Multilingual Strategy

Multilingual Strategy of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

Over the past decade, the Ukrainian higher education sector has been restructured in the direction of integration into the European educational space following the principles of student-centred learning, quality assurance, accessibility and inclusion. Language competences are at the heart of building the European education space. They are indispensable for mobility, cooperation and mutual understanding across borders in order to provide a broader and more diversified educational experience.

Education should provide a varied language repertoire and an understanding of which languages we should learn for what purpose. Language education should respect the heritage of a mother tongue and prepare young people for a globalised world with the English language as a lingua franca.

There is a call for multilingual education justified by the implied benefits. It mandates the expansion of the students’ intercultural and international knowledge to understand the international dimension of their disciplines so that they could function in a diverse world with better employment opportunities, which is the key to a sustainable professional future.

Vision

V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (hereinafter referred to as Karazin University) will become an open multilingual academic community providing high-quality, internationally recognized academic programmes and high-level language proficiency for better employability of graduates.

Goals and objectives

1. To create an open multilingual academic environment by using different languages in the educational process at Karazin University and outside the university to increase awareness of the benefits of multilingualism and to stimulate interest in learning foreign languages among members of the academic community.

1.1 To increase the presence of Ukrainian and English in the language environment of Karazin University as languages of study, administration and communication.

1.2 To make the knowledge of Ukrainian at level C1 mandatory for all the academic and administrative staff.

1.3 To promote the use of various languages (Ukrainian, English and others if applicable) in all educational programmes.

1.4 To promote Ukrainian culture and language through engaging, in particular, non-Ukrainian-speaking, as well as all other members of the academic community of the university into extra-curricular activities and cultural events held in Ukrainian.

1.5 To increase the presence of a foreign language, in particular English, in non-linguistic educational programmes by teaching other subjects in the foreign language and introducing the content and language integrated learning methodology (hereinafter referred to as CLIL).

1.6 To use Ukrainian as a language of study to teach 80% of subjects at non-linguistic educational programmes, as well as to use English or any other foreign language as a language of study to teach 80% of subjects at linguistic educational programmes.

2. To measure and assess staff and students’ English language proficiency level objectively.

2.1 To arrange testing on a regular basis (entrance, midterm and exit tests) with regular feedback on the learners’ progress.

2.2 To apply certification for both teachers and students (Ukrainian for non-Ukrainian speakers, English and other foreign languages where applicable).

2.3 To update language assessment criteria and use appropriate assessment tools to effectively assess students’ language proficiency.

2.4 Graduates of non-linguistic educational programmes shall be bilingual with Ukrainian at level C1 and English at level B2 by 2027.

2.5 Graduates of linguistic educational programmes shall be multilingual with Ukrainian at level C1, English at level C1 and any other language at level B2 by 2027.

3. To reduce the gap between the students’ expectations about the language of their prospective career (English) and their actual language competencies achieved by the end of the studies.

3.1 To provide high-quality language training for teachers in Ukrainian, English or any other foreign language.

3.2 To update linguistic and non-linguistic educational programmes with regard to the goals of multilingual education.

3.3 To increase the presence of English in educational programmes by introducing CLIL as well as by teaching subjects in the foreign language.

3.4 To increase the use of English for research and publications with a system of incentives for researchers.