我們真的需要英文嗎？國家整體英文能力表現和語言的經濟價值

Do We Need English? National English Proficiency and the Economic Value of a Language

本研究以經濟學的觀點來論述一個國家在英文能力上的整體表現，我們認為一個語言所附帶的經濟價值會影響此語言使用者的英語學習動機。所以，一國人民的整體英文程度和他們官方語言所隱含的經濟價值應該是負相關的。我們使用兩項指標來衡量語言的經濟價值：使用此語言國家的國內生產毛額和該語言的全球使用人數。本研究結果顯示，這兩項指標的確與世界各國英語程度排名是負相關的。這證明了當一個語言的經濟價值是高的話，該語言的母語人士就可依賴此語言獲得相對滿意的生活（根據顯示偏好原理），對這些人而言，學習英文就不是件那麼值得投資的事情。因此，把金錢、心力放在提升整體國人英文能力的做法並不符合經濟效益。未來如何運用國家有限的資源來幫助真正需要優良英文能力的國民才是政策制定者和教育家應該審慎思考的。

This study provides an economic rationale to explain National English proficiency. Theresearchers posit that the economic value of a language influences its users’ motivation tolearn English. National English proficiency is therefore predicted to be negatively relatedto the economic value of its official language. The researchers use two indexes to measurethe economic value of a language: the GDPs of the countries that use the language as theirofficial language, and the population of the language. The results show that Englishproficiency, measured by the global ranking of English proficiency, is indeed negativelyrelated to the two indexes above. The findings suggest that if a language is economicallystrong, because its users can sustain a satisfactory life with their own language, the benefitsof learning English may not justify their costs of learning it. Therefore, it is noteconomically efficient for a country trying to universally raise its people’s Englishproficiency. It would be more efficient if policy makers can leverage market power tomotivate selective people and provide them with more resources to improve their English.