VOA慢速英语: 全世界通晓英语的人数增长

全世界通晓英语的人数增长

The world’s understanding of English appears to be getting better. The private education company EF recently released a report called English Proficiency Index. The report ranks English language proficiency in 63 countries into five categories or classes. They are: “very high proficiency, high, moderate, low and very low.”

全世界懂英语的人水平越来越高。私立的教育机构——英孚教育最近发布一篇英语水平指数的报道。报告把63个国家的英语水平排名分为五个类别：非常高、高、中、低、非常低水平。

Minh Tran is EF’s Director of Research and Academic Partnerships.

Minh Tran是英孚研究和学术部的主任。

“At the global level, we are seeing a consistent improvement year after year. I think that many countries that are looking outward, that are looking to internationalize their economies are seeing the importance of English.”

“全球范围内，我们可以看到英语水平逐年在持续提升。我认为许多国家在寻求经济全球化，同时也认识到英语的重要性。”

The English Proficiency Index says Denmark is the top country for English as a foreign language. Poland and Austria have joined Denmark and other northern European countries with the “very high proficiency” ranking.

英语水平指数显示作为一门外语，英语水平最高的国家是丹麦。波兰和奥地利已经加入到丹麦的行列，其它一些北欧国家英语水平也是接近“非常高水平”的排名国家。

Malaysiaand Singapore have the best ranking in Asia with “high proficiency” in English. Joining them is Argentina, the only Latin American country to rank as “high proficiency.” English levels in the rest of Latin America remain low.

在亚洲，马来西亚和新加坡是高水平英语级别的国家。而阿根廷是拉丁美洲唯一一个英语高水平排名的国家。拉丁美洲其它国家的英语水平仍然比较低。

South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong have invested a lot of time and money in English education. But these countries have not improved since the last study came out in 2007.

韩国、日本、台湾和香港在英语教育方面已经投入很多时间和金钱。但是自从2007年的调查研究结果出来后，这些国家英语教育水平并没有取得什么进步。

Minh Tran has this to say: “I think they are not improving because they have not made any significant reform to the way they teach English. In Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong. They still rely quite heavily on rote memory. And there’s a strong focus on grammar and vocabulary acquisition, but not so much on the actual communicative skills.”

Minh Tran说：“我认为他们英语没有取得进步的原因是在英语教学方面他们没有做出切实有效的改革。”在韩国、日本、台湾和香港，他们仍然靠传统的记忆模式路线。他们太关注语法、词汇的掌握，而不是真正的交流技巧。

English language proficiency has actually fallen in many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, partly because of wars in the area.

中东、北非的很多国家，由于地区战争的影响，英语水平已经下降。

For its report, EF used online test results from 750,000 adults in 63 countries. The test takers were adults who chose to take the company’s online test. They were not a random sample of the total population. For that reason, the results might be biased toward people who are interested in English and use the Internet.

英孚教育使用36个国家的75万成人在线测试结果得出这个结论。测试人员都是选择英孚在线测试的成年人。他们不是从63个国家的人口中随意挑选出来的。所以，测试结果也许偏向于那些对英语感兴趣以及使用互联网的人群。

Dr. Clive Roberts is the Director of Assessment, Analysis & Research at ELS Educational Services. He does not know about the report’s research methods, but he thinks the study is helpful.

克莱夫·罗伯特博士是ELS教育机构的评估、分析和研究部的主任，他不知道这篇报道的调查方式是什么，但是他认为调查研究是有用的。

“…Conducting such research enables countries, regions, organizations to sort of assess their own position relative to other places. What trends are happening…, then they can sort of re-assess their own situation and figure out a strategy.”

“进行这样的调查研究可以让一些国家、地区和组织相较于其它国家，评估自己的位置。接下来会有什么发展趋势，他们可以重新评估他们的情况，找出应对策略。”

Improvements have also been noted on average scores for the TOEFL, the Test of English as a Foreign Language, and IELTS, the International English Language Testing System.

英语水平的提升还体现在托福的平均成绩上，托福是检定非英语为母语者的英语能力考试。

Eileen Tyson is Executive Director of Global Client Relations at the Educational Testing Service. ETS produces the TOEFL. Ms. Tyson agrees that English proficiency is rising worldwide. Average TOEFL scores have risen by two points in the past nine years. But she thinks it is not wise to compare countries by average TOEFL scores. She says many things can influence test results.

艾琳·泰森是美国教育测验服务社的全球客户关系的执行董事。美国教育测验服务社举办托福英语考试。泰森赞同英语水平在世界范围内有所提升这一观点。但是她认为通过平均的托福成绩来比较各国的英语水平有点不明智。她说很多因素会影响测试结果。

“For example, the age at which students start to learn English. …Some native languages are closer to English…How many hours per week a student spends learning English, and what kind of curriculum they use. So all of these combine …we feel strongly that you really can’t use TOEFL scores for comparing general proficiency across countries.”

“例如，学生什么年龄开始学习英语…一些本土语言更接近英语…学生花多长时间来学习英语，他们使用哪种课程。把所有这些因素综合起来考量，我们认为不能仅仅用托福成绩来比较各国的英语水平情况。”

In 2005, ETS made big changes to the TOEFL. It went from a paper test to a test that required use of a computer and an Internet connection. Notably, ETS cut the grammar section and required test takers to record spoken responses to questions.

2005年，美国教育测验服务社对托福进行了大的变革。从纸质测试变成一个需要用电脑和互联网的考试。很明显美国教育测验服务社把语法部分砍掉，要求参加测试的人用口述表达来回答这些问题。

Eileen Tyson thinks the new TOEFL encouraged many teachers to make their classes more interactive.

艾琳·泰森认为新的托福考试方式会激励很多老师让他们的课程更多一些互动。

“We think it did help teachers to look at how they were teaching English, to make it more communicative, to make sure they were teaching speaking and writing. And we’re actually kind of proud of the fact that we’ve helped to influence language teaching and language learning worldwide.”

“我们认为这样的托福考试确实会让老师去寻找他们教授英语的方式，让英语更具交流性，确保他们教授英语的读说、写能力。对于在全球范围内影响到英语语言的教学，我们感到非常自豪。”

The British Council estimates that 1.75 billion people speak English today. The group expects that number to grow to two billion by 2020 -- about one-fourth of the world’s population.

英国文化协会估计当今有17.5亿人讲英语，预计到2020年，这一人群数量会增长到20亿——占全球人口总数的四分之一。

I’m Jonathan Evans.

我是乔纳森·伊凡斯。

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Words in This Story

proficiency - n. the state of being good at something

rote – n. mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition; the use of memory with little intelligence

acquisition – n. the act or process of gaining skill, knowledge, etc.

random sample – n. a sample in which every person in the population has an equal chance of being chosen

bias – n. to have a strong and often unfair influence on (someone or something)

re-assess – v. consider or assess again, especially while paying attention to new or different factors