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ФИЛОЛОГИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ
THE TEACHERS' PERCEPTION IN IMPLEMENTING ENGLISH LANGUAGE AS A MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION IN TASHKENT STATE UNIVERSITY OF LAW Sharipov F.I. Email: Sharipov6112@scientifictext.ru
Sharipov Feruzjon Isor o 'gli - Teacher, DEPARTMENT OF METHODS OF TEACHING ENGLISH, UZBEK STATE WORLD LANGUAGES UNIVERSITY, TASHKENT, REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN
Abstract: ever since Uzbekistan became independent, it has undergone dramatic transformation in every aspect of life. Along with rapid changes, teaching and learning a foreign or second language has not solely enchanted a myriad of people's mind but also become one of the debatable issues in Uzbekistan.
There are numerous higher education students who are enthusiastic about learning English language. Therefore, the Presidential Decree № 1875 on "The measures of strengthening the system of learning foreign languages" was approved by our former president, Islom Karimov on December 10, 2012. The implementation of Presidential Decree has provided higher education students with a golden opportunity to study their major subjects in English language regardless of any specialties they are persuading.
This paper will scrutinize the effectiveness of this language policy law in the higher education domain and the teachers' perception of utilizing English as a medium of instruction in terms of Tashkent State University of Law. It also depicts information about what kind of additional actions should be accomplished in order to facilitate teaching and learning English language, recommendations, timeline and other further implications. Keywords: language policy, English as a medium of instruction, recommendations, timeline, implications.
ВОСПРИЯТИЕ УЧИТЕЛЯМИ ВНЕДРЕНИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА КАК СРЕДСТВА ОБУЧЕНИЯ В ТАШКЕНТСКОМ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОМ ЮРИДИЧЕСКОМ УНИВЕРСИТЕТЕ
Шарипов Ф.И.
Шарипов Ферузжон Исор угли - преподаватель, кафедра методики преподавания английского языка, Узбекский государственный университет мировых языков, г. Ташкент, Республика Узбекистан
Аннотация: с тех пор, как Узбекистан стал независимым, он претерпел драматические изменения во всех сферах жизни. Наряду с быстрыми изменениями, преподавание и изучение иностранного или второго языка не только очаровало множество людей, но и стало одной из дискуссионных проблем в Узбекистане. Многие студенты высших учебных заведений с энтузиазмом относятся к изучению английского языка. Таким образом, Указ Президента № 1875 «О мерах по укреплению системы обучения иностранным языкам» был одобрен нашим бывшим президентом Исломом Каримовым 10 декабря 2012 года. Реализация Указа Президента предоставила студентам высших учебных заведений прекрасную возможность изучать свои основные предметы на английском языке, независимо от того, какие специальности они получают.
В этой статье будет подробно изучена эффективность этого закона о языковой политике в сфере высшего образования и восприятие преподавателями использования английского языка в качестве средства обучения с точки зрения
Ташкентского государственного юридического университета. Она также отображает информацию о том, какие дополнительные действия необходимо выполнить, чтобы облегчить преподавание и изучение английского языка, рекомендации, сроки и другие последствия.
Ключевые слова: языковая политика, английский как средство обучения, рекомендации, сроки, последствия.
UDC 8-1751
Introduction
Along with a multitude of achievements in every facet of life, English language in Uzbekistan has taken its significant importance in as much as globalization and boom in economy. Although English is flourishing in our country, there is still a debatable issue in teaching English effectively and practically in higher education settings even in specialized foreign institutions.
Context
According to current statistics given by Minster of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education [5], there are about 2,999 students who are persuading jurisprudence in Tashkent State University of Law which is situated in the capital of Uzbekistan, Tashkent. The university is a non-profit public higher education which was established and officially accredited in 1991. Tashkent State University of Law (TSUL) has fifteen departments and thirteen out of fifteen focus on a wider range of areas of law. When it comes to Academic staff, there are approximately 190 people and small portion of staff hold PhD degree in law and LLM degrees from different countries, ranging from Eastern countries to Western countries. In terms of modules, 14 modules are conducted in English language.
Nevertheless, Presidential Decree № 1875 has been implanted since 2012, it is important to know whether this adopted law works efficiently and yields its positive backwash in TSLU [6]. It goes without saying that "there are three English Circles in the world, namely Inner, Outer and Expanding Circles and among them Uzbekistan can be thought as Expanding Circle" [3]. If we reckon the Decree #1874 by combing Kachru's model, how can this law assist teachers to utilize English as a medium of instruction in Tashkent State University of Law?
Goal
The purpose of small research is to find out data about the perception of teachers towards English as a medium of instruction and determine how the major subjects are being conducted in English language and its effectiveness in the classroom as well as examine challenges and major problems that teacher encounter while implementing EMI. This research is limited and takes into account teachers' view. This language policy proposal also pays attention more bottom-up micro language planning rather than top-down macro language planning, taking into TSUL consideration.
Actors
Zhao pointed out that "three types of actors are involved in language planning policy: a) powerful rulers and opinion leaders, b) the ruling group or elite c) the state" [9]. "Micro or local language, which is relatively new way of thinking about the field of language planning and policy (LPP), has come about as a realization of two converging trend" [8]. Having considered both scholars' statements, it is important to observe the implementation of this policy from bottom-up language planning and how it works because this language planning is top-down language planning. Hence, the teachers and administrative staff TSUL have been chosen which is considered as the ruling group or elite. Obviously, they know about the implementation of law better than the others since they are the main resource to disclose the whole scenario in education setting while deploying EMI in the classroom.
"Thus, the voices of administrators and teachers in the field could be considered to sustain, strengthen the bilingual program in ISS and further to improve it as well as facilitate the attainment of its objectives. These may offer the evaluation committee of ISS in the
Minster of Education on important input and empirical data that it may use in the process of evaluating ISS program" [2].
The university has been implementing EMI since 2013; academic staff has encountered numerous obstacles and challenges. That is why the special attention is focused on teachers' attitudes towards teaching major subjects through EMI in TSUL.
Current situation about Tashkent State University of Law
Tashkent State University of Law offers a mixture of jurisprudence courses for both local and international students, there are overall 19 modules but 14 modules are taught in English the remaining modules are conducted in Uzbek. There are two times English classes offered in a week during first, second and third year of academic year to improve students' academic English and language competence but students have only one English class in a week in the graduation year. However, I will focus on second year of major subjects, there are overall 11 modules and one of them is English class. The rest of courses are major subjects, ranging from civil right, international law to property right which should be accomplished at the end of the second year. Accordingly, 5 groups of students' major subjects are delivered in English language which means EMI. In the next sections of study, research tool and teachers' view about EMI will be depicted in broader way.
Research tool
There are various ways of obtaining date according to the type of procedure. Richards states that "Since any source of information is likely to incomplete, a triangle approach (e.g., collecting from two or more sources) is advisable and many different sources of information should be sought" [7]. Owing to small research and time limitation, the descriptive research tool has been deployed in the study via which quantity data collection was gathered. There were 12 teachers who teach different types of law course through EMI and the group discussion was organized, concerning about teaching major subjects by utilizing English language as a tool to deliver the content knowledge of major subjects. The group discussion was mainly focused on the issues that teachers face problems in the implementation of English as a medium of instruction. Furthermore, information about their proficiency level of English has also obtained.
Teachers' Proficiency level of English
According to teachers' level of Proficiency in English Language, they have recently taken IELTS examination and their band scores of each skill are illustrated the below table1.
Table 1. 7he band score of teachers' proficiency
Number of teachers Reading Listening Writing Speaking Overall score
1 and 5 6,5 6 6 6,5 6,5
2 and 3 6,5 5,5 6,5 6,5 6,5
4 and 7 7 7 6,5 7 7
6, 8 and 9 6,5 6,5 6,5 7 6,5
10 7,5 8 6,5 7 7,5
11 and 12 6 6 6,5 7 6,5
It is evident that most of teachers have scored overall 6, 5 score but scores of each skill vary from each other whereas the minor number of teachers have scored 7 and 7, 5 respectively.
Teachers' view about utilizing English as a medium of instruction in TSUL
In this paper I would like to reflect teachers' perception towards EMI. According to Kyeyune, "a medium of instruction is an enabling tool" [4]. In other words, EMI is a tool which can be a trigger for individual to visualize a modern world and acquire new concepts, novel ideas even values. Nevertheless, the teachers of TSLU ought to accomplish a number of actions to facilitate learning process. Therefore, group discussion was conducted to identify problems and the following question inquired them so as to record evidence.
Question: "What can you say about the policy that requires teachers to teach Law courses through English as a medium of instruction? Do you have any problems about this policy? Please explain your answer!" (adapted from Harayanto, 2013)
Teacher № 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11 and 12: "For sure, since we are seminar teachers we have several problems in implementing English as a medium of instruction in our University. First of all, all of students acquire knowledge about different law courses in Uzbek language in the lectures which is the first problem but when it comes to seminars, students who enrolled in English language instruction must perform or speak in English in seminars. That is huge problem which should be addressed. This is compulsory policy for those students who enrolled in English class instruction must do. Most of time, especially with second year students, not only we but also students struggle with grasping some ambiguous notions and ideas and at that time EMI is likely to break down because we have to interact students in our language to deliver the meaning of ideas and concepts. However, a few students who always try to get ready for classes in English sometimes facilitate learning process by giving a hand their groupmates. (Civil and Citizen Law teachers)
Teacher № 4, 7 and 10: "I agree with my colleagues' opinion but there is also a problem with students and frequently us. In terms of the problem with students, majority of students do not possess adequate language proficiency level of English which proves their level. I meant that those mentioned students have IELTS certificate that indicates how much they understand English. Fortunately, they have primary knowledge that they studied English before entering the university. As far as I know that it is awkward to deliver their major subject content through English because we are not professional at English as well as students are non-native speakers of English. That is why we are encountering this problem during the class". (International Law and Property Right teachers)
Recommendation
Having analyzed teachers' view about Implementing EMI, I came up with a number of recommendations/ proposals. In order to improve the quality of education and facilitate learning process, initially, assessment should be established to identify students' proficiency level of English. I would like to recommend "Placement test" that assess students' productive and receptive skills. "Placement tests come in many varieties-assessing comprehension and production, responding through written and oral performance, open-ended and limited responses, selection (e.g., multiple choice) and gap filling formats-depending on the nature of a program and its needs" [1]. Taking consideration this statement, I can come up with one of the popular placement test is IELTS examination since it assesses students' four language skills. Indeed, students must have at least 6 band IELTS certificate before persuading their jurisprudence courses. If they have 6 band, they will not likely struggle with their study and they can immerse themselves into learning their major subjects through EMI without any problems. Teachers also had better improve their English language competence by retaking IELTS exam.
The second recommendation can be "in service training/ teaching" that offers English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in English. Teachers should upgrade their knowledge in intensive and short teaching training workshops and seminars in which professional teachers and PhD candidates run or conducted. In service training/ teaching, teachers have opportunity to identify their weaknesses and strengthen and then they can develop professionalism and performance in teaching Law courses of utilizing English as EMI. Timeline for teachers who have language proficiency certificate would be 3 or 4 months to upgrade themselves in service training but for students, requirement should be established. I mean that students have at least 6 band IELTS certificate before starting learning their major subjects in English language. To sum up, this small research discloses that the implantation of EMI has not fully deployed successfully in Tashkent State University of Law due to the some problems with students and teachers. This research is limited to only TSUL in Uzbekistan and further study will be carried out in other institutions throughout the country to compare the results of the implementation of EMI.
References / Список литературы
1. Brown H.D. (2011). Language Assessment. Principles and Classroom Practices, NY, Person Education.
2. Haryanto E. (2013). Language Policy: Administrators and Teachers' view on English Medium of Instruction Implementation in Indonesia. Journal of Education and Practice, Vol4, No, 2.
3. Kachru B. (1985). World Englishes. Different Models of Englishes as an International Language.
4. Kyenyune R. (2010). Challenges of Using English as a medium of instruction in multilingual contexts: A view from Ugandan Classrooms. Language, culture and curriculum 16(2): 173-183.
5. National Statistics of Ministry of Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan. (2019). [Electronic Resource]. URL: http://www.uzedu.uz/Xtv/BachsiPage/67?tp=86/ (date of access: 18.05.2021).
6. Presidential Decree № 1875 (2012). Measures of strenghtening the sytstem of foreign language. [Electronic Resource]. URL: http://www.hasanboy.uz/pq-1875/ (date of access: 18.05.2021).
7. Richards J.C. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language teaching. Cambridge University Press. New York.
8. Siew C.C. & Baldauf R.B. (2011). Micro language Planing. Handbook of Second Language teaching and learning: Volume 2.
9. Zhao S. (2011). Actors in Language Planning.
