Indispensable on employment, useful on trips and when exploring the virtual world, English became the most studied foreign language in schools in Moldova, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The necessity of knowing it better exceeded the limits of the curriculum. During the pandemic, the demand for studying English online has doubled, Margarita Druță, co-founder of an online English school, stated for IPN on the occasion of the English Language Day.
“English was a “must have” in 2005-2010, but now knowledge of English is considered not an advantage, but rather something of normality,” said Margarita Druță. The courses are attended not only by students, but also by young people in their 30s who aim to get a better job or need it for personal development and by those who intend to go abroad.
According to Margarita Druță, the increased demand also favored the enhancement of teachers’ skills. The level of knowledge, training, flexibility, methods they known have improved considerably compared with three-four years ago.
In 2010-2011, the English language was studied by 50.1% of the students in Moldova, while in 2019-2020 the figure rose to 70.2%, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Currently, almost 234,000 students study this language in schools.
Mihaela Slovineanu, vice director of the Chisinau Lyceum “Spiru Haret”, has told IPN that the knowledge of English is now an almost pressing need. English is required on employment, is an advantage for obtaining high-quality studies and when exploring the virtual world. “The children have an internal motivation that they perceive as mandatory competence since an early age. When they are in the 7th, 8th, 9th grades, they have a very good level of competence in English and they make this choose consciously as they need English. Everyone reads, follows or watches a lot of content in the English language as an authentic product,” stated Mihaela Slovineanu.
All the 1,235 students of the lyceum study English that is also mandatory on admission and about 90% of their graduates are exempted from taking the English Baccalaureate exam. The students of the upper grades train beforehand and take the “TOEFL” and “Cambridge” tests.
The English Language Day has been annually celebrated on April 23 following a UN initiative of 2010 and comes to inform the people about the history, culture and accomplishments related to the language. April 23 is also the birth and death day of William Shakespeare (1564-1616), who is considered one of the greatest dramatists of the world.
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