Thailand falls in global English Proficiency Index for fourth consecutive year

 

ThaiPBS file photo for reference only
 

Thailand’s English proficiency ranking amongst non English speakers has fallen for the fourth consecutive year.

 

According to this year's English Proficiency Index, which was released last week by Swiss based international education company Education First, Thailand ranked in just 89th place, out of 100 hundred countries surveyed.

 

With an overall score of just 419, Thailand is regarded as having “very low proficiency”.

 

This year’s ranking is Thailand's lowest and represents the fourth consecutive year that Thailand’s ranking has dropped.

 

In 2019, Thailand ranked 74th out of 100, while in 2018 it ranked 64th out of 88 countries included in the index with a score of 48.54.

 

Education First described the “very low proficiency” ranking as those countries which can introduce oneself simply (name, age, country /regions of origin), understand simple signs and give basic directions to a foreign visitor.

 

By comparison, a “high proficiency” are those countries which can make a presentation at work, understand TV shows and read a newspaper, where as “very high proficiency” are countries where someone can use nuanced and appropriate language in social situations, read advanced texts with ease and negotiate a contract with a native English speaker

 

The index found that Thai men scored slightly higher than women, with scores of 48.68 and 47.59, respectively, both still some way short of the global averages of 53.03 for men and 53.23 for women.

 

Thailand’s lowely score means that with the exception of Myanmar (93rd), it is outperformed by all of its ASEAN neighbours when it comes to English speaking ability. 

 

Singapore (10th, vey high proficiency), the Philippines (27th, high proficiency) and Malaysia (30th Moderate proficiency) were the three best performing countries in ASEAN.

 

Both Vietnam (65th, low proficiency) and Cambodia (84th, very low proficiency) outperformed Thailand.

 

Globally, the Netherlands ranked in 1st place, while Denmark (2nd), Finland (3rd), Sweden (4th) and Norway (5th) were all found to have “very high proficiency”.

 

According to its website the Education First English Proficiency Index calculates a country’s average adult English skill level using data from two different English tests completed by hundreds of thousands of adults every year. 

 

One test is open to any Internet user for free. The second is an online placement test used by Education First during the enrollment process for English courses. Both include grammar, vocabulary, reading, and listening sections.

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-11-25

 

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If Thailand remains closed to farang tourists then bar girls will forget the little English that they know and the ratings will fall further ????

Not surprised, they are not really interested outside the tourist areas.

 

They should hire a lot of English teachers, a lot, and somebody that really can speak English and not the English teacher I spoke to in SiSaket many years ago, I didn't understand one word she was saying (Thai) and I felt sorry for her and her students. 

 

Singapore is doing very well in this regard.

 

 

Hasn't this poor dead horse been beaten enough?

 

You get what you pay for. Pay a competitive salary and you'll get quality teachers. I know a school where they are currently short 14 teachers. They are part of the the largest private school system in Southeast Asia, and the pay they offer is literally laughed at and it shows. Numbers don't lie. As a result you get lousy English proficiency. Again, numbers don't lie.

me know u undersanding, hey you you

Quote

Both Vietnam (65th, low proficiency) and Cambodia (84th, very high proficiency) outperformed Thailand.

 

Incorrect for Cambodia. It should be 84th, very LOW proficiency. But it did gain 10 places from the previous year's ranking.

It all begins with interest of the world outside, which is lacking. The incentive is 0.

I spend 25% of my working time teaching, the rest is activities, administration and testing. Testing every week, quarter, mid-term, and semester. And very important to make sure that each student has at least a 60% score. No surprise these results.

You get many Thai students coming to UK universities to study but having to spend the first year at a language school. Their proficiency after one year is usually quite impressive.

 

Be sure to turn the subtitles on.

 

38 minutes ago, webfact said:

Cambodia (84th, very high proficiency)

 

boys and girls.....this is what we call irony.   Well, probably not; unless the writer says he is a master in the farang language!!!   

 

anyhow.....i try to explain to my gf that nobody understands English here......but she thinks I'm a moron because when I ask, "Where......is.........the.........beer?" at Macro in my super, super slow voice.....she's convinced they are super fluent when they point randomly and smile.  

 

i'm super lazy in English.....but when the rubber hits the road or the shhhh hits the fan or it's some kind of test......well...i can hold my own

 

Don't forget that the  "Democratic soldier"  ????

said Thai would  become the de-facto world language  so of course no need to learn English ???? 

I'm finding more Thai's have HIGH proficiency using Google translate .… am impressed with that.

4 minutes ago, csmith said:

I'm finding more Thai's have HIGH proficiency using Google translate .… am impressed with that.

If you can make sense of Thai translated by Google I am well impressed.

Soon, no more English spoken but at school, they will be obliged to learn Mandarine to better understand their brothers and sisters.

35 minutes ago, RotBenz8888 said:

It all begins with interest of the world outside, which is lacking. The incentive is 0.

well said!

most thais live and die among thais, never need to speak another language except a few tourist encounters in a lifetime,marry thais, never travel outside thailand

Interesting that it has been falling for the last four years. Wasn't it about 5 years ago when immigration had a crackdown that scared lots of teachers into moving elsewhere to work?

One day they will need to bite the bullet and admit that if they want to be able to learn the language, they need someone who can actually speak it properly to do the teaching. I am yet to meet a Thai Government school "English" teacher who could actually string a sentence together intelligibly.

My online students are: mainland Chinese, Hong Kong, Russian, Ukrainian, French, Israeli, Korean, Australian, British, Romanian ... er no Thai students.....

The ranking is determined by results on an online test and by the results of a language schools enrollment tests.  

 

Hardly good a representation of a nation's English proficiency.

I just deleted what I wrote as it's a waste. Never has a junta/military government ever in the world produced prosperity in a country, never. 2006 was the start of the demise I witnessed in education.

Hows the Thai proficency in the Western world?

Japan is ranked 55...over 30 places better than Thailand.

 

Anyone who has been to Japan will know that the average level of English is way below that in Thailand  and that this infomercial is about as informative as a Biden press conference.

5 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Hows the Thai proficency in the Western world?

 

Thai is spoken in Thailand   English is the  worldwide language of business,communications,technology,medicine, aviation etc etc etc

6 minutes ago, Traubert said:

Hows the Thai proficency in the Western world?

some questions never have an answer just like "the chicken or the egg first?" debate.

is english more important language or Thai and why. You can debate these until the cows come back. Its political and very controversial

Just now, johng said:

 

Thai is spoken in Thailand   English is the  worldwide language of business,communications,medicine, aviation

etc etc etc

So your average Joe doesn't need it?

1 minute ago, Traubert said:

So your average Joe doesn't need it?

If the average (Somchai) Joe  is working in the fields out in Nakorn Nowhere the he probably has little use for English  unless he wants to  find some higher paying job..maybe even working in the fields overseas....

Israel  or  the "country of Scandinavia"  ( 555 yes I know Scandinavia is not a country)

57 minutes ago, Ventenio said:

 

boys and girls.....this is what we call irony.   Well, probably not; unless the writer says he is a master in the farang language!!!   

 

anyhow.....i try to explain to my gf that nobody understands English here......but she thinks I'm a moron because when I ask, "Where......is.........the.........beer?" at Macro in my super, super slow voice.....she's convinced they are super fluent when they point randomly and smile.  

 

i'm super lazy in English.....but when the rubber hits the road or the shhhh hits the fan or it's some kind of test......well...i can hold my own

 

In some places irony is a bit like coppery or brassy.

51 minutes ago, AlfHuy said:

Soon, no more English spoken but at school, they will be obliged to learn Mandarine to better understand their brothers and sisters.

makes more sense to me, Thailand doesn't need the west and their desires to take advantage of every country that they're allowed to..

I'll bet that their Chinese is nigh on perfect............... ????????