Page 6 - ELG2301 Jan Issue 483

NEWS .

Size matters when it comes

to English test rankings

By Melanie Butler
its proficiency normally plummet.
It’s EF EPI season and newspaper EF doesn’t suggest it does – its
headlines around the world are own analysis focuses on regional
once again either celebrating their and demographic trends.
country’s success or bemoaning In terms of individual countries,
its failure in the ranking based what often changes is the number
on the results of EF’s free online and nature of the individuals who PHOTO SASIN TIPCHAI FROM PIXABAY
language test, EF SET. choose to take the free online test
“Worst in the EU?” asks The Local, known as EF SET on which the
France, bemoaning the country’s rankings is based. If half-a-dozen
performance on the English Austrians took the test, their
Proficiency Index, to give EPI its results won’t tell us much, as a
full name. very small sample of a population markets. Small countries, like They are generally small, mostly
“Slipping English Proficiency?” can tell you very little about the Austria, ranked number three by European and Germanic language
sighs the Philippine Star. country’s English proficiency. EF, or the Netherlands, at number speakers, while countries which
And from Lebanese media And if 200,000 Dutch people one, do not figure at all in IELTS don’t dub films and television beat
outlet The 961, “Lebanon dropped took the test, but nearly all of them statistics by country. those with the same or similar
20 places in English Proficiency in were university students, we still EF boasts a very large sample languages who do.
just one year.” wouldn’t know much about the size worldwide, but we have no If we compare the 2022 EF
The EF Index is annual and rest of the Netherlands. If a large data on the EF sample size of results with those from another
its eye-catching outliers always sample is not representative, then individual countries, nor do we international exam, TOEFL,
grab the headlines. In reality, it is still not a reliable indicator. know how representative of that taken in 2021, we can see that
of course, the entire population Because of the sample size country that sample is. many of the same countries and
of a country rarely improves its problem, IELTS only reports the We do have information on types of country appear in the
English in a single year, nor does results from its 40-50 biggest gender. In 2022, around 22% top 20, though sometimes in a
more females took the EF SET different order.
test, which provides the Index TOEFL also doesn’t release
EF EPI top 20 data, than men. Astonishingly, national sample sizes, but since
for the second year in a row, it is used by professionals for
Country Population Language family Do they dub? the males out-scored them. Yet immigration purposes, it includes
1 Netherlands 17 million Germanic No females do better than men in results for Anglophone countries
every single other international as well.
2 Singapore 5.64 million Multilingual No
language test. Has EF discovered TOEFL scores for different
3 Austria 9 million Germanic No a major change? English-speaking countries can
4 Norway 5.5 million Germanic No Possibly. However, EF SET tests vary quite dramatically over
only listening and reading, and time, especially those for small
5 Denmark 5.9 million Germanic No
misses out the productive skills – countries. The last time the
6 Belgium 11.5 million Germanic + For infants speaking and writing – in which Gazette analysed the scores in
Romance female candidates traditionally 2020 using, from memory, the
7 Sweden 10.5 million Germanic No over-perform. Additionally, it uses 2019 results, Ireland came top
only multiple choice questions with 100 points, just ahead of the
8 Finland 5.5 million Uralic No
(MCQs), a test format which Netherlands on 99.
9 Portugal 10. 5 million Romance No is both objective and reliable, In 2021, the average score for
10 Germany 83 million Germanic Yes but which has been shown to Irish candidates was 94. So far
significantly be an advantage to the Irish media is not running
11 Croatia 4 million Slavic No
male test-takers. headlines screaming that the
12 South Africa 60 million Multilingual/ No The EF index also shows us the level of English in the country is
Germanic type of countries which do well. in decline.
13 Poland 38.8 million Slavic Voice-over
14 Greece 10.7 million Indo-European No TOEFL top 20 countries by total score 2021
isolate
Overall scores in brackets.
15 Slovakia 5.5 million Slavic Some
1. Austria, Malta, Trinidad and Tobago (102)
16 Luxembourg 650,000 Germanic/ No
Romance 2. Slovenia, Switzerland, Germany (100)
3. Netherlands (99)
17 Romania 19 million Romance Some
4. South Africa, Singapore, Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg,
18 Hungary 9.6 million Uralic Mostly yes United Kingdom (98)
19 Lithuania 2.8 million Baltic/Slavic Voice-over 5. Canada, Iceland,Sweden (97)
20 Kenya 55 million Multilingual Some 6. India, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, New Zealand (96)
6 January 2023