Spaniards Do Not Have A Good Level Of English Study Confirms

A NEW STUDY places Spain in 25th spot on a list of 33 European states with respect to its proficiency in the language

According to The 2019 English Proficiency Index Spain is placed in 25th place out of a total of 33 European countries and 35th in the world, with no improvement noted since last year.

Alarmingly close to the bottom of the ladder compared to the rest of Europe when it comes to English proficiency.

The international ranking was compiled by Education First, a company founded in Sweden in 1965 which publishes the index annually and was based on the results of 2.3 million exams in 100 countries.

According to El País, Antonio Cabrales, a professor at University College London who has researched how English is learned in bilingual schools in Spain was stated to say: “The statistics are bad. One of the reasons for this is is to do with wealth. Like any other subject, socio-economic status influences language skills, and Spain is still a relatively poor country in Europe.”

Another factor is the size of the country. Normally larger countries perform worse as they usually have a larger domestic market and are not as concerned about learning a language. Where as smaller countries are generally more open to the outside world and their citizens see more opportunities professionally in having foreign language skills.

That said, the United Kingdom and Ireland have a smaller land mass than Spain, yet have worse foreign language skills than the Spanish.