Taiwan ranks 17th on IELTS scores, behind Japan, Korea

The overall average IELTS score in Taiwan falls behind Japan and Korea — whose English-language environments and backgrounds are similar to Taiwan’s — and placed even lower than Vietnam, Pakistan, and Thailand.

The IELTS is designed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate. The test consists of questions on listening, reading, writing, and oral comprehension, with the score ranging on a scale from 1 to 9.

Presently, 700,000 people around the world take the IELTS every year. English-speaking countries such as England, Australia, New Zealand and some European countries take the IELTS to evaluate proficiency in English.

Iain Mackie, the student services manager at the British Council, said people in Taiwan have ten years’ experience in learning English. However, the language learning in the country has placed a particular emphasis on tests, often ignoring communication skills and opinion exchanges.

“People are afraid to speak English because they worried about making mistakes,” he said.

With the trend of globalization, English has become the first language of international enterprises, said Chiu Wen-jen, the marketing director of 104 Job Bank.

Chiu indicated that Taiwan people’s English ability has been declining in recent years, while the demand for English ability in the job market has increased, year by year.

According to 104’s statistics about job opportunities, nearly 50 percent of jobs require workers’ English ability to meet a certain standard. The high-tech industries especially make English ability an essential condition of employment.

Chiu also said in three years, there will be a great deal of job opportunities and jobseekers overflowing between China and Taiwan.

“As students graduate from colleges in China with good English and learning abilities, the competitiveness of Taiwan’s people will decrease in comparison,” Chiu said.

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