學英語:中國女性優於男性,整體問題多多大綱

THE English proficiency of Chinese women is much better than that of men, according to a study released in Shanghai yesterday.

昨天在上海公佈的一項研究顯示，中國女性的英語水平明顯優於男性。

Chinese women scored three points higher than men in the English Proficiency Index released by EF Education, a language training company. Worldwide, women scored one point higher than men on average.

在英孚教育（一個語言培訓公司）公佈的英語水平指數測試中，中國女性的得分要比男性高3分。世界範圍內，女性得分比男性平均高一分。

"This shows that Chinese women are more accustomed to the Chinese education mode," the report said. "Chinese women use their gift of language to gain success."

“這表明中國女性更習慣中國的教育模式，”報告表示。“中國女性用她們的語言天賦來獲得成功。”

However, Chinese mainlanders' English proficiency ranked second to last in Asia, despite the great time and effort that many people invest in learning the language, the report said.

但是，儘管很多人投入了很多的時間和精力來學習語言，中國大陸人的英語水平在亞洲仍排名倒數第二，報告說。

China's mainland is ranked the 36th in the index of 54 countries and regions where English is not the native language. That's down from 29th last year. The Chinese mainland belongs to the low-proficiency tier and is ranked just above Thailand in Asia.

中國大陸在54個英語非母語的國家和地區的指數測試中排名第36位。這是去年從29位下降的名次。中國大陸屬於低水平層次，排名僅高於亞洲的泰國。

This year's index has increased the weight of listening tests, while decreasing the importance of grammar and vocabulary exams, which partly caused the ranking change, researchers said.

今年的指數測試增加了聽力測試的比重，同時減少了語法和詞彙檢測的重要性，這在一定程度上導致了排名的變化，研究人員說。

Moreover, test-oriented and rote-based learning methods often used in China hurt the language skills of Chinese students, education experts said.

此外，在中國以考試爲目的和死記硬背的學習方式傷害了中國學生的語言技能，教育專家說。

The study compared test scores of more than 1.7 million adults in the 54 countries and regions.

該研究比較了54個國家和地區的超過170萬的成年人的測試分數。

Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands have the best command of English, while Libya has the lowest English proficiency level.

瑞典、丹麥和荷蘭英語掌握最好，而利比亞的英語水平最低。

European countries generally performed well. But Italy, Spain and Portugal, some of the countries at the heart of the euro zone crisis, are being dragged down by poor English, according to the report.

歐洲國家普遍表現良好。但意大利、西班牙和葡萄牙，一些處在歐元區危機中心的國家，被糟糕的英語拖累了，根據該報告。

Singapore is 12th, the best in Asia, followed by Malaysia and India. South Korea, at 21st, and Japan, at 22nd, performed disappointingly low despite their focus on education, the report said.

新加坡排名第12，在亞洲最好，其次是馬來西亞和印度。韓國，排在21位，日本，排在22位，儘管他們關注教育但其表現還是令人失望的低，報告說。

Young workers aged between 25 to 35 years old are best at English on average around the world. But in Asia, high school graduates have the best command of English, the report said.

世界各地年齡在25到35歲的年輕工作者的平均英語水平最好。但在亞洲，高中畢業生掌握着最好的英語，報告說。

Europeans' English skills are still improving after they start work, while the English skills of many Chinese deteriorate in the workplace because they have fewer opportunities to practice the language, the study said.

歐洲人的英語技能他們開始工作後仍能不斷提高，而許多中國人的英語技能在工作中惡化，因爲他們練習英語的機會越來越少，這項研究說。

One in every four people frequently uses English at work on China's mainland while nearly 15 percent said they never use English, lower than the world average level, according to the study.

在中國大陸四分之一的人經常在工作中使用英語而近15%的人表示他們從未使用過英語，低於世界平均水平，根據這項研究。