Abstract:

Since Kazakhstan has signed the Bologna Declaration on March 11, 2010, new approaches to learning and teaching are being actively considered and the need to develop learner centred approaches is recognised. The paper focuses on a project looking at new ways of teaching in ESP/EAP in language improvement programmes facilitated by the Bolashak scholarship programme and involving academics from the University of Glasgow and the L.N Gumilyov Eurasian National University. The Bolashak funded project contributes to the development of new Academic coursebook with approaches of a fundamentally innovative nature.
The paper goes to explain principles established to design this coursebook and present a methodological framework which integrates the matrix of language teaching: teachers, students and materials (Richards 1990) in order to focus on the whole picture along with the idea of taking an ‘inquiry stance’ (Cochran-Smith and Lytle, 2009) to show why this approach is especially relevant to English teachers and to provide suggestions about how to use this coursebook to support teachers work in the classroom.
The questions when designing materials for this coursebook are: What is the pedagogic goal of each task? How can the activities or tasks be sequenced?
This action research can benefit and play influencing role in modernising educational system in Kazakhstan by better understanding the role of implementing the inquiry model for teacher education in Gumilyov Eurasian National University.

Keywords:

Academic research project, coursebook, methodological framework, matrix of language teaching, inquiry stance.