By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter

Korean students and office workers invest colossal amounts of time and money learning English. But their investment doesn't seem to be paying off, as they are showing no marked improvement in English proficiency by global standards.

Their speaking proficiency remains nearly at the bottom. Korean TOEFL test takers ranked 136th out of 161 nations in speaking skills.

They scored an average 18 out of 30 speaking points on the Internet-based test (iBT), lower than the world average of 19.3 points, according to officials of Educational Testing Service (ETS), the organizer of the test.

Koreans overall TOEFL score stood at 78 out of 120, placing the country 89th, also lower than the world average of 79. In 2007, they scored 77.

Listening and writing scores were 19 and 20 each, compared with the world's average of 19.5 and 20.5, respectively. Koreans beat the world average only in reading, at 20, compared with the global average of 19.4.

According to the American test organizer, Korea has the world's largest number of test takers.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said private English language education bills increased nearly 12 percent last year, and annually the amount of money spent on English education reached 15 trillion won.

More than 90 percent of elementary school students receive private English education.

Denmark and the Netherlands together took first place with average scores of 102. Austria and Singapore came next with 100, followed by Belgium with 98 and Germany with 97. The Philippines, another Asian country that adopted English as an official language, like Singapore, ranked 32nd, with an average of 88 points.

In comparison, other Asian countries belonged to bottom groups ― China came in 99th place with 76 points; Taiwan at 106th with 73; North Korea, 111th with 72; and Japan, 136th with 66.

kswho@koreatimes.co.kr