[ti:Understanding of English Improves Worldwide] [ar:Jonathan Evans] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]The world's understanding of English appears to be getting better. [00:05.15]The private education company EF recently [00:10.19]released a report called English Proficiency Index. [00:15.28]The report ranks English language proficiency in 63 countries [00:21.36]into five categories or classes. [00:25.04]They are: "very high proficiency, [00:28.68]high, moderate, low and very low." [00:33.37]Minh Tran is EF's Director of Research and Academic Partnerships. [00:40.26]"At the global level, [00:41.96]we are seeing a consistent improvement year after year. [00:46.71]I think that many countries that are looking outward, [00:51.31]that are looking to internationalize their economies [00:54.49]are seeing the importance of English." [00:56.73]The English Proficiency Index says Denmark [01:00.77]is the top country for English as a foreign language. [01:04.70]Poland and Austria have joined Denmark [01:09.14]and other northern European countries [01:11.63]with the "very high proficiency" ranking. [01:14.32]Malaysia and Singapore have the best ranking in Asia [01:19.45]with "high proficiency" in English. [01:22.24]Joining them is Argentina, [01:25.34]the only Latin American country to rank as "high proficiency." [01:30.26]English levels in the rest of Latin America remain low. [01:35.98]South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong [01:40.61]have invested a lot of time and money in English education. [01:45.50]But these countries have not improved [01:48.98]since the last study came out in 2007. [01:52.93]Minh Tran has this to say: [01:55.82]"I think they are not improving [01:57.36]because they have not made any significant reform [01:59.70]to the way they teach English. [02:01.15]In Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong. [02:03.94]They still rely quite heavily on rote memory. [02:07.13]And there's a strong focus on grammar and vocabulary acquisition, [02:12.80]but not so much on the actual communicative skills." [02:16.09]English language proficiency has actually fallen [02:20.96]in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, [02:24.61]partly because of wars in the area. [02:27.89]For its report, [02:30.00]EF used online test results from 750,000 adults in 63 countries. [02:38.37]The test takers were adults who chose to take the company's online test. [02:44.40]They were not a random sample of the total population. [02:49.28]For that reason, [02:54.18]the results might be biased toward people [02:57.29]who are interested in English and use the Internet. [03:01.27]Dr. Clive Roberts is the Director of Assessment, [03:05.05]Analysis & Research at ELS Educational Services. [03:10.43]He does not know about the report's research methods, [03:14.87]but he thinks the study is helpful. [03:18.18]"...Conducting such research enables countries, regions, [03:22.41]organizations to sort of assess their own position [03:27.06]relative to other places. [03:28.11]What trends are happening..., [03:30.35]then they can sort of re-assess their own situation [03:32.79]and figure out a strategy." [03:34.49]Improvements have also been noted on average scores for the TOEFL, [03:39.49]the Test of English as a Foreign Language, [03:42.72]and IELTS, [03:44.17]the International English Language Testing System. [03:48.21]Eileen Tyson is Executive Director of Global Client Relations [03:54.10]at the Educational Testing Service. [03:57.42]ETS produces the TOEFL. [03:59.99]Ms. Tyson agrees that English proficiency is rising worldwide. [04:06.05]Average TOEFL scores have risen by two points in the past nine years. [04:13.07]But she thinks it is not wise to compare countries [04:17.42]by average TOEFL scores. [04:19.80]She says many things can influence test results. [04:24.93]"For example, [04:25.89]the age at which students start to learn English. ... [04:30.65]Some native languages are closer to English... [04:33.69]How many hours per week a student spends learning English, [04:39.05]and what kind of curriculum they use. [04:41.50]So all of these combine ... [04:44.44]we feel strongly that you really can't use TOEFL scores [04:48.45]for comparing general proficiency across countries." [04:52.54]In 2005, ETS made big changes to the TOEFL. [04:58.26]It went from a paper test to a test [05:02.50]that required use of a computer and an Internet connection. [05:07.04]Notably, ETS cut the grammar section and required test takers [05:14.06]to record spoken responses to questions. [05:17.90]Eileen Tyson thinks the new TOEFL encouraged many teachers [05:24.32]to make their classes more interactive. [05:27.71]"We think it did help teachers to look at [05:31.10]how they were teaching English, [05:32.88]to make it more communicative, [05:36.10]to make sure they were teaching speaking and writing. [05:39.54]And we're actually kind of proud of the fact [05:42.54]that we've helped to influence language teaching [05:45.11]and language learning worldwide." [05:47.34]The British Council estimates [05:49.62]that 1.75 billion people speak English today. [05:54.27]The group expects that number to grow to two billion by 2020 -- [06:00.90]about one-fourth of the world's population. [06:05.25]I'm Jonathan Evans.