The economics of L2 English. Evidence from 2.0 mln subjects suggests an economics of language framework to account for country differences in L2 English proficiency.
We analysed Education First's Standard English Test scores coming from 2 mln learners of English in 109 countries world-wide. Proficiency in English as a global lingual franca is an important skill in various areas of international communication. A larger linguistic distance between English as a sec...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development Vol. 46; no. 10; pp. 3918 - 3937 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
| Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Dec2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=189506751&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 189506751 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01434632 41M jtl: Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development issn: 01434632 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Dec2025 vid: 46 iid: 10 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 189506751 10.1080/01434632.2024.2370390 ppf: 3918 ppct: 19 formats: tig: atl: The economics of L2 English. Evidence from 2.0 mln subjects suggests an economics of language framework to account for country differences in L2 English proficiency. aug: au: van Hout, Roeland van der Slik, Frans affil: Centre for Language Studies, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands Research Focus Area: Understanding and Processing Language in Complex Settings, North-West University, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa su: English as a foreign language Language ability Test scoring Lexicon Phonology sug: subj: English as a foreign language Language ability Test scoring Lexicon Phonology keyword: English global human capital index linguistic distance Second language acquisition ab: We analysed Education First's Standard English Test scores coming from 2 mln learners of English in 109 countries world-wide. Proficiency in English as a global lingual franca is an important skill in various areas of international communication. A larger linguistic distance between English as a second language and a learner's first language has been put forward as increasing the efforts or costs of learning English. Instead of the subjective measures used in the past, we constructed a quantitative linguistic distance measure based on comparing words (lexicon), constructions (morpho-syntax), and sounds (phonology) between English and 59 mother tongues. Mixed regression analyses were carried out on the countries' proficiency scores with a country's human capital index, the official status of English in a country, and linguistic distance as predictors. All three predictors turn out to be robust proficiency determinants. Language skills constitute an essential component of human resources in today's emerging and growing knowledge economy. These skills cannot be taken for granted and additional language training is required when linguistic distances are large. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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