliteracy, whereby students can develop both Kazakh and English language skills for academic purposes.