English skills drop again

Thailand's overall English proficiency has fallen for the third year in a row, according to the annual English Proficiency Index.

The 2020 index was drafted by global education company EF Education First.

The report showed Thailand's ranking dropped from 74 out of 100 countries last year to 89 out of 100 this year.

Thailand's English language proficiency scored 419 out of 800 under the company's new point scale, which is considered "very low". For comparison, the Netherlands scored 652, which is the highest out of all the countries surveyed this year.


Last year, Thailand scored 47.62, which was considered "very low" proficiency.

In 2018, Thailand ranked 64 out of 88 countries with a score of 48.54, a drop when compared with 2017, when the kingdom placed 53 out of 80 with a score of 49.7.

Thailand is currently ranked 7th in Southeast Asia, behind Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia, respectively, and ahead of Myanmar. It ranks 20th out of 24 countries in Asia.

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Vocabulary

  • index: a number that shows the price, value, or level of something compared with something else - ดัชนี
  • proficiency (noun): the ability to do some task or work correctly and efficiently; skill, knowledge, competence - ความช่ำชอง, ความเจนจัด, ความสามารถ, ประสิทธิภาพ,ความเชี่ยวชาญ, ความคล่องแคล่ว
  • ranking: the position of somebody/something on a scale that shows how good or important they are in relation to other similar people or things, especially in sport - อันดับ
  • survey: to make an examination of something to find out about its condition - สำรวจ
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