<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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<img src="http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2016/11/14/104107674-GettyImages-186159084.530x298.jpg?v=1479176563" alt="Children attend a class to learn how to speak English with an American accent in Hong Kong." width="530" height="298">
<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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