How good is your English? UAE residents not proficient, says study
Although Arabic is the official language of the UAE, English remains widely spoken in the country due to a large expat population.
It is not just the language of use in the private sector, but also the first language in most private schools in the country. UAE residents, therefore, should have a high proficiency in the language.
Interestingly, this is not the case.
The UAE is ranked in the list of countries that are bracketed in the category of Low Proficiency in English language, claims a new study.
According to language training company EF Education First, the UAE is ranked 42nd in the world’s 70 countries – dropping by 10 points from last year’s ranking. The emirate does remain rated first in the Mena region.
In the list of the Low Proficiency countries, the UAE is bracketed along with Peru, Chile, France, Ecuador, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Pakistan, Guatemala, China and Panama in the EF English Proficiency Index 2015.
In Mena region, the UAE is solely rated in the category of Low Proficiency. All other nations are categorised in the Very Low Proficiency list.
“The UAE has weak English proficiency compared to most countries, but it is slightly more proficient than other countries in the Mena region. English is pervasive in the UAE, thanks to a highly multinational society and a large, trade-oriented economy.
“Any discussion of English proficiency in the UAE must note the fact that fewer than 20 per cent of the more than nine million residents of the country are Emirati citizens. The EF EPI classifies test takers based on their country of residence, not their country of origin. This gives an accurate sense of the level of English in the adult population, but because many of the people who completed our tests in the UAE have been educated in school systems abroad, their levels of English proficiency cannot be used to evaluate the education system in the UAE,” the report noted.
As in many other countries, English in the UAE serves as the default language between people with different native languages, but unlike elsewhere, that lack of a shared native language in the UAE is the norm rather than the exception. It is surprising that English proficiency is so low in the country given the language's pervasiveness. Exposure and usage usually drive proficiency, but in this case people seem to be just getting by, it added.
Women in the UAE are perceived to be more proficient than men.
In 2012, 2013 and 2014 rankings, the EF Education First Index had rated UAE 47th, 36th and 32nd – respectively – in English proficiency.
Regional and global proficiency
In the regional ranking, most of the Mena countries sit at the bottom of the EF English Proficiency Index 2015.
“The Middle East and North Africa is the only region to experience declining English proficiency. Many of the countries in the region spend more per pupil than countries in Asia with similar levels of development, but this higher investment is not delivering better results.
“In terms of English proficiency, both women and men are markedly behind global averages, and the gender gap in Mena is significantly wider than in any other region in the world,” the report noted.
Among the other regional countries, Saudi Arabia is ranked 68th, Kuwait 65th, Qatar 63rd, Oman 58th, Egypt 55th and Jordan 53rd.
Globally, European countries, particularly the Nordic nations, continue to outperform other regions, claiming the top ten slots in the ranking. Sweden leads the global ranking followed by Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Slovenia, Estonia, Luxembourg, Poland and Austria.
Among other major countries, India is ranked 20th, Japan 30th, Russia 39th, Sri Lanka 49th and Turkey 50th in English proficiency index.
As is the case in the UAE, women speak English better than men in almost every country surveyed, but this gender gap is absent in the very high proficiency countries in Northern Europe.
This year's EF EPI report profiles 70 countries, using test data from 910,000 adult English language learners.