English high-stakes testing and constructing the ‘international’ in Kazakhstan and Mongolia

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, we consider the role of high-stakes testing in mediating access to English in two Central Asian contexts where English is increasingly important not just in terms of mobility, but in identity construction on an individual and national level. We argue that in these contexts, English is increasingly constructed not only as a global language but the global language, which also has important implications for determining what counts as an ‘internationalized space’ or ‘internationalized person’, and as part of national strategies intended to make Kazakhstan and Mongolia more international. High-stakes tests like IELTS and TOEFL act as a focal point due to the role of these tests in verifying and ‘converting’ English ability into a quantifiable, transportable figure. We draw on a survey about test-takers’ experiences and practices concerning IELTS and TOEFL as well as interview data about the role and significance of English. Since access to knowledge and preparation for these tests is not evenly distributed across the population, our work provides evidence that some people may be in a more advantageous position to succeed on and benefit from high-stakes testing than others. Previous research on IELTS/TOEFL has largely focused on washback effects on school curriculums, test reliability, and strategies for test preparation, while research on globalization needs to continue to engage with specific mechanisms of how scales and hierarchies are created and maintained. We bridge this gap by considering how success or failure on IELTS/TOEFL becomes internalized as a quality of the individual and a reflection of their abilities, dedication and cosmopolitanism, and how testing contributes to carving out particular ‘international’ spaces. This paper will focus on how English comes to be conflated at least in some cases with being international, and how individuals make sense of high-stakes testing as a way of accessing an ‘international’ scale which may or may not involve literal movement abroad.