INTEGRATING MULTILINGUALISM IN TEACHER EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF CURRICULUM AND PRACTICE IN ONE KAZAKHSTANI UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Kazakhstan’s trilingual policy has accelerated demand for teachers who can orchestrate learning in Kazakh, Russian and English, yet evidence suggests that many pre-service programs still treat these languages as parallel rather than integrated domains. Addressing this tension, the present case study examined how one state university’s teacher-education program prepares future educators for multilingual classrooms. Guided by Cenoz’s continua of multilingual education, the study combined document analysis of curriculum with semi-structured interviews involving an administrator, a teacher educator and a pre-service teacher. The qualitative design allowed close inspection of both stated intentions and lived practice. Findings showed that while the curriculum guarantees additive proficiency through compulsory courses in Kazakh, Russian and English, it offers no dedicated module on multilingual pedagogy, translanguaging or cross-linguistic assessment. Stakeholders unanimously valued multilingualism but described its classroom use as improvised: lecturers decide ad hoc when to code-switch, large heterogeneous groups hinder differentiated language support, and minority languages remain invisible. These gaps position the program towards the compartmentalised pole of Cenoz’s language-integration continua, limiting its capacity to translate linguistic capital into equitable learning opportunities. The study recommends inserting a mandatory, practice-oriented course on multilingual pedagogy, supported by staff development and clearer national guidelines, to shift teacher preparation from additive to integrative multilingualism. Such reforms could help Kazakhstan realize the transformative promise of its trilingual agenda.