According to the third Education First (EF) English Proficiency Index, Vietnam's ranking has gone from 31st out of 54 countries in 2012 to 28th out of 60.
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| Results of EF English Proficiency announced in Vietnam |
Minh Tran, Director of the English proficiency project in Vietnam, said the project showed the development in English studies over the past six years and it would be a good guide for policy makers. "The chart this year will show a connection between English proficiency and that of the workforce in the country," he said.
The rankings were based on the results of free online tests by 750,000 adults. Each participating country must have at least 400 test takers to be qualify. According to the report, weak English language proficiency has lowered the competitiveness of the Latin America.
Minh Tran also said the wages of employees with high English proficiency tends to be higher. He added, "The index shows that countries with higher proficiency have more chances to cooperate with foreign partners in commercial activities."
In an interview with Tienphong News, Tran said, "60% of Vietnam's population is under 35 years old. With such a young workforce, Vietnam has shown itself adept at learning foreign languages. On top of that, the government has been encouraging English studies for many years with the Foreign Language 2020 project, for which they spent VND9 trillion (USD429 million) to improve the English skill of teachers."
However, he went on to say that teachers need to use English in communication instead of only studying its grammar.
