Multilingually and multiculturally oriented Master’s curriculum: Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University experience

Abstract

The present article is aimed at showing Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University (DNU) experience in developing multilingually and multiculturally oriented Master’s curriculum for the speciality “Language and Literature (English)” with specialization “Multilingual Education”. In the first section of the paper the notion multilingualism has been defined, and the difference between multilingualism and polyglottism has been shown. The article goes on to emphasize the main principles of the Bologna Process in Europe and their peculiarities in the Ukrainian system of higher education. Further the distinguishing features of bilingual and multilingual education have been singled out. The second section – Discussion and Results – is aimed at showing practical implementation of principles of multilingual education in Master’s curriculum. The curriculum uses the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as a basis for defining competences and learning outcomes for the whole curriculum and for each syllabus in particular. All the competences have been described and modified so as to meet the higher education demands provided by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and multilingual education requirements as well. The Master’s curriculum of the mentioned speciality consists of five blocks. Each block contains a particular number of ECTS points with account of European higher education demands. Besides, every block includes several disciplines; and after studying them all the necessary learning outcomes and competences are provided. We come to  the conclusion that multilingual education is a key to success – as co-learning of languages and linguocultures promote the formation of multilingual polycultural personality that provides a lifelong learning.