Hsu said the best time for students to learn English is between four and eight -- before the third grade -- when one's Chinese-language study load at school is not heavily enforced.
"A bilingual environment for children at that age will help them acquire English, whereas third graders or students in higher grades tend to demonstrate lower results when they are required to study large amounts of Chinese at school," Hsu said.
Private children's English institute teachers also said that students should begin learning English as early as possible.
"There won't be mutual interference between Chinese and English-language education when they are immersed in a bilingual environment. And as long as they learn English consistently without any breaks in between, the results generally reveal they can learn it well," said an English teacher surnamed Huang from the Hess English School.
RSS