Taiwan came in next to last among 14 Asian countries in an international English language test last year, British Council statistics showed yesterday.
Taiwanese examinees scored an average of 5.66 on the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) nine-band scale, falling between the scores for modest users and competent users of English.
Taiwan was only able to edge out China by a small margin, with China scoring an average of 5.46.
Taiwan, however, saw an increase in the average score of its examinees from 5.59 points in 2007 to 5.66 points last year.
Malaysia had the best average score of the 14 countries, with 6.71 points, while examinees in the Philippines took second place with 6.69.
In the writing category, Taiwan also ranked 13th, scoring 5.24 on average, again slightly ahead of China’s 5.12, with similar results in the listening category.
Examinees in Malaysia and the Philippines also performed better than their counterparts from the rest of the region.
In the speaking category, however, Taiwan came in 11th, ahead of Nepal, South Korea and China.
Examinees from the Philippines had the best speaking performance, followed by those in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Hong Kong.
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