Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Humanities, Psychology and Social Sciences
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Transcultural Learning in Bilingual Education in Azerbaijan
Dr. Malahat Valiyeva
ABSTRACT:
In the XXI century as never before the significance of learning foreign languages is increasing that is reflected in all spheres of life as well as in education. Looking back at the history, we can draw a conclusion that bilingual education in Azerbaijan has a firm background dating back to the early XX century when Azerbaijani-Russian bilingualism (in the Soviet period) was common throughout the country. After Azerbaijan gained its independence in 1991 the enforced Russian language influence was replaced by the voluntary learning of English as a global language, lingua franca for communication with tourists and foreign investors in the oil industry in Azerbaijan.
Another factor triggering bilingualism in education is the fact that Azerbaijan established Bologna reform and transformation process to the European Higher Education area in tertiary education as well as different kinds of student mobility programs such as Erasmus and Tempus that provide strong foundation to develop bilingual education in the country.
In the present research the experiment was done with the students of Azerbaijan University of Languages whose second language is English and they study Linguacultural aspect of the language, in particular, the culture of Great Britain and the students of Azerbaijan State Pedagogical University who study English as a foreign language without any cultural aspect. The comparison was done between the cultural awareness of the students in both groups and the summary about the students’ intercultural competency was done.
keywords: transcultural learning, bilingual education, bilingual students, intercultural competency