In a bid to improve students' proficiency in English, an American academic recommended they advance their English acquisition by reading literary masterpieces.
"It seems at present students learn English mostly for financial and scientific purposes. More attention should be paid to the aesthetic and philosophical usages of English," said Owen Aldridge, a professor at the University of Illinois as well as the former head of the American Comparative Literature Association.
Aldridge made the remark during a seminar entitled "English Language Teaching (ELT) in Asian Contexts: Four PCs in the 21st Century" that was held last week in Taipei.
Based on the fact that students in Taiwan perform much better on English tests than their predecessors did 30 years ago, but that English proficiency does not seem to have improved significantly, experts had some advice for students who want to improve their English ability in terms of listening, speaking, reading and writing.
"In addition to cultivating linguistic excellence, reading may be used as an instrument for the understanding of foreign cultures, the most important element of which is perhaps religion," Aldridge said.
He suggested students read the works of Sir Walter Scott, Bernard Malamud, Graham Greene, Anthony Trollope, Nathaniel Haw-thorne, George Eliot and Arnold Bennett.
"These novels are highly useful because they reveal how Western religion operates as part of daily living. They can offer an insight into history, philosophy and mythology," Aldridge said .
He said students in Taiwan, even those with a high degree of aptitude in English, have difficulty in comprehending the multiplicity of Western religions.
He also suggested that elementary schools teach tales from the Bible or extracts from works such as Charles Dickens' The Life of Our Lord and Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travel.
Parents' participation will greatly boost their children's interest in learning English, said Leung Yiu-nam (梁耀南), of National Tsing-hua University's department of foreign languages and literature.
"Parents and children can learn English together. If so, children can talk English with their parents and not feel that learning the language is boring," Leung told the Taipei Times.
Given that only the rich can afford to send their children to expensive bilingual schools, it will be very difficult for public primary schools to achieve the same English education level as their private counterparts, said Leung.
"Private bilingual schools train their pupils as native speakers, whereas the English education policy in public schools treats students as non-native speakers," he said.
Leung added that it might take a number of years before public schools can obtain the same qualities in terms of teachers and teaching facilities that private bilingual schools have now.
Leung suggested university students study English on a daily basis even if they are not majoring in the language.
"Continuity is an essential key to eventually mastering English," Leung said.
Meanwhile, Neil Anderson, a professor at Brigham Young University, said teachers' education and the professional development of teachers already in the educational system are the most important factors in reforming the teaching of the language.
Richard Day from University of Hawaii said students in Taiwan and Japan have similar difficulties in speaking and listening to English.
RSS