Thailand ranks 62nd out of 70 in English skills

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ENGLISH SKILL
Thailand ranks 62nd out of 70 in English skills
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Thailand ranks 62 out of 70 countries in a global ranking of English skills by EF Education First.

The education company yesterday released the fifth annual edition of its EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI), the world's largest ranking of countries by English skills.

The report identifies global and regional English-language learning trends and analyses the relationship between countries' English proficiency and their economic competitiveness. This year's EF EPI report profiles all 70 ranked countries, using test data from 910,000 adult English-language learners.

Thailand scored 45.35 out of 100, while Sweden (70.94) was on top, following by the Netherlands (70.58) and Denmark (70.05).

In Asean countries, Singapore ranked 12th with a score of 61.08, followed by Malaysia at 14th (60.30), Vietnam at 29th (53.81) and Indonesia at 32nd (52.91).

"The EF EPI shows the power of big data to inform education policy, investment decisions, and classroom practices," said Minh Tran, EF's director of research.

New approach

"We are thrilled that this year the EF EPI has started incorporating data from the EF Standard English Test, which is revolutionising the testing industry as the world's first free standardised English test."

This year's report reveals for the first time the connection between countries' English levels and their innovation metrics such as high-technology exports and expenditures on research and development.

Although the rankings shift every year, the correlations between countries' English ability and gross national income per capita, quality of life, Internet connectivity, and a range of other indicators remain strong and stable.

Women speak English better than men in almost every country surveyed, the report said, but this gender gap is absent in the very high-proficiency countries in Northern Europe.

European countries, particularly the Nordic nations, continue to outperform other regions, claiming the top 10 slots in the ranking.

The Middle East/North Africa region was the only one to experience declining English proficiency in the latest analysis.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Thailand-ranks-62nd-out-of-70-in-English-skills-30272214.html

-- The Nation 2015-11-04

[sirineou]

I wonder where England ranks?

[BuckBee]

they must of cheated to rank that well ...

[borisloosebrain]

Yo it's all cool pass the bong Somchai

[NongKhaiKid]

Whatever happened to that old refrain ' To Be Number 1 ' as sung by a VIP ?

[tomwct]

So, what's new?

[selftaopath]

Whatever happened to that old refrain ' To Be Number 1 ' as sung by a VIP ?

The only thing Land of Scams seem destined to be #1 in is traffic fatalities... or maybe #1 in corruption. And then there's police ineptness.... geeze Thailand can be #1. in a few areas... Sure English speaking skills will never be one of them, but .....

[kjun12]

Have you ever met a Thai English teacher? If you ever do you will not be surprised at this standing.

[terryp]

i am shocked they did so well

[Bender]

actually that not a bad score..... for logic and mathematics skills they would have ranked last...

[jaltsc]

"Thailand ranks 62 out of 70 countries in a global ranking of English skills..."

But #1 in Street Corner/Sleazy Bar, broken English pick up lines skills.

Edited November 4, 2015 by jaltsc

[ezzra]

they must of cheated to rank that well ...

They should have paid someone to be pushed back up the ranking, someone was penny pinching here,

On a more serious note, Thais don't think that acquiring another language is necessary or important

as 90% of them will never ever will have to use another language in their life time...

than come the natural ability to learn foreign language, something the Thais are greatly lacking.....

[jaltsc]

they must of cheated to rank that well ...

They should have paid someone to be pushed back up the ranking, someone was penny pinching here,

On a more serious note, Thais don't think that acquiring another language is necessary or important

as 90% of them will never ever will have to use another language in their life time...

than come the natural ability to learn foreign language, something the Thais are greatly lacking.....

So, if I am to use your statistics, I can conclude that 10% of the Thai population are bar girls?

[konying]

Lucky they surveyed students from the English course , if they were to survey around bars , they would have learned new language has been developed with phrases such as my friend you

[BSJ]

Howz that!

Ps: Yawn!!!

Edited November 4, 2015 by BSJ

[AyG]

Given that the participants in the survey were self-selecting, the results are meaningless. It could be that only the very best English students in the likes of Sweden and the Netherlands were tested.

In other words, pointless self-promotion for a language school chain.

[Assurancetourix]

But .... Many thai I know in E-San can speak fluently chinese from Taiwan or japanese or Korean because they were there to work for many years .

When I was a trucker all over Europe I went many times to Netherland, ;

in this country when they have english movies on TV they are in english, not dubbing in dutch ;

In France ( I'm french ) we have the same problem as in Thailand; all the movies are dubbing ;

you cannot learn a foreign language like that !

Good answer konying; they speak english like they speak thai: without verbs : " where you from ?

[vogie]

England came an impressive 57, closely followed by America.

[DavisH]

English is just not considered important to the life of the average Thai. I'm shocked to see Indonesia ranks much higher. Where is Laos and Cambodia?

[willyumiii]

I wonder where England ranks?

#3.

After America and Australia.

Yes, this is click bait..

Calm down!

[willyumiii]

Have you ever met a Thai English teacher? If you ever do you will not be surprised at this standing.

Sad, but true.

You can not teach what you do not know.

[pinkpanther99]

That is not actually a bad score when you consider how English is taught here.

I'm more surprised there are 8 countries ranked lower in English proficiency than Thailand.

[arrowsdawdle]

I wonder where England ranks?

Pretty well probably, unless pronunciation and grammar are a factor.

[arrowsdawdle]

Have you ever met a Thai English teacher? If you ever do you will not be surprised at this standing.

Sad, but true.

You can not teach what you do not know.

Sure you can, that's why they are at the bottom of the barrel.

[arrowsdawdle]

So, what's new?

Ocho is preparing a brown envelope to deal with the situation.

[DrTuner]

Likely to go further down as the country closes itself from the outside world.

[AyG]

English is just not considered important to the life of the average Thai. I'm shocked to see Indonesia ranks much higher. Where is Laos and Cambodia?

Cambodia is 69/70. Laos isn't included.

Also in the bottom 10 with Thailand and Cambodia are: El Salvador, Qatar, Mongolia, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Full list at: http://www.ef.co.uk/epi/

[DP25]

Have you ever met a Thai English teacher? If you ever do you will not be surprised at this standing.

Most people have probably met a Thai English teacher and don't even know it. Most of them can't speak English and are too terrified and embarrassed to try speaking with a farang.

[LawrenceN]

they must of cheated to rank that well ...

And where would you rank? "Must of"? You might mean "must have" or "must've" if you prefer. Sorry for going all grammar police on you, but you're not one to judge others' proficiency in English.

[Assurancetourix]

English is just not considered important to the life of the average Thai. I'm shocked to see Indonesia ranks much higher. Where is Laos and Cambodia?

Cambodia is 69/70. Laos isn't included.

Also in the bottom 10 with Thailand and Cambodia are: El Salvador, Qatar, Mongolia, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Libya.

Full list at: http://www.ef.co.uk/epi/

Lao isn't included because french is the second official language for........................ civil servants

If you go once in Laos you will be surprised to see " Poste et Telecommunication " in front of the main post office in Vientiane or " Le Primaire" in front of a school in a village ...