We’ve been doing a bit of research here at ILS over the past couple of weeks by asking our students some questions about themselves and what they think about the courses here. It made me think about how things have changed in Estonia over the past 20 years. So I thought I’d write a few posts.

The first thing to say is that the standard of English in Estonia seems to have increased quite a bit. Back in the mid-nineties, the largest single group of English students were at the A2 level – perhaps 40 % of the total. Today the largest number of students is at the B2 level. If we take the ILS student base as a representative sample of the country, this is a significant improvement in a relatively short time. Of course there has been a revolution in all levels of education in the past 20 years but students of all ages now are more motivated to learn English – not so much because they will have plenty of opportunities to use it but increasingly because it is becoming essential in the job market and in higher education.

Phil