Nicole Hsieh (謝彧凌) recalled her earliest memories of English class taught by a local teacher in Taipei. She was eight-years-old and one of 45 students. "We just wrote vocabulary into our notebooks and learned some rules about grammar, it was boring," she said.
Recently, the Ministry of Education (MOE) undertook measures, on the suggestion of the premier Yu Shyi-kun, to improve the quality of English in Taiwan by recruiting native speakers to teach in elementary and junior high schools. They won't be targeting Taipei or Kaohsiung because, according to the MOE, these are wealthy cities with a surplus of foreign teachers and English
programs.
"Our project is to extend English learning to students in remote areas of Taiwan. We would like to improve our students' English learning environment there, especially for listening and speaking," said Lee Yu-mei (李鈺美), a representative with the MOE, and officer working on the new project.
Many local and foreign English teachers agree with the MOE that, given the level of development and access to education in Taiwan, the general standard of English falls below expectations. Bringing in foreign English teachers, however, is a band-aid solution that does not address the root of the problem, they said. Class size, curriculum and methods of instruction are issues that need to be addressed before there can be any long-term development.
Hsieh said it wasn't until junior high that her English ability improved. Now in her last year of high school, she speaks with a confidence of someone who has spent a year studying abroad. The reason she claimed is determination on her part to attend a university in the UK, paired with small English classes that focus on conversation taught by native speakers.
She attends one of Taipei's many private schools that offered English classes taught by native speakers long before such teachers were allowed to teach in the public school system last year.
The Canadian Trade Office and the British Council (BC) in Taipei signed a service contract with the MOE to aid in the recruiting process of foreign teachers this year. The MOE said they hope to expand their search for teachers to include Australia, New Zealand and US nationals. But, at present, teaching vacancies are only being advertised in Canada, to which the response has been dismal.
There is a small group scheduled to arrive in the next week or two, but it's a small fraction of the 100 Canadian teachers the ministry hoped to employ before Sept. 1.
"Not many people are attracted to this project. We don't know why. Maybe because it is in a remote area or maybe we are not paying enough," Lee said.
The Canadian Trade Office official responsible for the service contract with the MOE is on maternity leave in Canada and could not be reached for comment. It should be noted however, that neither the Canadian Trade Office nor the British Council is responsible for the recruiting or the induction of foreign teachers; their role is simply advertising the positions in Canada and the UK.
The job description posted on-line by the MOE specifies 40 hours a week, 32.5 of which are in-class teaching hours and the rest administrative work. The teaching will take place in both elementary and junior high schools, with a class size of 42 students. Their salaries range from NT$55,000, for persons with Teaching English as a Second Language certification (TESL) and university degree, to NT$86,000 per month, for persons with 12 years TESL experience and a doctorate. Housing is provided at school dormitories and teachers will be given round-trip airfare compensation upon completion of a one-year contract.
Teresa Liao, a local English teacher and director of a private elementary school in Taipei said that in her nine years hiring foreign teachers to teach English in Taiwan, the majority of her employees come for the cash. "There are two types of people who teach English in Asia, those who are attracted to a place because of its culture and language or history and those that want to make a lot of money."
The former, she said, go to Vietnam or Cambodia and the latter come to Taiwan. "Except for the volunteers who come with a church affiliation, very few people come to Taiwan for charity teaching," Liao said.
Teachers at Liao's school receive NT$73,000 starting salary per month with full medical benefits and a valid work permit. Similar to the MOE's qualifications teachers are required to have a TESL certificate and a university degree. They have a 35-hour week with 24 in-class teaching hours. It is a competitive salary compared with other fulltime teaching positions at various public, private and cram schools in Taipei, which range anywhere from NT$60,000 per month to NT$100,000 for 20 to 35 teaching hours per week.
Although the compensation offered by the MOE is less than what a foreign teacher could make at a school in Taipei, it is still nearly NT$20,000 more than a Taiwan national teacher earns in a public school. The difference in salaries is bound to create concern among local teachers who feel they do more work for less pay. In fact it already does.
Sarah Lee (李逸雯) taught in a bilingual kindergarten where she shared the class instruction with a native English speaker. She said her foreign co-teachers made double her monthly salary, but had fewer responsibilities. "They didn't have to talk to the parents, write weekly reports, clean the classroom, or serve the lunch," Lee said.
Having discussed these issues with her different co-workers, Lee said she agreed that the cost of living in Taiwan for a foreign national is often higher than it is for locals, thus accounting for a difference in pay. But she doesn't believe there is any good explanation for the unequal workloads. She did mention several positive experiences working with foreign counterparts, but added, "It depended on how involved in the class they were. My main concern is the quality of the teacher. Do they really want to be here to teach English to kids or are they just doing it for the money?"
The extent to which foreign teachers are able to integrate into the local public school system, given the language, cultural and contractual differences, takes effort on both sides, said Eva Nieh (聶伊韋), a local English teacher who has taught in both public and private schools in Taipei for more than 10 years. "The school administration needs to include the teacher and keep them informed on all the school's notices and meetings. Equally the teacher must also make an effort to be a part of the staff," she said.
Equally, the potential for animosity in the workplace and lack of applicants for the MOE's new project is causing both local and foreign teachers to question the pedagogic value of placing native speakers in rural schools.
"If it's as a way to provide some cultural exchange between different nationalities then it's a valid attempt," Liao said. But as a catalyst for improving the standard of English in rural areas, she is not totally convinced it will work.
"Anyone who studies language knows it takes time and exposure, but most importantly a desire to learn. If you don't see any point in learning something, you're not going to waste your time. Maybe the young kids will be fascinated and entertained by a foreign teacher at first. But after the initial excitement wears off and it becomes just another English class, how much do you actually think that teacher will improve the ability of English in the classroom?" Liao asked.
Hsieh who named traveling and studying abroad as her motivations for learning English, is also wary of the MOE's project, "It's not like the bigger cities where you see foreigners everyday. Most students in the countryside won't have any immediate reason to learn English and they might not feel there is any future benefit for them," she said.
But is that really enough reason to deny rural students the opportunity?
For the MOE, enhancing the quality of English means making the opportunities that are readily available in Taiwan's cities equally accessible in the rural areas, Lee said. The concern with their project however, is not only where, but also how it ought to be implemented.
Foreign English teachers can increase the motivation in the classroom by giving students an opportunity for more genuine language exchanges. But simply throwing some native speakers into the education system will not improve the students' English. English should be introduced through an integrated and connected curriculum, said Julie Kosolofski, who has been a foreign English teacher in Taiwan for more than five years.
She said the whole curriculum needed to be overhauled to provide students with the capacity to hold conversations with other English speakers. The problem with the material, Kosolofski said is that it focuses too much on written grammar and reading. "Most teachers use Chinese to teach so students lose the opportunity to develop their listening skills. They [students] just sit by their desks and copy down sentences. At the end of their education, they are prepared to write an exam but they can't give directions to a foreigner."
Nieh agreed, saying ideal language learning takes place in classes with fewer students where everyone has an appropriate amount of attention and time to practice. "It doesn't matter how many linguistic degrees you have, you can't teach language communicatively to 40 or more students, especially young learners."
The private junior high school Nieh is currently teaching at has just finished revising its English program. They have divided classes into three levels based on students' language abilities. The result, she said, is smaller classes that focus on conversation-based activities.
The British Council is still awaiting a final draft of the contract from the MOE before it begins advertising teaching positions in the UK. If and when the project gets underway a total of 70 teaching positions would be available to UK nationals. When Tim Conway, the Director of English Learning Services at the British Council, was asked his professional opinion on ways to improve the standard of English in Taiwan he replied, "Step one would be to clarify what was meant by `standard of English.' Are we talking about people being able to actually communicate and use English effectively, or is it having a higher percentage of people in Taiwan with some basic awareness of English vocabulary and grammar?"
Conway, who is working with officials from the MOE on the service contract, said any approach to enhancing the quality of English should take into consideration the views of local teachers. "They are the key stake holders. They are familiar with the curriculum, the students and the reality of what goes on in the school. If you're looking to any long term development then it's going to be local teachers of English who are the key to raising standards or making any significant change."
The MOE did invite a group of principals and teachers to discuss its new project, but the focus was on contract concerns not issues like class size and resources. Lee said the recruits would be invited to provide their opinions and concerns regarding the school's English curriculum. How much influence their opinions will have, she was unable to say.
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