Want To Help Improve Your Child’s English? Here Are 4 Fun Ways To Do It!

The Philippines is back to being among the top 20 countries with high proficiency in English. According to the international company Education First, the Philippines ranked #18 among 112 countries in the English Proficiency Index of 2021.

This is nine spots higher compared to its 2020 ranking where it slid to 27th. In Asia, the Philippines remained #2 after Singapore, which ranked fourth in the Global Index.

Education First has five categories or bands for measuring English Proficiency: Very High, High, Moderate, Low, Very Low. The Philippines falls under High with a score of 592. The Netherlands, which kept its #1 ranking has a score of 663.

Why is speaking English important?

It can’t be denied that English remains to be the most common language used in a globalized world. In the Philippines, it is not only beneficial in the workplace.

According to Education First, there is strong evidence that English is increasingly a job requirement in all industries and at all seniority levels.

While it claims that there is no real proficiency difference between executives, managers, and staff, there remains to be a large divide among people with “clerical and maintenance roles and those in marketing, strategy, and legal ones.”

On a bigger scale, English is needed to be economically competitive in the world market, to engage in innovation and ideas, and to foster better understanding among countries and its people.

How English proficiency is related to compassion, gender equality

It helps that the Philippines uses English as a primary medium of instruction in schools, starting at the pre-school level and this has largely contributed to our ranking in the world.

It is also the reason why the country has hosted many international students over the years with most of them flying to our shores just to learn English.

Perhaps, an information worth noting is the relationship between English Proficiency and its role in promoting compassion. “There is an increasingly clear relationship between a society’s connectedness to the world, its level of equality and freedom, and its level of English,” according to Education First.

“The more complex relationship is between English and fairness, and yet we find strong and consistent correlations between English and gender equality, social mobility, and freedom.

Inequality appears to dampen English proficiency, perhaps by leaving a portion of the population behind when it comes to English learning opportunities,” it explained.

The best ways to learn English

According to Education First, adults over 30 are improving the quickest when it comes to learning English.

“When adults are motivated by social and economic gains, and are regularly exposed to English in a variety of practical situations, they too can improve their skills,” the same website source added.

English is the world’s most widely spoken language with approximately 1.5 billion using it either as a native or secondary language. In the Philippines, some may be able to read and understand in English but find it difficult to speak.

Here are some tips to get the help they need and fast-track their way to learning this necessary language.

1. Read. Read. Read.

Expose them to as many English reading materials as possible. The easiest materials to understand are comics because they come with visuals to support context and better understanding of the language. Magazines also make good reading materials for English learners since they often use more simple language compared to literary books.

2. Talk in English.

When the opportunity strikes, use the language. If you are the learner, communicate in English. Seek a new native-speaking friend online or a relative living in an English-speaking country whom you can chat or have a video call in English with.

If you are trying to help someone learn the language, talk to him or her using English. Getting them in a situation where they are forced to use the language helps them learn quickly.

3. Subscribe to media platforms.

On Spotify, just type ‘Podcasts for English learners’ and a list of titles will appear. There’s Self-introduction in English for Advanced English Learners, All Ears English Podcast, Luke’s English Podcast among many others. Why, there’s even a podcast that helps you learn English even while you sleep. Check out Learn English Conversation While You Sleep (we haven’t tried it so tell us how it goes).

If you’re not a podcast kind of person, then YouTube (YT) is another platform with a wealth of materials for English learners. You can check out some of the best YT channels on this site which provides a list for Beginners to Advanced English learners. Among the top in the list are: Speak English With Mr. Duncan, Easy English, and Jennifer ESL.

4. Apps are apt.

Language learning Technology are perhaps some of the most popular ways many, especially kids, learn English. Duolingo, which is a free app, is probably top of the mind especially among parents who want their children to learn a new language the fun way. Recently, the learning platform launched English for the Tagalog Speakers Course. 

It includes interesting vocabularies such as expressions of hunger, emotions and activities that are popular in the Philippines. Other similar Apps are Rosetta Stone and Fluenz.

You’ll never run short of ways to learn English in the Philippines because everything is readily available. The rest is left up to a learner’s persistence in order to master the language enough to help him or her do better not just in communicating but in doing business and fostering better understanding with others.