Taipei, Aug. 21 (CNA) Statistics drawn from Britain's IELTS (International English Language Testing System) average scores show that the English proficiency of Taiwanese students lags behind that of most Asian countries, and Taiwanese are encouraged to do more to learn English, the British Council said Tuesday.
The average score of Taiwanese students in the 2006 academic module of IELTS, which has a top score of nine, was 5.62 points, ranking 17th overall and lagging behind Asian countries including Japan, Korea, Vietnam and Thailand, said Iain Mackie, Director of British Council's English Language Services.
Germany ranked first among 20 countries listed, scoring 7.23. Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia and Hong Kong rounded out the top five. Indonesia, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Pakistan and Thailand ranked 11th to 16th.
"It's a little bit sad to say this but, in my opinion, the overall English proficiency of Taiwan's working class has been going down in recent years. The regression was probably a result of the booming numbers of universities, which means it's much easier to obtain a college degree, " said Monica Chiu, Marketing Director of 104 Job Bank.
The average score of 5.62 actually was not bad. It's enough for Taiwanese students to attend most universities in the U.K., said Mackie.
But Mackie noted that most English teaching programs in Taiwan do not encourage independent thinking, and most teaching materials are irrelevant to the real world. He also said that most programs stress test taking instead of actually using English to communicate.
"According to our statistics, about 45 to 50 out of 100 job offers required basic English proficiency and communication skills, which means anyone who is competent in English will have twice as many job offers, " Chiu said.
"English proficiency is also important for those who want to climb the corporate ladder and win a promotion. Competency has become a basic requirement rather than an advantage, " she noted.