VOA慢速英语2014 全世界范围内英语理解能力增强

 

Understanding of English Improves Worldwide 全世界范围内英语理解能力增强

The world’s understanding of English appears to be getting better. The private education company EF recently released a report called English Proficiency¹ Index. The report ranks English language proficiency in 63 countries into five categories or classes. They are: “very high proficiency, high, moderate, low and very low.”

Minh Tran is EF’s Director of Research and Academic Partnerships².

“At the global level, we are seeing a consistent improvement year after year. I think that many countries that are looking outward, that are looking to internationalize their economies are seeing the importance of English.”

The English Proficiency Index says Denmark is the top country for English as a foreign language. Poland and Austria have joined Denmark and other northern European countries with the “very high proficiency” ranking.

Malaysia and Singapore have the best ranking in Asia with “high proficiency” in English. Joining them is Argentina, the only Latin American country to rank as “high proficiency.” English levels in the rest of Latin America remain low.

South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have invested a lot of time and money in English education. But these countries have not improved since the last study came out in 2007.

Minh Tran has this to say: “I think they are not improving because they have not made any significant reform to the way they teach English. In Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong. They still rely quite heavily on rote³ memory. And there’s a strong focus on grammar and vocabulary acquisition, but not so much on the actual communicative skills.”

English language proficiency has actually fallen in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, partly because of wars in the area.

For its report, EF used online test results from 750,000 adults in 63 countries. The test takers were adults who chose to take the company’s online test. They were not a random⁴ sample of the total population. For that reason, the results might be biased⁶ toward people who are interested in English and use the Internet.

Dr. Clive Roberts is the Director of Assessment⁷, Analysis & Research at ELS Educational Services. He does not know about the report’s research methods, but he thinks the study is helpful.

“…Conducting such research enables countries, regions, organizations to sort of assess their own position relative to other places. What trends are happening…, then they can sort of re-assess their own situation and figure out a strategy.”

Improvements have also been noted⁸ on average scores for the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, and IELTS, the International English Language Testing System.

Eileen Tyson is Executive Director of Global Client Relations at the Educational Testing Service. ETS produces the TOEFL. Ms. Tyson agrees that English proficiency is rising worldwide. Average TOEFL scores have risen by two points in the past nine years. But she thinks it is not wise to compare countries by average TOEFL scores. She says many things can influence test results.

“For example, the age at which students start to learn English. …Some native languages are closer to English…How many hours per week a student spends learning English, and what kind of curriculum they use. So all of these combine …we feel strongly that you really can’t use TOEFL scores for comparing general proficiency across countries.”

In 2005, ETS made big changes to the TOEFL. It went from a paper test to a test that required use of a computer and an Internet connection. Notably⁹, ETS cut the grammar section and required test takers to record spoken responses to questions.

Eileen Tyson thinks the new TOEFL encouraged many teachers to make their classes more interactive¹⁰.

“We think it did help teachers to look at how they were teaching English, to make it more communicative, to make sure they were teaching speaking and writing. And we’re actually kind of proud of the fact that we’ve helped to influence language teaching and language learning worldwide.”

The British Council estimates that 1.75 billion people speak English today. The group expects that number to grow to two billion by 2020 -- about one-fourth of the world’s population.

Words in This Story

proficiency - n. the state of being good at something

rote – n. mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition; the use of memory with little intelligence

acquisition – n. the act or process of gaining skill, knowledge, etc.

random sample – n. a sample in which every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen

bias⁵ – n. to have a strong and often unfair influence on (someone or something)

re-assess – v. consider or assess again, especially while paying attention to new or different factors

1 proficiency   

n.精通，熟练，精练

参考例句：

• He plied his trade and gained proficiency in it.他勤习手艺，技术渐渐达到了十分娴熟的地步。
• How do you think of your proficiency in written and spoken English?你认为你的书面英语和口语熟练程度如何？

2 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

3 rote   

n.死记硬背，生搬硬套

参考例句：

• Learning by rote is discouraged in this school.这所学校不鼓励死记硬背的学习方式。
• He recited the poem by rote.他强记背诵了这首诗。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

6 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

7 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

8 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

9 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

10 interactive   

adj.相互作用的，互相影响的，（电脑）交互的

参考例句：

• The psychotherapy is carried out in small interactive groups.这种心理治疗是在互动的小组之间进行的。
• This will make videogames more interactive than ever.这将使电子游戏的互动性更胜以往。