In a bid to increase Taiwan's competitiveness, Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday promised to make English the nation's second semi-official language over a period of six years.
Yu made the remark in the Legislative Yuan in response to DPP lawmaker Luo Wen-jia's (羅文嘉) concerns that Taiwanese students' average TOEFL result ranked as one of the poorest among Asian countries last year.
Lo said that Taiwanese students' average TOEFL result ranked 20th among 23 Asian counties and he is worried that Taiwan's competitiveness might be jeopardized at a time when a knowledge-based economy is becoming the key to international competitiveness.
Yu said that, despite the fact that Taiwan has no officially declared language, Mandarin has been practiced by both the government and the public as a common language.
"To declare a second official language would involve complicated law-making processes. It would be tremendously difficult," Yu said.
But he also stressed that, based on the importance of English in the modern world, the government still plans to make English the second semi-official language.
Yu referred to President Chen Sui-bian's (
"The President's idea should be carried out. And, in fact, the government has already extended English education to begin at primary school and go all the way up to junior high school," Yu said.
In Monday's ministerial meeting on the six-year national development plan, the Executive Yuan has mapped out a preliminary English-as-second-language plan and included it in the development project.
The plan will be integrated with nine other facets of the development project before being discussed by a Cabinet meeting for Premier Yu Shyi-kun's approval in mid May.
According to Minister of Education Huang Jung-tsuen (黃榮村), who chaired a task force to study the possibility of making English the second official language, the Cabinet would focus on two major tasks to reach the goal.
"First of all, we would like to encourage the entire nation to learn the English language," Huang said. "Secondly, we'd like to push for online English learning."
To encourage the nation to learn the English language, Huang said, the Cabinet is considering extending the age of English learning to cover more younger and older learners.
"We'd like to see pre-schoolers start learning English and the elderly to attend extensive English-language learning programs," he said.
Currently, while some schools start offering English courses at first grade, others only start at fifth grade, depending on the school's facilities and resources.
The Cabinet also plans to encourage college and university teachers to use English as an instruction medium.
Although English is not the current official language, Huang noted that "English is the language which can connect Taiwan to the world, and it is necessary to learn it well."
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS