An Academia Sinica report entitled Social Ambitions of the Taiwanese Public, 2004 found that 65 percent of Taiwanese support mother-tongue education in schools. The ethnic group most in favor were the Hakka, whose support reached 74 percent.
Despite this strong support for native language training, the issue is frequently distorted by ideological concerns, the most common claim being that the call for native language training itself is ideologically motivated.
Even Chen Po-chang (陳伯璋), director of the Preparatory Office of the National Academy for Educational Research, has expressed criticism, saying that a recent decision to make native languages an elective subject in a compulsory language course that also offers English was a political decision and not based on expertise.
There is concern in education circles that this set-up will encourage students to choose English and that native language training will disappear from the elementary school curriculum.
So, is Chen’s position based on expertise or is it just partisan argument?
Jim Cummins, a professor at the University of Toronto, is an internationally renowned expert on bilingual education. He has proposed a theory of mutual interdependence of languages that claims the acquisition of second-language proficiency is built on the foundation of the mother tongue.
The mother tongue is not argued to be an obstacle to learning, but a resource for the acquisition of other languages. Cummins argues that educational institutions should provide children with a bilingual environment so that the two languages can feed off each other.
Cummins alerts us to the importance of native language training in stating that the mother tongue is the best educational medium. This point was also made by UNESCO in 1953 when it said the mother tongue was universally recognized as the best medium for educating children.
Another expert on bilingual education, James Crawford, has said the main reason it is so difficult to promote bilingual education is not that academic theory is lacking, but that information presented to the general public often consists of myths or prejudice disseminated by groups with a political agenda.
Taiwan needs to realize that the coexistence of several languages is a positive feature of society and not a justification for linguistic prejudice. The relationship between languages does not have to become a zero-sum game: We don’t need a diminished bilingual environment in which a mother tongue is abandoned to obtain a second language. Instead, the relationship between languages is additive; maintaining one’s mother tongue assists in the acquisition of other languages.
Language education planning today stands on the side of civic rights, not nationalism. Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights signed by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on May 15 states: “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.”
This shows that native language training not only coincides with the modern ideal of a state built on human rights, but also that it coincides in practice with the national interest. Blocking children from developing their mother tongue is not only a waste of national resources, it also violates the rights of the child.
Tiu Hak-khiam is an associate professor in the Department of Chinese Literature at National Taitung University.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
In the US’ National Security Strategy (NSS) report released last month, US President Donald Trump offered his interpretation of the Monroe Doctrine. The “Trump Corollary,” presented on page 15, is a distinctly aggressive rebranding of the more than 200-year-old foreign policy position. Beyond reasserting the sovereignty of the western hemisphere against foreign intervention, the document centers on energy and strategic assets, and attempts to redraw the map of the geopolitical landscape more broadly. It is clear that Trump no longer sees the western hemisphere as a peaceful backyard, but rather as the frontier of a new Cold War. In particular,
When it became clear that the world was entering a new era with a radical change in the US’ global stance in US President Donald Trump’s second term, many in Taiwan were concerned about what this meant for the nation’s defense against China. Instability and disruption are dangerous. Chaos introduces unknowns. There was a sense that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) might have a point with its tendency not to trust the US. The world order is certainly changing, but concerns about the implications for Taiwan of this disruption left many blind to how the same forces might also weaken
As the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) races toward its 2027 modernization goals, most analysts fixate on ship counts, missile ranges and artificial intelligence. Those metrics matter — but they obscure a deeper vulnerability. The true future of the PLA, and by extension Taiwan’s security, might hinge less on hardware than on whether the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can preserve ideological loyalty inside its own armed forces. Iran’s 1979 revolution demonstrated how even a technologically advanced military can collapse when the social environment surrounding it shifts. That lesson has renewed relevance as fresh unrest shakes Iran today — and it should
As the new year dawns, Taiwan faces a range of external uncertainties that could impact the safety and prosperity of its people and reverberate in its politics. Here are a few key questions that could spill over into Taiwan in the year ahead. WILL THE AI BUBBLE POP? The global AI boom supported Taiwan’s significant economic expansion in 2025. Taiwan’s economy grew over 7 percent and set records for exports, imports, and trade surplus. There is a brewing debate among investors about whether the AI boom will carry forward into 2026. Skeptics warn that AI-led global equity markets are overvalued and overleveraged
RSS