Thailand falls to 74th place in EF English Proficiency Index 2019

[webfact]

Thailand falls to 74th place in EF English Proficiency Index 2019

 

 

Thailand’s English proficiency ranking among non-native English speaking countries has dropped for the third consecutive year to 74th out of a total of 100 countries.

 

According to the EF English Proficiency Index 2019, prepared by Swiss-based Education First, Thailand scored 47.62, which is regarded as very low proficiency.

 

Last year, Thailand scored 48.54 and was placed 64th out of 88 countries and, in 2017, was 53rd out of 80 countries, with a score of 49.7.

The latest ranking has placed Thailand the third lowest among countries in Southeast Asia for English proficiency, behind Vietnam and Indonesia, which were ranked 52nd and 61st respectively.

 

Myanmar and Cambodia were classified in the very low proficiency group, ranking the 86th and 94th places respectively.

 

Among ASEAN countries, Singapore came top with the highest level of English proficiency and was 5th in the world among non-native English speaking countries with a score of 66.82, followed by the Philippines and Malaysia, which were placed in the high English proficiency group.

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/thailand-falls-to-74th-place-in-ef-english-proficiency-index-2019/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2019-11-07

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[Thaiwrath]

3 minutes ago, webfact said:

Thailand’s English proficiency ranking among non-native English speaking countries has dropped for the third consecutive year to 74th out of a total of 100 countries.

 

However, the wealth of school directors has probably reached number 1 !

Their wealth comes well before bringing the best out of the students, by paying for proper teachers, especially in Government schools. 

[Youlike]

Just have a look at the young staff in ALL thai shops....there's nobody at all who speaks english....even not in the most hi-so malls.

[Creasy]

A dunces hat for Thailand 

[simon43]

In other news, Thailand made huge gains in the Chinese language proficiency index, with even Thai politicians being fluent in such useful phrases as:

 

- Thank-you dear comrade, yes I'll bend over right here

- I'm sorry that my nose is a little brown

- My hovercraft is full of eels

[mok199]

20 years ago it seemed cute and novel , somehow these days (with so many options for learning language), its just sad .

Edited November 6, 2019 by mok199

[PatOngo]

They don't need to speak English to get into debt or crash a motorbike!

[Somtamnication]

Me, as a teacha, bees cannot unnerstand why. I teash very very much good. This report is accidented:

[RotBenz8888]

They could easily attract native teachers to improve the English proficiency, sadly their xenophobia put a stick in the wheel.

[Destiny1990]

Weird all these sub comitees panel boards that have been set up to improving the curriculum for local students but then the English level for Thai students have dropped!

[edwinchester]

All part of the Generals cunning plan to make Thai the world's No. 1 language.

 

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2017/01/12/rao-tum-dai-thai-could-be-world-new-english-prayuth-says/

[Langkawee]

8 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

They could easily attract native teachers to improve the English proficiency, sadly their xenophobia put a stick in the wheel.

The hearts of the elite will be overjoyed that English is getting worse. Native speakers don't speak English very well these days so that's no longer the solution. Philippinos speak better English than most native speakers from my observations. 

Edited November 6, 2019 by Langkawee

[mok199]

3 minutes ago, edwinchester said:

All part of the Generals cunning plan to make Thai the world's No. 1 language.

 

http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2017/01/12/rao-tum-dai-thai-could-be-world-new-english-prayuth-says/

I remember that news....

[Orton Rd]

Their method is all wrong, far too much emphasis on grammar and book ticking, and nowhere near enough on actual speaking and learning vocabulary

[djayz]

5 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

They could easily attract native teachers to improve the English proficiency, sadly their xenophobia put a stick in the wheel.

"You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" comes to mind. 

There are lots of native speakers teaching here, but, if the general attitude is "put in as little effort as possible" prevails, then they are never going to learn or develop. I'm not just talking about English either. It would be interesting to know if they are also lagging behind in other subjects too. 

They know very little and don't seem to know/care that their heads are empty. 

[legend49]

Sad outcome. I recall being in an eastern city of Myanmar called Kentung ( near the Chinese border). There; many young ones and parents spoke perfect English, such a nice surprise.

[Thailand]

We have a few Chinese friends who are here with their kids. All are in schools that teach English, most have employed English teachers after school because the in school standards are so low.

[spiekerjozef]

I wonder where the UK is at the "alf Any Other Language proficiency index 2019"?

[Ventenio]

There are many non-native "teachers" who tell their students, "OK, get pen out bag."   Sure, a native accent would be helpful; however, these "teachers" are probably on par with an eight-year old kid in the UK.  I had a friend who worked in a language center, and I would go there quite often.  Parents would complain he was expensive, but then get mad when the non-native teachers at the kid's school spoke more in their native language than English.  Would you really study Thai with a non-Asian teacher in London?  OK, you save money with these non-natives, but really everyone loses.  The non-natives are not getting rich.  When you don't care if your English teacher can speak English, well, there you go.  

[Ventenio]

7 minutes ago, spiekerjozef said:

I wonder where the UK is at the "alf Any Other Language proficiency index 2019"?

Doesn't matter, English is the language to learn.  

[BobbyL]

They would do well copying Vietnam and gradually begin implementing a full Thai language using a Latin alphabet to school kids. They could easily do the same by adding in the tones etc. However, I guess there may be a loss of face element by doing so. 

 

One thing I have found here is people can speak English reasonably well by just copying words / phrases that they learn from a movie or song, yet they couldn't read or write the same word or phrase. 

 

It is similar for a few of the Thai children in my class (international school), their spoken English is near fluent through being immersed in it in school all day, but their reading and writing level is much lower than children who have been brought up with a Latin alphabet.  

[Langkawee]

11 minutes ago, spiekerjozef said:

I wonder where the UK is at the "alf Any Other Language proficiency index 2019"?

The English are not good at English. Even the Dutch score better on these proficiency tests. 

[nasa123]

Look and listen to all these Generals and State employees who hold high positions, most of them pointing out that they have high education from the US and England but cannot speak a word English.

[EricTh]

Ironically, most Thai schools actually hire native English speakers to teach English unlike the schools in Singapore and Malaysia which hire non-native English speakers i.e. locals.

 

[PatOngo]

1 hour ago, mok199 said:

20 years ago it seemed cute and novel , somehow these days (with so many options for learning language), its just sad .

It's also sad when you hear an Englishman say "I was sat ere' and e' was sat over there". That's not the English I learned!

[alex8912]

2 hours ago, Youlike said:

Just have a look at the young staff in ALL thai shops....there's nobody at all who speaks english....even not in the most hi-so malls.

I find it hard to believe you live in BKK. I find English good at even my local 7/11’s. 

[Assurancetourix]

59 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

They could easily attract native teachers to improve the English proficiency, sadly their xenophobia put a stick in the wheel.

They should also offer them a WP and of course a salary corresponding to their qualifications, never forgetting that this salary can not be less than 50,000 baht a month.
I know some "native english" English teachers who are very far from touching this theoretically minimal amount.
I also fail to understand why they agree to work with such a low salary, sometimes below 20,000 baht monthly, and certainly not WP.

 

On the other hand, I regularly go for a walk in the province of Mae Hong Son where there are many Karen refugee villages.
They live in very precarious conditions;
there is usually a single class school gathering all ages;
curiously in these schools students are curious and eager to learn.
When farangs arrive they come to see us, to greet us and especially to question us often in English more than correct.

Sometimes even better English than mine !  

In my discharge, I am not English nor American, the English language is not my native language.
They are open to the world, which is not the case for Thai students.

[HuskerDo]

22 minutes ago, nasa123 said:

Look and listen to all these Generals and State employees who hold high positions, most of them pointing out that they have high education from the US and England but cannot speak a word English.

I used to work with a Thai lady that came to the US when she was in her 20's. She's now in her early 60's and it's so hard to understand her STILL after her being here nearly 40 years. She says her workmates hate her and avoid her as they can't understand her (and yes she works in a pseudo I.T. position).

 

We all need to lighten up about others and how well they can speak a 2nd language.

 

 

[simon43]

They would do well copying Vietnam and gradually begin implementing a full Thai language using a Latin alphabet to school kids.

 

I recall years ago when Thai language was not supported on mobile phones, the local kids got on just fine by texting Thai sentences using Roman (a..z) letters, no tone marks of course, but they all understood each other.

 

Even nowadays, my students in Burma (Myanmar) usually text each other or comment on FB using Roman letters to write their Myanmar sentences, even though their phones/keyboards support writing in Myanmar script. 

 

When I asked them why, they said it was too much hassle to compose the words in Myanmar AND with the various tone marks or combination letters - they could write much faster using Roman letters, and again no issues about the lack of tone marks.

[trainman34014]

2 hours ago, Creasy said:

A dunces hat for Thailand 

They have a very nice collection of them !