Innovation in Language Learning

The present article is devoted to the comparative study of relationship between learning outcomes and curriculum policies and developments in cross-cultural communication (CCC) in Kazakhstan (RK). The project submits recommendation on further enhanced strategies that will help in the development of CCC education in line with modern trends in curriculum issues. It concludes that for any meaningful advancement to be made in the education sector there must be conscious, deliberate, purposeful, directional policy formulation of the implementation of the curriculum.

CCC understanding and sensitivity have become a very important need for us in today’s globalized world. Effective CCC skills are important in a multicultural society as RK because rapidly spreading Modern Innovation Processes of development of System of Multicultural Education of the RK are oriented to its integration into the World Education Area. In this connection addressing to Multicultural and Multilingual (Kazakh, Russian and English) teaching is becoming urgent and a foreign language together with a native language (Kazakh and Russian) is represented as a tool of Special Knowledge of World Cognition, a tool of Self-Education and Multilingual Training.

The need for a paradigm shift from theoretical aspect of CCC and paper certification to a practical application of knowledge necessary for future employment and skills development for self employment should be the cardinal objectives of Kazakhstani education. Curriculum developers should also adopt the interdisciplinary approach to curriculum. Emphasis should be on the changing needs of the society through reliance on the understanding and application of new technologies. Finally, to teach a new curriculum of CCC at all levels of education, the teachers or instructors currently employed by the Government have to receive further training in teaching the new body of knowledge.

Both primary (interviews and surveys) and secondary research (literature review) were carried out to provide empirical materials for a comparative analysis of CCC in this paper. The following research tools were used: 1) Written and oral semi-structured interviews among the students and teachers (either face to face, by telephone, by e-mail) were conducted. The main aim of these interviews was to obtain more detailed information on the use of CCC in everyday life, and their impact on teaching, learning and assessment, and on the provision of teacher training. 2) Research template for the case studies. The case studies used a template reflecting the main research questions of the study. Each item of the template was addressed through desk-based research and complemented by individual interviews with those involved in curriculum development for the qualification concerned.

The main challenges and limitations of the CCC study lie in the difficulties in interpreting the findings in a comparative and representative way.