Swedes regain crown as top English speakers

Austria has narrowly missed out on making it into the top tier of countries scoring best for English proficiency levels, according to a new study by language training company Education First (EF). Latvia is ranked 22nd and Lithuania 26th.

He also gave a few suggestions for China to improve English proficiency like focusing on practical communication skills from day one, investing in technology and online learning tools as well as supporting workplace and private sector training for adults.

The countries that placed higher than Poland, namely the Nordic countries, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Luxemburg, scored between 70.94 and 63.45. Although Argentina continued to top the regional English proficiency ranking that has existed for the past five years, it did not move up in the global rankings. "Thailand is the only country that declined significantly, while India, Kazakhstan, and Vietnam all showed significant improvements", the report said. Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan have not improved from a year ago but they score better than most of the countries in Asia. This "neighborhood" effect is particularly strong in parts of Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Adult English proficiency does not change overnight, but in this fifth index, we are able to confirm trends of progress, stagnation, and decline that emerged in previous reports.

Globally, the average level of adult English proficiency in the world has risen slightly since a year ago, but this increase is far from common across countries, regions, and age groups.

The gap between the highest and lowest proficiency countries has widened, with the top-ranked country, Sweden, a full 33 points above Libya, in last place.

Christopher McCormick, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at EF told the press that the report was based on statistics covering 911,000 English learners from 70 English as a second language countries.