Why some countries are better in the learn of english

I do this because "... " means its pronounced (like a sentance) thus the capital letter.

Do excuse me Greg, but education has everything to do with it. Studies in second language acquisition (my area of scientific expertise - doing an M.A. in it) consistently show that most errors made by learners of a second/foreign language are universal across linguistic backgrounds.

People in certain countries do better at English because the quality of their English-language education is much higher than in the countries where they do worse.

By "quality" I mean type of instruction, the curriculum, teacher competence, class size etc.

Ved,

If education as you say has something to do with it. Why the swedes, danish, english and germans are so bad with spanish when the french are not?

=>swedes, danish, english and germans are so bad with spanish when the french are not?<=

Thats very simple...because in those countries (and many more) learning Spanish isn't oblicated,and in most cases not availble.

Thats very simple...because in those countries (and many more) learning Spanish isn't oblicated,and in most cases not availble.

It is false. Learning spanish is absolutly not obligated in France. We have choice to choose spanish, german or italian as second foreign language.

Bernard,

I never said that france did btw,but you at least have the option to take it.

Ved : "Do excuse me Greg". Fine ! It's just I haven't posted anything in that thread yet...

I think it is a combination of factors. I agree it has do with educational investment and when a person is first exposed to a language that is not their own.

BUT
I also think it has got to do with the relative closeness of your native language to the other language. For example, a Spanish person will probably pick up Italian more rapidly than German because of familiarity with words (and presumably grammar). Likewise with a Swede learning German (faster) and Italian (slower).

Eg I remember in another post how Ved said that he would find it easier to learn Slovenian over Mandarin (I think) (despite both being grammatically difficult languages). It's simply because Ved is familiar with more of Slovenian vocab than Mandarin vocab, hence learning would be rapid.

Hmmm.....

L'Etats-Unis d'Amerique, possiblement?

>IN which countries on this list are children from an infant age exposed to listening to English on TV?

Suède 73
Pays-Bas 72
Danemark 61
Norvège 58
Finlande 48
Allemagne 44
Luxembourg 44
Autriche 42
Suisse 40
Belgique 34 (This includes the French speakers if it were just the Flemish it would probably be as high as the Netherlands)<

There you go ! See there's a hughe difference between the Walloons and Flemish considering languages