Taiwan saw its English-language skills ranking drop from 48th to 40th out of 88 countries and regions in Education First’s (EF) English-language proficiency index for this year.
Sweden topped the list, followed by the Netherlands and Singapore, the report by the Switzerland-based firm showed.
Taiwan had an average score of 51.88, down from 52.04 a year earlier, placing its English proficiency level in the “low” category; the other four categories being very high, high, moderate and very low.
Taipei performed best among the six special municipalities, followed by New Taipei City and Tainan, the report showed.
In terms of gender and age group, women outperformed men by a slight margin, although both scored below the global average.
The 21-to-25 age group performed the best, with scores that are higher than the global average, followed by the 18-to-20 age group.
English-language proficiency is usually indicative of greater productivity, EF senior director of research and academic partnerships Minh Tran (陳彥銘) said.
Europe ranked highest globally in terms of English proficiency, while Asian countries exhibited something of a bipolar extreme, with English education in certain countries still fixated on rote memorization, Tran said.
EF Taiwan branch chief executive Yang Ai-lin (楊愛麟) said that adopting bilingual education is not a short-term goal, as it requires fostering a friendly environment for such a policy and changing the public mindset.
The annual index is based on the scores of test-takers from each country or region, EF said, adding that the online exam is free of charge and available to all.
Only cities or countries with more than 400 examinees aged 18 or older are included in the index, the company said.
A total of 1.3 million people took part in the examinations, which were conducted last year, in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, it said.
Compared with last year’s report, which saw 80 countries participating with 1 million examinees, 92 percent of the test takers were younger than 40, of which 60 percent were women and 40 percent men, it said.
Travel agencies in Taiwan are working to secure alternative flights for travelers bound for New Zealand for the Lunar New Year holiday, as Air New Zealand workers are set to strike next week. The airline said that it has confirmed that the planned industrial action by its international wide-body cabin crew would go ahead on Thursday and Friday next week. While the Auckland-based carrier pledged to take reasonable measures to mitigate the impact of the workers’ strike, an Air New Zealand flight arriving at Taipei from Auckland on Thursday and another flight departing from Taipei for Auckland on Saturday would have to
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
RSS