The implementation of trilingual education in secondary schoolsin Kazakhstan: pre-service teacher training inEnglish.

Abstract

The paper examines current challenges and practices in pre-service teacher educationpertinent to the training of student teachers through the medium of English inhigher educational institutions in Kazakhstan. Giventhe introduction of trilingual education in secondary schools, there is an urgent need forpre-service teacher training in English. The most challenging aspect is pre-service training of Mathematics and Science teachers. The State Programme for Educational Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan for 2011-2020 suggests that 15% of teachers of these subjects should be able to teach in English by 2020. According to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan only 0.15% of in-service teachers of Mathematics and Science taught in English in 2014. The paper outlines main challenges encountered inthepre-service teacher training in Englishbased on the qualitative empirical research results. The findings support the idea that thedevelopment of trilingual education in the secondary education sector requires a complex set of measures focussed on the improvement of pre-service teacher training.