Education Commons^™

Language Policy In Central Asia, Baktygul M. Ismailova

Master's Capstone Projects

This study addresses language policy and language planning in the five Central Asian republics, former constituents of the Soviet Union. Language issues became crucial after the breakdown of the Soviet system, which completely changed the linguistic environment in the region. The study discusses two main issues related to the language planning in central Asia. The first section of the project describes the history of the region before 1917, when lifestyle patterns divided Central Asian residents into two groups, nomads (Kyrgyz, Kazak and Turkmen) and sedentary peoples (Tajik and Uzbek).

After a brief discussion of schooling practices in pre-Soviet Central Asia, …

The Process Of The Assessment Of Writing Performance : The Rater's Perspective, Tom Lumley

Dr Tom Lumley

This study investigates the process of rating texts written by adult ESL learners. Four experienced raters provided think-aloud protocols describing the rating process for a set of 24 texts. The think-aloud data allowed analysis of the sequence of rating, raters' interpretations of the scoring categories, and difficulties raters faced. The study reveals the complexity of the rating process, whereby raters struggle to resolve a tension between the wordings (or rules) of the rating scale and their complex, initial, intuitive impression of the text. Rating requires training to provide reliable measurement. The study also demonstrates that caution is needed in interpreting …