VOA慢速英语2015 你的国家的英语水平如何?（在线收听）

How Well Does Your Country Speak English? 你的国家的英语水平如何?

For VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.

本期VOA，这里是教育频道

The world's English continues to improve, says a newly released study.

最新调查显示，英语使用频率仍在提高

The report, called the EF English Proficiency Index, is a yearly report card on the English level of adults in 70 countries. Sweden leads the world, while Libya is last. EF, a private education company, produced the report.

报道中，使用EF英语熟练指数被用来评价70个国家中成年人的英语水平。瑞士排名第一，利比亚垫底。调查结果是由一家私人教育机构提供的

The average level of adult English proficiency is up. But not all countries are improving. A few are even getting worse.

越来越多的成年人会说英语，但是并不是所有国家指数都提高了，还有一些变得更差了

Europe

欧洲

Europe leads the rankings. It is no surprise that Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway take the top four places. These countries have excellent public education systems and native languages that are structurally similar to English.

欧洲国家一直排名前列。也难怪瑞士、荷兰、丹麦和挪威排名前四。这些国家的公共教育系统完善，而且本国语言体系也近似于英语

In almost every country surveyed, women speak much better English than men. But in the northern European countries, the gender gap is very small.

在调查的大多数国家中，会说英语的女性数量明显高于男性。但是在北欧国家，性别差异甚小

France is the exception in Western Europe. Its English proficiency is much lower than its neighbors. The French take great pride in their national language. The report says France's poor performance could be due to a “cultural aversion” to English. France ranks below less-developed countries Indonesia, Ukraine, and Peru.

法国是欧洲国家中的例外。法国英语指数远比周围领国要低。因为法国人对自己法语感到骄傲。报道中说，法国人在英语上有如此不好的表现可能是因为法国人都不屑说英语。法国甚至比一些发展中国家比如印度尼西亚、乌克兰和秘鲁的指数都要低

Turkey has the lowest English proficiency in Europe. Its ranking has gone down since 2012. The report says Turkey's emphasis on grammar and memorization discourages students. But with its young population, it could improve quickly if it took the right education reforms.

土耳其是欧洲国家中指数最低的。从2012年起，土耳其排名一直在下降。报告中说：土耳其过分重视语法和记忆让学生感到学英语很困难。但是，土耳其年轻人数量很大，如果教育改革得当，指数将会很快得到提升

Asia

亚洲

In Asia, China has slipped 10 places since last year. Part of this drop is because the survey added three countries. The other reason is that seven Latin American countries showed more improvement than China.

亚洲，中国的名次从去年起下滑了10位。名词下滑的原因可能是调查中又加入了三个新的国家。还有原因就是，拉美国家比中国提高更多

Minh Tran is EF's Director of Research and Academic Partnerships. He says China has made great progress over the past 10 years and the overall trend is still positive. But he says China will have to change the way it teaches English if it wants to reach a higher level.

Minh Tran是EF调查的负责人。他表示：中国在过去的10年中进步了许多，所以中国的前景还是很美好的。但是他强调，中国如果还想再进一步提高的话，还需要进一步的英语教学改革

“They'll need to significantly improve teacher quality and put a strong focus on a communicative approach, right? Because, often in China, students are still learning English to pass a test, and not yet to learn English to communicate. So that is perhaps the next step for China.”

“他们需要提供英语教学质量，和重视交流方法。因为对于大多数中国学生来说，英语只是应试教育的一部分，还不能够用来交流。所以，这也可能是中国教学的下一步目标”

China's neighbors continue to invest heavily in English education. Singapore, Malaysia, and India have the highest proficiency in the region. As former British colonies, these countries have long histories of using English, especially in higher education. 

中国的其他邻国在英语教学方面投入巨大。新加坡、马来西亚和印度的指数都很高。他们曾经是英国前殖民地，他们都有使用英语的习惯，特别是高等教育

“English fever” continues in South Korea, where people spend more money on English education than any other place in the world. But South Korea's average English level is not improving. South Korean public schools “fail to teach English at a high level,” the report says.

“英语发烧热”一直在韩国很流行，韩国人在英语教育上的投资可能比世界上任何一个国家都多。但是韩国英语水平还是没有得到提高。韩国的公立学校不能提供优秀的英语教学

Vietnam has improved slightly since last year. Thailand and Cambodia remain at very low proficiency, despite their strong tourism industries.

去年起，越南的成绩有所提高。泰国和柬埔寨尽管旅游业一直很发达，但是英语指数一直很低

Latin America

拉美

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Latin America has shown slow improvement over the past eight years. Most of the gains are among young people. But the overall adult English level is still low. Argentina is the first and only Latin American country to rank as “high proficiency” on the survey.

太平洋另一边，拉美在过去8年时间里提高速度缓慢。大多数都是年轻人在学习英语。但是，成年人英语水平还是很低。阿根廷是拉美国家中唯一进入英语水平高指数的国家

The report says teacher quality is a major problem across the region. Young people who can speak English can make far more money in fields outside of teaching.

报道表示：老师素质不高是这些地区英语水平无法提高的原因。那些英语说的比较好的年轻人能够找到比英语老师更好的工作

Brazil has shown some improvement, but it still does not have enough competent English speakers in its workforce, the report says. In preparation for the 2016 Olympics, the government is offering free English lessons to 150,000 tourism professionals.

巴西有所提高，但是在工作市场上还是无法和英语本国语的人竞争。为了筹备2016年的奥运会，政府给150000名旅游业工作者免费培训英语

Last year, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said the government will invest $690 million USD in English education. Some of the money will be used to train 12,000 teachers and help pay for private English lessons for 40,000 professionals.

去南，哥伦比亚总统Juan Manuel Santos将投资69亿美元在英语教育上。其中一部分钱被用来对12000英语教师培训，还有一部分用来给40000人做职业培训

Middle East and North Africa

中东和北非

In contrast to the rest of the world, English ability is going down in the Middle East and North Africa. Youth unemployment is high throughout the region, even among college graduates.

和世界上其他国家相反，中东和北非国家英语水平下滑。当地大学毕业生失业率很高

The United Arab Emirates, with its large multinational work force, ranks better than its neighbors. However, it still has low proficiency.

沙特阿拉伯王国，由于多国混在的工作市场，排名比其他国家稍好，但是还是很低

Education has suffered because of violence and instability in Iraq, Yemen, and Libya, where English levels are very low.

在伊朗、也门和利比亚，教育由于国家长期的战乱被严重影响

Syria was not included in the survey.

叙利亚没有参与调查

The Gulf kingdoms of Qatar, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have very low English proficiency despite their wealth.

尽管波斯湾海湾国家很富有，但是他们的英语指数还是很低

The survey did not include sub-Saharan African countries.

调查中没有包括非洲撒哈拉一带国家

Methodology

总结

The EF English Proficiency Index is based on the online test scores of 910,000 adults in 70 countries. The results do not reflect the entire population of a country. The report is based on data from people who took an EF online English test in 2014.

EF英语指数是根据70个国家910000成年人在网上接受测验得出的结果。调查范围没有包括整个国家的人口。测试是在2014年举行的

How does your English compare? You can take one of the tests used in the survey. It is called the EFSET, and you can take it online for free.

你的英语水平怎么样？你可以在网上下载一份调查试卷做一下，上网搜索EFSET，免费下载。

Words in This Story

proficiency – n. the state of being good at doing something

structurally – adv. relating to the way something is built or organized

gender gap – n. the difference in opportunities, status, attitudes, etc., between men and women

aversion – n. a strong feeling of not liking something

communicative approach – n. an approach to language teaching that emphasizes interaction as both the means and the ultimate goal of study.

colony – n. an area that is controlled by or belongs to a country and is usually far away from it

competent – adj. having the necessary ability or skills : able to do something well or well enough to meet a standard