THERE was a time we took pride in our English proficiency.
Some people still do, citing it as the basis for a thriving business process outsourcing industry. But any complacency in this regard would be misplaced and ill-advised, given the results of the latest international survey of English proficiency.
In the 2019 edition of the EF English Proficiency Index, the Philippines wasn’t even in the top 10 list of countries, even though we still rank as the world’s fifth largest nation with an English-speaking population (behind the United States, India, Nigeria and Pakistan).
The yearly EF EPI survey gauged the level of English reading and listening skills in 100 countries (excluding the US and the UK) with a standardized online test taken by 2.3 million people.
The Netherlands emerged at the top with an EPI score of 70.27, followed by Sweden (68.74), Norway (67.93), Denmark (67.87) and the only Asian in the group, Singapore (66.82).
The top 10 was rounded out by South Africa (65.38), Finland (65.34), Austria (64.11), Luxembourg (64.11), and Germany (64.03).
The Philippines, with an EPI of 60.14, was in 20th place, just ahead of Lithuania.
The score was still enough to keep the country in the “High Proficiency” category, but not in the “Very High Proficiency” group, and it represented a decline from the country’s EPI of 61.84 in 2018.
Beyond the obvious implications that lower proficiency will have on the BPO industry, low English scores are a cause of concern for several reasons cited by the EF study.
First, English and innovation go hand in hand. English is the principal language of international collaboration, and there are correlations between English and various measures of investment in R&D. This finding resonates with recent research showing that companies with managers from many countries earn more revenue from innovation than their less diverse competitors. English-speaking teams are able to attract more diverse talent and access ideas from around the world. They are also more likely to collaborate internationally within their own organizations.
Second, competitive industries use English. Every industry surveyed in this year’s report has an English proficiency score clustered within a 10-point range.
Third, countries with high English proficiency tend to more open, given that the language is a medium of international connectivity, and there is an increasingly clear relationship between a society’s connectedness to the world and the level of social and political equality experienced by its citizens. Closed societies turn inwards and nurture rigid hierarchies. Open societies look outwards.
There can be no doubt that declining educational standards have something to do with the decline in English proficiency, yet there are underlying cultural influences at work.
One is the view that it is somehow wrong to be fluent in English because it detracts from our own native tongue.
Another view seems to hold that Filipinos are too stupid to understand straight English and need the help of a bastardized “Taglish” to help them along. Along with the usual variety show drivel, some TV networks have taken to serving up dubbed Hollywood movies for those who are “too dumb” to follow. Even our government officials cannot be bothered to speak a straight sentence in English, and ordinary Filipinos laugh deprecatingly at themselves for “running out of English.”
If we as a people decide that it is all right to let go of our long-held edge in the international language of commerce and innovation, we should stop deluding ourselves and pretending that such an advantage still exists.