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TEACHING

Why Switzerland still lags behind on English skills

Switzerland remains stuck in the second tier of countries when it comes to speaking English as a foreign language, a new study shows, but there are reasons for optimism, as the head of the English Teachers Association of Switzerland explained to The Local.

Published: 7 November 2018 20:37 CET
Why Switzerland still lags behind on English skills
File photo: Depositphotos

The 2018 edition of the annual English Proficiency Index, produced by English language teaching giant EF and based on the results of 1.3 million tests globally, has Switzerland in 15th spot among the 88 countries surveyed. Switzerland also came 12th among 32 countries in Europe.

With an overall score of 61.77 points, English speakers in Switzerland were classified as having “high proficiency” – a level allowing them to carry out tasks like making a presentation at work or reading a newspaper.

The result is solidly respectable rather than spectacular, putting Switzerland in the same bracket as countries including Poland (ranked 13th overall), the Philippines (14th) and Romania (16th).

There were also differences across the country. Foreign speakers of English in the German-speaking part of the country had “very high proficiency” (the top category), according to EF while they had only “moderate proficiency” in the Lake Geneva region and in Italian-speaking Switzerland.

Taken as a whole, the results mean Switzerland is still some way behind the Scandinavian countries that dominate the rankings of foreign speakers of English.

“There are whole range of cultural and social factors at play when it comes to why Switzerland did not rate as highly as, say Sweden (1st) and Denmark (5th),” Sue Wood, President of the English Teachers Association of Switzerland (ETAS) told The Local.

One of those is the fact Swiss school students live in a multilingual country.

“There are four national languages here, and while English is the first foreign language taught in many cantons [in the German-speaking part of the country, at least], there is also a requirement for primary school children to learn another national language,” she explained.

Under the terms of a 2007 ‘harmonization agreement’ Swiss school children learn two foreign languages, with at least one of them being a national language, despite concerns among some that too much is being asked of young students.

The ETAS president also pointed out that people in English aren’t exposed to English to the same degree as Scandinavians. “In Scandinavia, television programs are not dubbed; they have subtitles. But Swiss students of English have to go out and find the language. It’s not there all the time in the same way it might be in Sweden or the Netherlands.”

Wood also pointed out that while people in Scandinavia appear to take a real pride in speaking English well, “Swiss people are perhaps not as comfortable switching to speaking English. Indeed, they may be more comfortable speaking to non-native speakers.”

But the ETAS president sees reasons to be positive about the development of English speaking in Switzerland.

“Switzerland has invested a lot in English teaching in the last ten to 15 years. The newer teachers coming through now have had full in-depth teacher training and we are now waiting to see the results,” Wood said.

Read also: Foreigners in Switzerland speak more national languages than the Swiss

TEACHING

Meet the Brit behind the app that is changing the way Spaniards learn English

Madrid-based English teacher Simon Sternberg hit upon a revolutionary idea to improve Spaniards’ grasp of English.

Published: 20 November 2020 09:16 CET
Meet the Brit behind the app that is changing the way Spaniards learn English
Simon Sternberg is the Brit behind Wannalisn. Photo by Zoe Sternberg

After more than a decade teaching English to Spanish students in the capital, Sternberg came up with an idea to help them understand the fast English of native speakers that so often proves to be an obstacle for listening comprehension.

“I realised that there were certain combinations of English words that were just very hard for non-native English people to grasp,” he told The Local.

“I looked at different studies and identified that there are around 50 words that represent about 50 percent of spoken English, and that are very difficult to break down and understand when said quickly”, he explained.

“These so-called clusters represent the difference between the spoken and written forms of the language, and without mastering them it’s very difficult to understand first language English speakers,” he said.

Phrases such as “but it was” and “and I didn’t want to” sound like “badih woz” and “ana din’ wanna” in everyday informal speech.

Sternberg teamed up with entrepreneur Luis Morgado and lead developer Ramiro Blazquez to come up with “Wannalisn”, an app that offers free interactive listening and vocabulary exercises using short clips from movies and television series in a game format they call “edutainment”.

 

“It’s designed to help you train your ear to understand English as it is spoken in the real world ,” and is proving hugely popular.

“It encourages people to become comfortable and familiar with the fast natural English of native speakers that we hear in movies, TV series, and, of course, in real life.”

The app was launched in May, and is now operational in over 100 countries with 80.000 users worldwide.

And it is already a tool that English teachers in Spain are recommending to their students.

Its popularity comes at a time when Spanish learners of the English language seemingly need all the help that they can get. 

A new ranking places the Spanish as the worst in the EU at speaking English, below even the notoriously bad-at-English French and Italians. 

Unlike their neighbours in Portugal who rank among the best, thanks in part to the custom there of not dubbing over all foreign television and film productions.  

“Watching films and TV can be a very valuable way to learn a language and especially hone listening skills, but watching with subtitles does almost nothing to help that skill,” argues Sternberg. “However, watching the short clips and then engaging with the interactive exercises is hugely helpful and also lots of fun.”

For more about Wannalisn and to try out the app for free CLICK HERE.

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