Friday, January 09, 2015

The Beatles and Harry Potter inspire English language learning

January 8, 2015 - Pearson Press Release

Today Pearson, the world’s leading learning company, has published research which shows that The Beatles and the Harry Potter film series have been voted as the most popular sources of culture that help people learn the English language, fighting off competition from the likes of Justin Timberlake, One Direction, Madonna and Adele, and TV series House of Cards(1).

The research - commissioned by Pearson English, the English language learning division of Pearson - surveyed over 6,000 English language learners from 12 countries to understand more about why and how they choose to learn English as a second language. Whilst the key driver for many was to make travelling abroad easier (56%), over 50% are motivated to learn English to improve their career prospects, and with 82% of respondents stating that English should be the official language of business it is easy to see why. The results reflect a recent LinkedIn(2) survey in which 80% of global businesses agreed that individuals who are able to speak good English are more likely to succeed in their business.

There is a clear demand to master the English language for both personal and professional reasons; and to help individuals understand their proficiency, Pearson English has developed the Global Scale of English (GSE) - the world's first truly global standard for recognising and quantifying the level of an individual's English.  The GSE will allow people across the world to clearly benchmark their English ability, whether they are learning the language to understand the lyrics to a Lady Gaga track or trying to secure their next big career move

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