According to the EF Education First study, Russia remains a country with average English proficiency

Russia has confirmed its status as a country with average knowledge of English – these are the results shown by the EF Education First study. 2.2 million people from 113 countries took part in it – and Russia was in 41st place. The authors of the study note that in previous years the country showed similar results, which means that knowledge of English is important for Russians despite the “turn to the East.” At the same time, residents of Chelyabinsk and Novosibirsk showed the best results within the country, but Moscow was only in fourth place.

EF Education First conducted an annual study of English language proficiency. Experts studied the results of 2.2 million people who took the free online language proficiency test EF Standard English Test in 2023. Based on their scores and citizenship data, the company ranked 113 countries around the world according to five levels of language proficiency: very high, high, average, low and very low. However, EF Education First experts emphasize that the test participants themselves decided to test their knowledge, so the representativeness of the sample cannot be guaranteed.

EF Education First conducted such a study for the first time in 2011 – and then Russia took 32nd place out of 44 countries. In 2020 – 41st place out of 100, in 2021 it was in 51st place out of 112, and in 2022 it was in 40th place out of 111. Now Russia took 41st place out of 113, sharing it with Bolivia. Thus, the Russian Federation remained in the group of countries with an average level of English proficiency. As last year, Russia was slightly ahead of Uruguay (39th place), followed by Cuba and France (43rd place). Among the leaders of this same group are Honduras, Georgia, Belarus and Ghana. Let us add that the first three places in the overall ranking were taken by the Netherlands, Singapore and Austria.

“Despite the significant turn to the East that we all observed, English has been and remains the main language of international communication,” says Dmitry Fedorov, director of EF Education First in Russia. “The results of the study confirm the interest of Russians in learning English.” He notes that Russia maintains its position in the group of countries with average English proficiency – and at the same time does not show a fall in the overall ranking.

The test results showed: in Russia, English is best spoken in large cities. It is interesting that Chelyabinsk was in first place in the “internal” rating. Novosibirsk is in second place, followed by St. Petersburg. Moscow was in fourth place, and Yekaterinburg closed the top five. In the “regional” ranking, the best performance was demonstrated by the Novosibirsk region; Primorsky Krai, Sverdlovsk Region, Kaluga Region and the Republic of Tatarstan were also in the top 5. Residents of Chechnya, the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Mari El, the Samara Region and the Republic of Bashkortostan speak English worse than others.

According to the results of the study, by 2023 in Russia the level of English language proficiency among men and women has leveled off. At the same time, almost all age groups of Russians showed a slight drop in English proficiency compared to 2022. The exception is Russians aged 18 to 20. “The 18–20 year old category most often has a B1 level of English proficiency after graduating from school and university. In addition, the average adult in Russia who has just graduated from school knows English better than the same 18-year-old in another country,” the analysts emphasized.

Commercial director at the online English school Skillbox Svyatoslav Morozov is not ready to give an unambiguous assessment of the level of English language proficiency among Russians: “It all depends on the sample, the goals of the study, the student’s past background and his personal motivation. It can be noted that more and more users are coming to learn business vocabulary related to work processes in the IT and digital spheres. This trend suggests that basic and advanced skills in English have already been mastered – now more and more people are focusing on learning professional vocabulary and grammar.”

Marina Evstratova, head of the training center for teachers at the online English school Skyeng, told Kommersant that Russians’ interest in learning English continues to grow: “More and more people want to learn something specific, which also fits into the trend towards personalization, but details it. In a situation of uncertainty, an attempt to prepare for force majeure circumstances comes to the fore: relocation, business trips, unplanned job changes.”

Emilia Gabdullina