Pearson, a leading learning company, said it will be introducing the Global Scale of English (GSE) – the world’s first truly global standard for scoring English language proficiency.

In development for 25 years and tested on over 10,000 students in 130 countries – including Gulf countries, the GSE will transform how English is assessed, taught and scored in the Arab region, and around the world.

Developed by Pearson English, a division of Pearson, it aims to provide one precise, numeric, universal scale for businesses, governments and academic institutions, as well as for the one billion plus people estimated to be learning English worldwide.

Two billion people worldwide claim to speak English, 85 per cent of multi-nationals use English as their language of business  and 79 per cent of international HR directors look for English proficiency when recruiting.  

And yet until today, there has never been a globally recognised standard in English - no single way of recognising and quantifying the level of an individual’s English, said Pearson in its statement.  

The launch of the GSE will have a positive impact in the Arab region, where millions of students learn English in the hope of improving their future prospects.

English is a valuable tool in a young person’s ability to secure rewarding employment and enjoy career advancement, evidenced by the region’s large number of job advertisements stipulating English proficiency as a minimum requirement.

For some time, Arab governments have recognised the value of making English a compulsory subject in schools, and English is increasingly becoming the medium of instruction in many of the region’s leading universities – it is the norm for many first year students in universities and vocational colleges to undertake a compulsory English course.

The proliferation of private English providers in major centres such as Dubai and Riyadh is a further sign that English is an essential skill demanded by employers, and job applicants without English competency are severely disadvantaged in their search for work.

English is now firmly established as the international language of business. As Arab countries become more connected to the international economy through trade and other business links it is essential that the region’s workers have the English skills necessary to perform in this global environment, said the top learning company.

The Arab World’s future economic achievements will therefore be very much tied to the uptake of English amongst citizens of the region, stated Karim Daoud, the managing director of Pearson’s Middle East Hub.

"We know that embedding English language skills in our young people is critical not only to their future well-being, but to the development and growth of our region’s economies. The GSE will play an important role in encouraging strong English language skills amongst the population," noted Daoud.

"For the first time, the GSE provides an easily accessible, objective standard by which individuals, employers, recruiters, governments and education providers in the Arab World can determine how well someone can use English, in very specific circumstances," he said.

"Importantly, the GSE will allow the millions of English language students in the Arab region (and their parents, educators or employers) to determine the effectiveness of their English learning, in a very clear and detailed way," he added.

The GSE means English language proficiency no longer needs to be measured in vague terms like basic, intermediate or advanced. It will enable English learners to accurately score and communicate their English language skills and progress on a granular, numeric scale from 10-90 providing a far more precise measurement of the learner’s ability than any existing methods which tend to categorise in broad bands.

It is rooted in real life so that learners can clearly see what they can achieve at every level, for example, if you score 29 on the scale, you are able to identify and order very common food and drink from a menu; at 62, you can write a structured review of a film, book or play; at 74 you can extract the main points from news items with opinions, arguments and discussion.

Already trialled by some of the world’s leading educational institutions, for learners the GSE will provide the answers to the questions “how good is my English?”, “am I progressing?” and “what do I need to do next?,” explained Daoud.

On the launch, Bhavneet Singh, the president of Pearson English, said: "The world needs all its diversity of voices, cultures and languages, but with more of us talking to each other than ever before - via social media, in multi-national businesses or on our worldwide travels - increasingly the world is choosing to communicate in English."

"That is why there is a well overdue need for a global standard of English.  We have been working with businesses, institutions and learners in over 130 countries and they have told us that there is a need for a granular, numeric, universal scale – and we believe after 25 years of work with leading academics we have it - in the Global Scale of English," he added.-TradeArabia News Service