<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail-story-top"><div class="gmail-story-header-left gmail-twoCol"><h1 class="gmail-title">Singapore's English skills continue to improve, as Shanghai beats Hong Kong</h1>
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                                        <span>Cheang Ming | Special to CNBC</span>
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<time class="gmail-datestamp" datetime="2016-11-14T21:31:42-0500">13 Hours Ago</time><span class="gmail-sourcelogo" id="gmail-sourcelogo-cnbccom">CNBC.com</span></div><div class="gmail-story-header-right">
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                                <img src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2016/11/14/104107685-RTR389O4.530x298.jpg?v=1479177103" alt="A girl recites English letters for other students during class at a kindergarten for children of migrant workers, in Beijing." width="530" height="298">
                           
                                        <div class="gmail-attribution">Jason Lee | Reuters<br><br></div>
                                                        <div class="gmail-caption">A girl recites English letters for other students during class at a kindergarten for children of migrant workers, in Beijing.</div>
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                                                                                                                                                <p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/shanghai/" target="_blank">Shanghai</a>
 has pipped Hong Kong in English-language proficiency again, after 
logging a big improvement over the past five years, according to a new 
report.</p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  In another standout result from the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) for 2016, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/singapore/" target="_blank">Singapore</a>
 became the first Asian country to crack the highest proficiency band 
for English, placing 6th overall in the index. English is the first 
language in the city-state, which operates a bilingual language policy 
in state schools.</p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  The <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/netherlands/" target="_blank">Netherlands</a> ranked first in the index, while Scandinavian countries <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/denmark/" target="_blank">Denmark</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/sweden/" target="_blank">Sweden</a>, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/norway/" target="_blank">Norway</a> and Finland rounded out the top 5.</p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                <p>  The EPI, compiled by education company EF Education First, was based on the results of 950,000 <span>adults</span>
 who took an online English test administered by EF. A total of 72 
countries and territories were ranked in this year's edition of the 
index, which was revealed exclusively to CNBC.</p>
                                                                                                                        
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                                                                                                                                                <p>  While China was ranked 39th out of 72 countries, 
compared to Hong Kong's 30th place in the worldwide rankings, the 
Chinese financial capital Shanghai logged better test scores than Hong 
Kong, a special administrative region of China and regional financial 
hub. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>Shanghai recorded an 
EPI score of 55.54, compared to Hong Kong's score of 54.29 in 2016. 
However, China's capital, Beijing, came in slightly lower than Hong 
Kong, with a score of 53.49. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  In terms of 
improvement in EPI scores, Shanghai experienced a 5-year score change of
 4.35, compared to Hong Kong's 0.64 improvement. Shanghai's scale of 
improvement was similar to Singapore's, with the latter clocking a 
5-year score improvement of 4.87. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  Shanghai has previously bested Hong Kong in English proficiency only once before, in 2014. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  Minh Tran, senior 
director of research and academic partnerships at EF, said Shanghai's 
improvement was due to the growing importance of English in China in 
response to an increasingly internationalized business and employment 
world. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  "Chinese companies, 
such as Alibaba and Huawei, that are looking to operate abroad or 
attract foreign capital are expecting higher English proficiency levels 
from their applicants," Tran explained.</p>
                                                                                                                        
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                                        <div class="gmail-attribution">Philippe Lopez | AFP | Getty Images </div>
                                                        <div class="gmail-caption">Children attend a class to learn how to speak English with an American accent in Hong Kong.</div>
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                                                                                                                                                <p>  He attributed Hong Kong's stagnation on English 
proficiency to the elevated status of Cantonese in the territory since 
it was handed over by Britain to China in 1997. Hong Kong adopts a 
trilingual policy, which promotes the use of Cantonese, Mandarin and 
English. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>However, an increased 
emphasis on Mandarin - which is more commonly spoken in mainland China 
than Cantonese - in recent years has resulted in controversy, as Hong 
Kongers fear the loss of local culture, especially given the ongoing 
backdrop of pro-Beijing and pro-democracy tensions. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  "Though the rising 
importance of Mandarin has not devalued English in the Hong Kong job 
market, it follows logically that when the focus shifts from a single 
foreign language to two, there is less time allocated to English study 
than previously," Tran said, adding that Hong Kong's reputation as an 
international finance hub could potentially be at risk if it lost out to
 other Asian cities on English proficiency. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/china/" target="_blank">China</a>
 as a whole lags Hong Kong in the EPI, which Tran said was due to 
varying English proficiency across the country in line with development 
and income levels, with Tier 1 cities performing better than their 
inland counterparts. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  ASEAN countries 
performed fairly well in the index. Malaysia and the Philippines took 
12th and 13th places respectively, and ranked in the second-highest 
proficiency band. </p>
                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        <p>  <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/vietnam/" target="_blank">Vietnam</a> and <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/indonesia/" target="_blank">Indonesia</a>
 were surprisingly strong performers, EF's Tran said, coming in at 31st 
and 32nd places. He cited the competitive education system in Vietnam 
for the headway the country had made in improving English proficiency. 
Vietnam rolled out an ambitious $450 million national program in 2008 to
 improve English language proficiency by 2020. </p><p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/14/singapores-english-skills-continue-to-improve-as-shanghai-beats-hong-kong.html">http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/14/singapores-english-skills-continue-to-improve-as-shanghai-beats-hong-kong.html</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message.  A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well.  (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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