วันอังคารที่ 27 ธันวาคม พ.ศ. 2554

Global language league tables are pointless

countries fear that the levels of rank, but the comparison is no competition

that China now speak English better than India? Spain to Scandinavia soon challenge the skills of English language?

world ranking table of the English competition for the multinational has recently published the largest provider of English language teaching (EF English Proficiency Index) suggests that the answer to the first question is "yes" and the second "no." The rate of EF confirms both common knowledge, but raise eyebrows in other countries: Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the top of the list of "highly competitive" group, but Poland has won the Swiss and Hong Kong, and is just below Malaysia. China, meanwhile, beat India, which in turn is only marginally higher than Brazil. But India is really in a league of Brazil with regard to English

I followed the changing fortunes of English in different countries in recent years. In fact, the EC report is based indirectly on my own publications. But I never tried to develop an "index of the fatherland" of this kind, and for good reason.

The first is the lack of data. There is no standard way to describe the language: in each country are different types of tests are used, and the results are often difficult to obtain. For example, the index EF said China India wins, but I realized when I was researching my report for the British Council, English Next India, remains a mystery exactly how many people in India speak English and "at this level of competition. / Aa>

Some countries believe that the results of national examinations as "state secrets", and the detailed results of tests by independent bodies are often trade secrets. What is the provider of independent review is ready to publish the same number of subjects examined in each country?

EF, of course, have their own data - some simple averages based on four online tests, two-level tests taken by students aspiring EF. But there are serious problems with the use of these data for the construction of "national scores."

The first is the issue of representativeness. The EF is a test done by a group of people who chose to take - not representative of the national population - or, indeed, an easily identifiable group. You can see this problem more clearly if we look at other international sources of data - which has produced an annual average of scores by country (and the first language of those examined), but the seller has not taken any international comparative validity

IELTS, Cambridge ESOL has created, is taken by about 1 million people worldwide each year. (This compares with EF claim 2 million students tested for four years.) Comparisons between countries for the data show a quite different from that IELTS scores of EF. Germany leads the world in the IELTS, but just above EF languishing in Malaysia in the index. Spain is over Hong Kong in the IELTS, but is beaten by Nigeria. Not reported in the Scandinavian countries, reflecting the small number of people tested in these countries.

Neither IELTS or EF data represent the national adult population. Just think about the different markets that each organization in each country. For example, in some countries, a large group who take the IELTS may be students who do not find place at university in their country of origin, but have wealthy parents who are willing to pay to study at the abroad. In Hong Kong, by contrast, all second year students are encouraged to take IELTS by the government, who will pay for their consideration. In each country, the nature of self-selection is very different, which makes international comparisons based on the data value.


The second trend concerns the structure of economies - What kind of jobs are available, how many workers are paid most of these jobs and if English required. In many economies in a widening gap is widening between the jobs of low-level services (such as restaurants, hotels), which do not require more than A1 or A2, and the graduate level, professional jobs that require C1 or C2.

In a study earlier this year, I realized that as the structure of the Hong Kong economy has changed over the last 20 years - were taken to factories in mainland China and Hong Kong was left as a service economy -. requirements came two English in the workforce



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