EF English Proficiency Index 2013 -3rd ed

[shuttler]

Link: EF ENGLISH PROFICIENCY <br /> INDEX - THIRD EDITION | EF Worldwide English

VERY HIGH PROFICIENCY

• 1.Sweden
• 2.Norway
• 3.Netherlands
• 4.Estonia
• 5.Denmark
• 6.Austria
• 7.Finland

HIGH PROFICIENCY

• 8.Poland
• 9.Hungary
• 10.Slovenia
• 11.Malaysia
• 12.Singapore
• 13.Belgium
• 14.Germany
• 15.Latvia
• 16.Switzerland
• 17.Portugal

MODERATE PROFICIENCY

• 18.Slovakia
• 19.Argentina
• 20.Czech Republic
• 21.India
• 22.Hong Kong SAR
• 23.Spain
• 24.South Korea
• 25.Indonesia
• 26.Japan
• 27.Ukraine
• 28.Vietnam

LOW PROFICIENCY

• 29.Uruguay
• 30.Sri Lanka
• 31.Russia
• 32.Italy
• 33.Taiwan
• 34.China
• 35.France
• 36.UAE
• 37.Costa Rica
• 38.Brazil
• 39.Peru
• 40.Mexico
• 41.Turkey
• 42.Iran
• 43.Egypt

VERY LOW PROFICIENCY

• 44.Chile
• 45.Morocco
• 46.Colombia
• 47.Kuwait
• 48.Ecuador
• 49.Venezuela
• 50.Jordan
• 51.Qatar
• 52.Guatemala
• 53.El Salvador
• 54.Libya
• 55.Thailand
• 56.Panama
• 57.Kazakhstan
• 58.Algeria
• 59.Saudi Arabia
• 60.Iraq

 

[shuttler]

Here are the PDF downloads:

2013 http://www.ef.co.uk/__/~/media/efcom/epi/2014/full-reports/ef-epi-2013-report-master.pdf

2012 http://www.ef.co.uk/__/~/media/efcom/epi/2012/full_reports/ef-epi-2012-report-master-lr-2.pdf

2011 http://www.ef.co.uk/__/~/media/efcom/epi/pdf/EF-EPI-2011.pdf

 

[jhungary]

Sweden is number 1?

And Hong Kong got beaten by India?

Oh my....

 

[shuttler]

Greater China:

2011
China...... #29 ....47.62.....Low Proficiency
Taiwan ... #25.....48.93.... Low Proficiency
HK........... #12.....54.44.....Moderate Proficiency

2012
China...... #36 ....49.00.....Low Proficiency
Taiwan ... #30.....52.47.... Low Proficiency
HK........... #25.....53.65.....Moderate Proficiency

2013
China...... #34 ....50.77.....Low Proficiency
Taiwan ... #33.....50.95.... Low Proficiency
HK........... #22.....53.54.....Moderate Proficiency

 

[conworldus]

Germany and Switzerland are falling behind Malaysia? Hong Kong falling from #12 to #22 in just two years? EF must be on crack.

 

[StarCraft_ZT]

How to define English proficiency? Vocabulary, accent or by tests....?

for the most populous country in the world, with 1.3 billion people, to make such steady progress is a major achievement.

Good for China. 
But linguisticians in China have expressed their concerns, in college entrance examination, many provinces have lowered the weight of English test or canceled listening and speaking sections of English tests and correspondingly increase the points of Chinese test. We shall never forget our own language.

 

[Götterdämmerung]

Small countries have to rely on bigger countries in terms of language. In Hungary, e.g. university language is often German because it's just impossible to translate every paper and result into Hungarian for just a few hundred and in some faculties just a few dozen students.

Big countries with a big internal market doesn't rely much on external imput, e.g. in Germany you would rarely find a sales assistant in an ordinary neighbourhood who speaks the most rudimental English and in all his/ her working career he/ she would probably meet just a few customers who doesn't speak German. It's just a waste of studying time and could be used for some other more useful subjects.

But of course, if one intends to work in an international field, the best English as well as other languages teaching facility should be provided.

 

[jhungary]

How to define English proficiency? Vocabulary, accent or by tests....?

Good for China. 
But linguisticians in China have expressed their concerns, in college entrance examination, many provinces have lowered the weight of English test or canceled listening and speaking sections of English tests and correspondingly increase the points of Chinese test. We shall never forget our own language.

Knowing EF, they either use IELTS result or Cambridge English test result for the ranking

And if you wants a job in translation field, both listening and speaking skill in both language should be of equal weight, you learn Chinese as part of normal CV, but when you do a linguistic course, it should be different, I mean what will be different between linguist course and normal course if both weighted heavily on Chinese?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

The standard of English in Hong Kong is not really that good.

The only reason my English is semi-decent, is because I went to an International School in Mid-levels.

But most other Hong Kongers, they prefer not to speak English, especially not for an extended conversation. Though they will be able to understand a bit of it. They will always "default" to Cantonese if the other side can understand it, or Mandarin if the other side understands it.

If you don't believe me, walk up to a random person in Hong Kong and start up a conversation in English. Depending on how lucky you are, you might might get a conversation or none at all.

 

[jhungary]

They should really take Sweden off the list, Swedish taught English as part of curriculum with their matriculation

 

[StarCraft_ZT]

Knowing EF, they either use IELTS result or Cambridge English test result for the ranking

Now I know the reason. Most Chinese students do better in reading and listening part than speaking of IELTS. According to a statistic, average Chinese student speaking score of IELTS is 5.0, much lower than Germany with 7.0 or Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong. Speaking and academic writing lag.

And if you wants a job in translation field, both listening and speaking skill in both language should be of equal weight, you learn Chinese as part of normal CV, but when you do a linguistic course, it should be different, I mean what will be different between linguist course and normal course if both weighted heavily on Chinese?

Not an expert on linguistic study.

Not only in translation field, for any language, we were born to learn it from listening to adults and only through this way can we imitate to speak and apply.

 

[Jlaw]

Sweden is number 1?

And Hong Kong got beaten by India?

Oh my....

HK go beat by a country whose official language is English, did that surprise you?

 

[jhungary]

Now I know the reason. Most Chinese students do better in reading and listening part than speaking of IELTS. According to a statistic, average Chinese student speaking score of IELTS is 5.0, much lower than Germany with 7.0 or Singapore, Malaysia or Hong Kong. Speaking and academic writing lag.


Not an expert on linguistic study.

Not only in translation field, for any language, we were born to learn it from listening to adults and only through this way can we imitate to speak and apply.

Well, some time ago I got a certificate 3 for NAATI translation for spanish and Chinese, which by their standard is the same as postgraduate level linguist (but only for translation)

Problem is people who learn translation or linguist course tend to more focus on the country of origin, say if you were studying a translation cert in Australia for Spanish to English, the course will mainly focus on English and only a small faction is about Spanish

The idea was you use whatever language skill to translate into their primary language, accuracy is not the priority in this case.

Going back to IELTS, most student did better in writing and reading parts (except me, I once use my hk passport to take an IELTS test just for fun, in the end I got all 9 except writing,)

Problem is, you can study the writing part and the reading part, but you can't learn how to speak and how to listen by studying, for that you need practices 

HK go beat by a country whose official language is English, did that surprise you?

English is de-facto official language in Hong Kong.

Duh.

 

[Jlaw]

Well, some time ago I got a certificate 3 for NAATI translation for spanish and Chinese, which by their standard is the same as postgraduate level linguist (but only for translation)

Problem is people who learn translation or linguist course tend to more focus on the country of origin, say if you were studying a translation cert in Australia for Spanish to English, the course will mainly focus on English and only a small faction is about Spanish

The idea was you use whatever language skill to translate into their primary language, accuracy is not the priority in this case.

Going back to IELTS, most student did better in writing and reading parts (except me, I once use my hk passport to take an IELTS test just for fun, in the end I got all 9 except writing,)

Problem is, you can study the writing part and the reading part, but you can't learn how to speak and how to listen by studying, for that you need practices 


English is de-facto official language in Hong Kong.

Duh.

邊個係天材，邊個係白 痴。大懵定蠢材？無咁易會知 阿幽 會知。

 

[Ajatashatru]

HK go beat by a country whose official language is English, did that surprise you?

Hong Kong also has English as an official language.