Language tests, including international high-stakes English proficiency tests widely used around the world, are to be viewed as ideological constructs connected with power relations and center-periphery demarcations at different social levels. In this paper, we examine the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as an instance of…

An analysis of the process of disappearance in which each language is engaged. Information concerning their past, present and future as indicated by the sociocultural profile of the ethnic groups concerned is given. The reasons for the language disappearance and, on the dialectological level, signs of language death are noted. (AMH)