The world's understanding of English appears to be getting better. The private education company EF recently released a report called English Proficiency Index. The report ranks English language proficiency in 63 countries into five categories or classes. They are: "very high proficiency, high, moderate, low and very low."
全球英语水平似乎越来越高。私营教育机构英孚教育最近发布了一篇名为《英语熟练度指标》的报告。该报告将63个国家的英语熟练度分为五种：极高、高、中等、低和极低。
Minh Tran is EF's Director of Research and Academic Partnerships.
Minh Tran是英孚教育研究和学术合作部门的负责人。
"At the global level, we are seeing a consistent improvement year after year. I think that many countries that are looking outward, that are looking to internationalize their economies are seeing the importance of English."
“我们可以看到英语熟练度在全球层面上逐年改善。我想许多寻求经济全球化的国家认识到了英语的重要性。”
The English Proficiency Index says Denmark is the top country for English as a foreign language. Poland and Austria have joined Denmark and other northern European countries with the "very high proficiency" ranking.
英语熟练度指标显示，在英语非母语国家中，丹麦是英语熟练度最高的国家。波兰和奥地利也加入到了丹麦等北欧国家的行列，成为英语熟练度极高的国家。
2014年全球英语熟练度排名
Malaysia and Singapore have the best ranking in Asia with "high proficiency" in English. Joining them is Argentina, the only Latin American country to rank as "high proficiency." English levels in the rest of Latin America remain low.
马来西亚和新加坡以英语熟练度极高成为亚洲排名最好的国家。阿根廷也位居其列，它是唯一一个英语熟练度极高的拉丁美洲国家。其它拉丁美洲国家的英语水平仍然很低。
South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have invested a lot of time and money in English education. But these countries have not improved since the last study came out in 2007.
韩国、日本、台湾和香港在英语教育方面投入了大量时间和金钱。但这些地区的英语水平自2007年的调查结果公布以来并无改善。
Minh Tran has this to say: "I think they are not improving because they have not made any significant reform to the way they teach English. In Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong. They still rely quite heavily on rote memory. And there's a strong focus on grammar and vocabulary acquisition, but not so much on the actual communicative skills."
Minh Tran有这样一段话：“我认为他们英语水平并无改善的原因是他们的英语教学方式并未做出任何实质性改革。在韩国、日本、台湾和香港等地，他们仍然严重依赖死记硬背，并且非常注重语法和词汇掌握，而不是注重实际交流技巧。”
English language proficiency has actually fallen in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, partly because of wars in the area.
中东和北非的很多国家的英语熟练度实际上有所下降，一部分原因是因为该地区战争的影响。
For its report, EF used online test results from 750,000 adults in 63 countries. The test takers were adults who chose to take the company's online test. They were not a random sample of the total population. For that reason, the results might be biased toward people who are interested in English and use the Internet.
英孚教育使用了63个国家的75万成年人的在线测试结果出台了这份报告。这些人参加了该公司的在线测试。他们并非这些国家总人口的随机样本。由于这个原因，这一结果可能偏重于对英语有兴趣并使用互联网的人群。
Dr. Clive Roberts is the Director of Assessment, Analysis & Research at ELS Educational Services. He does not know about the report's research methods, but he thinks the study is helpful.
克莱夫·罗伯茨（Clive Roberts）博士是ELS教育服务公司评估、分析和研究部门的负责人。他不知道这篇报告的研究方法，但他认为该研究有帮助
"...Conducting such research enables countries, regions, organizations to sort of assess their own position relative to other places. What trends are happening..., then they can sort of re-assess their own situation and figure out a strategy."
他说，“开展这类研究使得各个国家、地区和组织能够同其它地区比较自己所处的位置，以及当前的趋势。然后他们就能重新评估自己的现状并找出应对策略。”
Improvements have also been noted on average scores for the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, and IELTS, the International English Language Testing System.
英语水平的提升还体现在托福和雅思考试的平均成绩上。
Eileen Tyson is Executive Director of Global Client Relations at the Educational Testing Service. ETS produces the TOEFL. Ms. Tyson agrees that English proficiency is rising worldwide. Average TOEFL scores have risen by two points in the past nine years. But she thinks it is not wise to compare countries by average TOEFL scores. She says many things can influence test results.
艾琳·泰森（Eileen Tyson）是美国教育考试服务中心全球客户关系执行董事。美国教育考试服务中心出台了托福考试。泰森女士认同全球范围内的英语熟练度不断攀升。在过去九年，托福平均成绩提高了2个百分点。但她认为，通过托福考试成绩比较各国英语水平并不明智。她说有很多因素能影响到考试成绩。
"For example, the age at which students start to learn English. ...Some native languages are closer to English...How many hours per week a student spends learning English, and what kind of curriculum they use. So all of these combine ...we feel strongly that you really can't use TOEFL scores for comparing general proficiency across countries."
“例如，学生们什么年龄开始学英语，一些本土语种更接近英语，学生们每周花几个小时学英语，以及他们采用哪类课程。所有这些因素加起来，我们强烈认为不能使用托福成绩来比较各国的英语平均水平。”
In 2005, ETS made big changes to the TOEFL. It went from a paper test to a test that required use of a computer and an Internet connection. Notably, ETS cut the grammar section and required test takers to record spoken responses to questions.
2005年，美国教育考试服务中心对托福考试作出了重大变革。托福从书面考试变成了一种需要使用电脑和互联网的考试。值得注意到是，美国教育考试服务中心取消了语法部分，并要求考生口头回答问题。
Eileen Tyson thinks the new TOEFL encouraged many teachers to make their classes more interactive.
泰森认为新托福会鼓励很多教师让他们的课堂更具互动性。
"We think it did help teachers to look at how they were teaching English, to make it more communicative, to make sure they were teaching speaking and writing. And we're actually kind of proud of the fact that we've helped to influence language teaching and language learning worldwide."
“我们认为新托福确实有助于教师们审视自己的英语教学方式，使其更乐于交流，并确保他们是在教授口语和写作。我们有点自豪的是，我们已经已经影响到了全球范围内的语言教学和语言学习。”
The British Council estimates that 1.75 billion people speak English today. The group expects that number to grow to two billion by 2020 -- about one-fourth of the world's population.
英国文化协会估计当前有17.5亿人讲英语。该协会预计到2020年这一数字将会增长到20亿，占到世界人口的1/4。
I'm Jonathan Evans.
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