[lg policy] Singapore's English skills continue to improve, as Shanghai beats Hong Kong

Tue Nov 15 15:41:35 UTC 2016

Singapore's English skills continue to improve, as Shanghai beats Hong Kong
Cheang Ming | Special to CNBC
13 Hours AgoCNBC.com

COMMENTSStart the Discussion
[image: A girl recites English letters for other students during class at a
kindergarten for children of migrant workers, in Beijing.]
Jason Lee | Reuters

A girl recites English letters for other students during class at a
kindergarten for children of migrant workers, in Beijing.

Shanghai <http://www.cnbc.com/shanghai/> has pipped Hong Kong in
English-language proficiency again, after logging a big improvement over
the past five years, according to a new report.

In another standout result from the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) for
2016, Singapore <http://www.cnbc.com/singapore/> 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.

The Netherlands <http://www.cnbc.com/netherlands/> ranked first in the
index, while Scandinavian countries Denmark <http://www.cnbc.com/denmark/>,
Sweden <http://www.cnbc.com/sweden/>, Norway <http://www.cnbc.com/norway/>
and Finland rounded out the top 5.

The EPI, compiled by education company EF Education First, was based on the
results of 950,000 adults 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.

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.

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.

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.

Shanghai has previously bested Hong Kong in English proficiency only once
before, in 2014.

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.

"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.
[image: Children attend a class to learn how to speak English with an
American accent in Hong Kong.]
Philippe Lopez | AFP | Getty Images
Children attend a class to learn how to speak English with an American
accent in Hong Kong.

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.

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.

"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.

China <http://www.cnbc.com/china/> 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.

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.

Vietnam <http://www.cnbc.com/vietnam/> and Indonesia
<http://www.cnbc.com/indonesia/> 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.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/14/singapores-english-skills-continue-to-improve-as-shanghai-beats-hong-kong.html

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