Members of the Government-Academe-Industry Network Inc. (GAIN) are pushing for the government’s adoption of a national English language proficiency roadmap and a global language framework to ensure the country’s competitiveness for current and emerging jobs.
GAIN, which has members in the government, education and business sectors, said the country is lagging behind other countries in the ASEAN region in terms of English proficiency.
The National English Proficiency Roadmap 2018-2023 is aimed at the grassroots, for students’ and future employees’ better comprehension of the language needed in local and global workplaces.
According to GAIN president Monette Iturralde-Hamlin, representatives from different learning institutions, sponsored by the Commission on Higher Education, worked on the roadmap last year.
Aside from the roadmap, Hamlin said the country’s adaption of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) would also help in establishing English proficiency standards for students.
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“We need to establish digital literacy for students and to support a general CEFR for (the) jobs of the future. Aside from proficiency, we need the standards,” she said during GAIN’s 2nd national convention Friday.
Meanwhile, general manager and English development specialist for Hopkins International Partners Rex Wallen Tan underscored that CEFR is the country’s only choice, as the language framework is the one accepted globally.
In a study of 10,000 college graduates in the “richest, most literate” part of the country in Luzon, Tan said a majority of the respondents only scored a CEFR B1 level, the “likely high score” of the whole country.
“In the European Union, they use that for Visas and skilled labor. For Vietnam and Thailand, they set that as standard for high school graduates. For Dubai, they’re looking at that for taxi drivers and for Japan, they’re looking at that for their Tokyo English taxi Olympics program,” Tan explained.
The study tested the graduates’ ability to communicate using the English language.
“All of the world’s knowledge is in English. If 99 percent of the world’s new knowledge will be in English, to stay ahead of the game, it’s not a debate on English versus Filipino, it’s how do we be competitive. How we ensure we’ll be able to learn the skills for the future,” he added.
