Implementation of trilingual education in Kazakhstan has been on the education reform agenda since getting the independence in 1991. Today there are about 110 schools in Kazakhstan that are implementing teaching science and mathematics disciplines in English (IAC, 2015), consisting of 20 Nazarbayev Intellectual schools, 29 Kazakh Turkish Lyceums and other, mainly special schools (such as lyceums, gymnasiums, etc.). However, as Mehisto (2015) argues, “of the three types of schools that have been designated as trilingual this [Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools] is the only type that teaches content classes through three languages – Kazakh, Russian and English” (p. 159).

In mainstream state schools of Kazakhstan students have one medium of instruction which might be either Kazakh or Russian. In the meantime, when students are accepted to NIS schools from grade 7, they study particular subjects only in Kazakh or Russian languages regardless of their initial medium of instruction. The list of subjects taught in Kazakh as L2 includes History of Kazakhstan and Geography, in Russian as L2 – World History and ICT. Gradually students also start to study Science related disciplines in English, which is the third language (L3). In this way, trilingual education in Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools supports the acquisition of three languages as distinct subjects and, also, the use of these languages as a medium of instruction for non-language subjects to promote both language learning and content learning through implementation of Content and Language Integrated Learning  (CLIL). It is expected that by the end of High School students will achieve both content and language outcomes in those subjects taught in second  and third languages (NIS, 2013).

In 2016 NIS conducted research that focused on the implementation process of the trilingual policy in four Intellectual Schools (NIS 2016). The study was built on the self-reported data from students and teachers as well as classroom observations. The project explored the impact of the particular factors on the students’ achievements within trilingual education framework. The list of explored factors included, but was not limited to attitudes of students and teachers, students’ motivation, expected outcomes, teaching practices, resources, learning environment, etc. In the course of research a following issue was revealed: more than half of the interviewed content teachers stated that, despite of overall positive progress, students do not achieve outlined language and academic outcomes on the subjects taught in L2/L3 by graduation (NIS 2016). The major concern of teachers was mainly around the loss of the content when teaching in CLIL lessons and the development of academic language proficiency. Little attention, which has been paid on investigation of the impact of CLIL strategies on academic and language outcomes during that project, was a call to conduct the next research that will have a closer look on CLIL as one of the crucial impact factors on students’ achievements of content and language outcomes.

Building on these insights, given research is aimed at examining the impact of CLIL on the linguistic and academic outcomes within NIS trilingual policy framework. Specifically, this project attempts to examine the following research questions:

1. To what extent students are achieving academic outcomes outlined in curriculum in those subjects being taught through second language?

2. To what extent students are achieving language outcomes in second language outlined in curriculum?

3. If the learners achieve expected language and academic outcomes in subjects taught in second language, to what extent do these gains appear to be the result of CLIL approach?

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