Vietnam falls to low in global English rankings

In the 2024 global ranking of English proficiency index, Vietnam ranked 63rd, down 5 places and this is also the lowest position in the past 3 years.

Global English Proficiency Index Ranking 2024, in Asia alone, Vietnam ranks 8th

Vietnam is more fluent in English than 53 countries

This morning (November 13), Education First (EF) announced the 2024 global English Proficiency Index (EPI) rankings after analyzing the test results of 2.1 million non-native English speakers, aged 18 and over, in 116 countries and territories. The results showed that Vietnam ranked 63rd out of 116 regions with 498 points, a slight decrease in both ranking and score compared to last year (58th place with 505/800 points).

According to EF, Vietnam's proficiency is low this year, after two consecutive years of being average. Notably, the only two periods when Vietnam had a low English proficiency index were 2011-2012 (the first years EF conducted the survey) and 2019-2021 (the period when Covid-19 broke out). EF did not give a specific explanation for why Vietnam dropped to the low English proficiency group.

Although the overall score is low, each region in Vietnam has different scores. In particular, Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Khanh Hoa, Da Nang fluctuate from 516 - 524 points, which are considered average. Meanwhile, provinces such as Ba Ria - Vung Tau , Can Tho, Hue, Nam Dinh, Thanh Hoa... are in the low English proficiency group. On the other hand, the 26-30 age group uses English best in the country with 522 points, according to EF.

Meanwhile, in Asia alone, Vietnam ranked 8th out of 23 countries and territories, down one place compared to 2023 and behind countries such as Singapore (609 points), Philippines (570), Malaysia (566), South Korea (523). On the other hand, Vietnam is assessed by EF to have a higher English proficiency index than the world's leading economies such as India (490), China (455), Japan (454), and also higher than Thailand (415).

This year, the world's leading position still belongs to the Netherlands (636 points), followed by familiar names such as Norway, Sweden, Austria, Denmark. And among the 9 countries in the very high English proficiency group, only Singapore is a representative from Asia, the others are all from Europe.

Ivory Coast, Somalia and Yemen are the three countries at the bottom of the EF Proficiency Index.

Students after the 2024 high school graduation English exam

What is the ranking method?

According to EF, each country’s EPI score is calculated based on a three-year average. First, EF calculates the average SET score of all test takers in a country in the previous calendar year. This score is then averaged with published EPI scores from the previous two years. This method helps to stabilize the index, minimizing fluctuations due to sample changes from year to year, according to EF.

After calculating the country scores, EF uses these scores to calculate the combined scores for each world region and the global score. These scores are weighted by the population of each country or territory, such as India's score being weighted more heavily than Thailand's when calculating the Asia region score. This methodology applies to all supranational EPI scores (global and regional, along with breakdowns by gender and age group).

According to the analysis of the 2024 EPI, EF found that global English proficiency is declining, with 60% of countries and territories seeing a slight decrease in their scores compared to the previous year. However, the positive point is that the downward trend in English proficiency among 18-20 year olds has slowed down in 2024. On the other hand, Asia was named as the region with the biggest decline in English proficiency compared to the other continents.

EF added that young working-age people are more proficient in English than students and adults over 40.

EF is an educational organization founded in 1965, headquartered in Sweden and with an office in Vietnam. This unit began evaluating and ranking the English proficiency index of countries since 2011. To date, the EPI is considered the world's largest survey of English skills by country and region. The SET test from which EPI takes data is conducted online for 15-50 minutes depending on the number of skills tested and more than 90% of test takers are not EF students.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/viet-nam-xuong-muc-thap-tren-bang-xep-hang-toan-cau-ve-tieng-anh-185241113081541671.htm