This paper is based on the ongoing research project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan (MES) and implemented by the Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Education (NUGSE) in partnership with the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. Both presenters are engaged in the trilingual education policy research strand. The objectives of this paper are to explore the difficulties encountered by teacher training institutions in setting up and delivering pre-service teacher education programmes to serve the needs of the emerging trilingual educational system and to identify good practices. We argue that an effective pre-service teacher education system is crucial for successful implementation of the national trilingual education policy.

The promotion of trilingual education has become one of the key elements of the language policy in Kazakhstan, as evidenced in the official rhetoric and strategic programmes (Bridges & Sagintayeva, 2014; Kruzhkova & Firsova, 2009). Kazakhstan presents an interesting case, where Kazakh is promoted as a state language whilst Russian has been widely used as a Soviet legacy. This is in parallel with the introduction of English as a third language of instruction at schools, colleges and universities. English, which has always been a foreign language, is seen as a language of integrating the nation into the global community (Mazhitayeva et al., 2012; Beisenova, 2013; Mehisto et al., 2014, p.152; Yakavets & Dzhadrina, 2014, p.43).

The interest in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and relevant pre-service teacher education is growing in Europe, where various context-specific practices are found in the United Kingdom, Finland, France, and Germany among others. CLIL as “a dual-focused educational approach in which an additional language is used for the learning and teaching of both content and language” (Coyle et al., 2010, p.1) can become a solution for increasing and maintaining linguistic proficiency of Kazakhstani students in the three languages. The implementation of trilingual education commenced in 2007 as the MES designated 33 pilot schools. The number of trilingual schools is to reach 700 by 2020 (MES, 2010). However, this is only possible if sufficient numbers of teachers are adequately trained in aspects of trilingual education and CLIL. The research conducted by the NUGSE project in 2013 suggests that pilot schools still face acute problems of shortage of such teachers.

According to the MES, 10% of the teachers would teach Sciences and Mathematics in English (MES, 2010, p. 19) by 2015 and 15% by 2020. To this end, the Strategic Programme for Educational Development (MES, 2010, p. 26) envisages teacher training and an update of the standard curriculum. However, this figure was only 0.15% among teachers of Mathematics and Sciences in 2014 (MES, 2014, p. 52). Since 2008, several universities have engaged in piloting preparation of teachers who would teach subjects in English. However, there is little clarity as to how universities are finding their own ways and developing their best practices. In order to enhance the implementation of trilingual education, the Ministry are about to introduce a Strategic Plan for Trilingual Education and Research for 2015-2020. The research into the current practices is required in order to assist in setting up the envisaged national pre-service teacher training system.

The paper focuses on the following priorities of trilingual education:

-        how teacher training institutions have changed their academic programmes to respond to the needs of pedagogical cadre to deliver trilingual education;

-        to analyse current practices at these institutions to deliver quality teacher education programmes in trilingual education and identify challenges;

-        to identify existing developed good practices that could be used for further dissemination in other teacher training institutions. 

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