Taiwan has dropped one notch over the past year in the global rankings of nations that take English proficiency tests administered by Education First, according to the Swiss company’s Web site.
Last year, Taiwan was ranked 30th among the 70 countries and territories worldwide that were listed in the English First English Proficiency Index based on the performance of their citizens in online tests of English as a second language administered by Education First.
However, this year Taiwan fell to 31st globally, with a score of 53.18, and was ranked seventh among the 16 Asian countries listed in the index.
The global ranking put Taiwan in the 22nd to 34th range, which indicates moderate proficiency, according to the report.
Other Asian territories in that category were South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia and Hong Kong, while Singapore, Malaysia and India were ranked as high proficiency.
China was ranked 47th and was listed in the low proficiency range. However, among its provinces and cities, Shanghai and Beijing were categorized as having moderate English proficiency, and both cities scored slightly higher than Taiwan.
Sweden topped the rankings with a score of 70.94, followed by the Netherlands (70.58) and Denmark (70.05).
English First, a private company that offers classes in English as a second language, published this year’s report based on data from 910,000 adults who took its online English tests last year.
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