ERASMUS+ PROJECT EXPERIENCES ON THE COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS MASTER DEGREE IN THE CENTRAL ASIA UNIVERSITIES

The paper presents the experience of implementing the ERASMUS + project “Development of the Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Computational Linguistics at the Universities of Central Asia (CLASS)” No. 588545-EPP-1-2017-1-ES -EPPKA2-CBHE-JP-CLASS in seven universities in Central Asia, and namely, in three universities of Kazakhstan (Kostanay State University named after Baitursynov, Eurasian National University named after Gumilyov, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University) and four universities in Uzbekistan (Urgench State University, Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages, Tashkent State University of the Uzbek language and literature, National University of Uzbekistan in Tashkent). The European participants in the CLASS project are: University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain; University of a Coruña, Spain; University of West Attica, Greece; University of Porto, Portugal; Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland.
The relevance of training in computational linguistics in connection with the active development of artificial intelligence and its use in various industries is one of the top priorities at present. Within the framework of the project, the joint interdisciplinary master's program in computational linguistics was developed, which includes the development and teaching of such relevant disciplines as: Machine Learning at NLP, Language Resources, Language Analysis, Speech Processing, Machine Translation Technology, Understanding Natural Language, Ontologies and Semantic Technologies, Statistical Methods in NLP, Formal Grammar, Python Programming. In the process of preparing the educational process, modern pedagogical technologies will be implemented as blended learning, project-based learning. During the implementation of the project, an analysis of the needs of the labor market was conducted, during which more than 50 companies were interviewed. Tools are being developed for processing the Kazakh and Uzbek languages that will be used in organizing and conducting the educational process for this educational program. The impact of this educational program both at the individual level, at the level of teachers involved in the implementation of this educational program, and at the institutional level is very significant.