Russia has improved its English – Newspaper Kommersant No. 211 (7412) dated 11/15/2022

Over the past year, the interest of Russians in learning English has grown markedly: after the end of the pandemic, they again had the opportunity to travel, and after the start of a special operation, some citizens were interested in moving. This was shown by the global study EF Education First, which was attended by 2.1 million people from 111 countries. English, as it turned out, is better than other compatriots by residents of Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Chelyabinsk and Pyatigorsk, worse than other fellow citizens are representatives of the Orenburg, Belgorod, Kursk and Tambov regions.

EF Education First conducted its annual global English proficiency survey. The EF English Proficiency Index was attended by 2.1 million people from 111 countries; data was collected from September 2021 to July 2022. Participants whose native language is not English take a vocabulary and grammar test. The results are ranked in five levels: very high, high, medium, low, and very low.

The leaders this year are the Netherlands, Singapore and Austria. Russia took 40th place, up 11 lines compared to last year. EF indicates that the Russian Federation retains its presence in the group of countries with an average level of English proficiency along with Belarus (39th place) and Ghana (41st place). Among the best in this category are Italy, Spain and France (places from 32 to 34).

Over the past year, the interest of Russians in learning the language has grown significantly, the company notes.

Analysts note that in 2020, in the last study before the pandemic, the country ranked 41st, and in 2021 it dropped to 51st place. “People have stopped traveling, going on business trips, the interest in maintaining and improving the level of a foreign language has decreased due to the economic crisis (caused by the pandemic.— “b”) the population was focused on basic needs, which do not include hobbies and hobbies,” they say. The new study started in September 2021, after the end of the pandemic, but even before the start of the special operation in Ukraine. “The world was open, the Russians again had the opportunity to travel, and the trend to work and study from anywhere in the world remained,” the company notes. “At the same time, after the February events, we see that people are interested in moving, so the interest in studying a foreign language remains.

In our country, the leaders in English proficiency are still residents of large cities. This year the best results were shown by residents of Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Chelyabinsk and Pyatigorsk. Last year, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Pyatigorsk and Yekaterinburg were in the top four. Among the regions in the forefront are the Sverdlovsk, Kaluga, Leningrad, Chelyabinsk and Moscow regions. Representatives of the Orenburg, Belgorod, Kursk and Tambov regions speak English worse than others. “The leadership of Yekaterinburg is associated with the development of the city and the region as a whole, the quality preparation of students in local universities, as well as a decent level of digitalization: according to the Skolkovo study, the Sverdlovsk region overtakes both Moscow and St. Petersburg in this indicator,” the authors of the study explain .

In all countries, the company points out, knowledge of English at a professional level has improved most noticeably in the 40+ age group, while there has been a significant drop in young people aged 18-20. The level of English proficiency among young people compared to last year has not changed only in European countries.

“The decline in knowledge among young people is associated with the consequences of the pandemic: remote learning, the inability to travel, social distancing and wearing masks dealt this cohort the greatest blow to motivation and the desire for self-development,” EF says.

Svyatoslav Morozov, Head of Marketing for English at Skillbox, confirms that “against the background of what is happening in the country, more and more people are interested in learning English.” According to the results of the third quarter of 2022, the company recorded a fourfold increase in the number of requests for spoken English in Skillbox compared to the previous year. “Given the growth of educational projects in Russia and their availability, we can already say that in the future our population will be more educated and oriented towards obtaining new knowledge, and English remains one of the key areas of education,” Svyatoslav Morozov believes. 10+ years, Russia can improve the average level of English proficiency among the entire population. However, our country will still be inferior to countries in which English is, for example, the second official language, or countries where international tourism is highly developed.”

Ekaterina Kolesnikova, Head of the School of Foreign Languages ​​at the Higher School of Economics, for her part, does not see an increase in interest in learning the language, due to the fact that some Russians are currently considering moving to other countries. Anastasia Buchko, head of the Skyeng educational content production department, points out that interest in the English language has been growing year by year for a long time: “The most common reasons for learning a language are travel, communication with foreigners, work, study abroad, relocation. All these are global processes and needs that have been formed over several years.” She also notes that a “noticeable surge” of interest in English occurred in 2020, when most organizations switched to remote work, this format opened up the possibility of working from the region in large companies, both Russian and foreign.

Anna Vasilyeva