English classes to continue: MOE

The Ministry of Education yesterday denied reports it will stop kindergartens from teaching English, countering claims made last week in Chinese-language media that the ministry is set to enforce strict mother-tongue and Mandarin-Chinese-only regulations.

"The ministry only regulated in the curriculum outline for kindergarten education that kindergartens cannot teach kids by subjects as elementary schools do," said Lin Wei-Chih (林威志), an official with the ministry's Department of Primary Education. "The ministry suggested that English learning is supposed to be a small part of kindergarten education rather than the main objective."

Lin the kindergarten curriculum outlined six teaching areas: language, work, music, games, health and common sense.

"The language category includes mother tongue and Mandarin Chinese. English is supposed to be an auxiliary subject brought into use when teaching kids about culture or foreign festivals," Lin said.

"Kindergartens should focus on emotional development and skills for practical life. Many parents neglect this point and push their children to achieve academic success from the outset," Lin said.

However, children who learn English at an early age need more resources, something only a few families can afford, said Cheung Hin-tat (張顯達), associate professor at National Taiwan University's Graduate Institute of Linguistics and expert in child language-acquisition.

"If parents or society do not learn to understand what the most important criterion of English ability is, it will be difficult for them to resist pressures from the language-school market," Cheung said.

According to Cheung, many parents wrongly believe that their kids have a good grasp of English when they hear them speak fluently in English. Kids may be able to hold a conversation in English but that does not necessarily mean they have the same ability in reading or thinking, Cheung said.

Cheung a better strategy for learning a second language was to spark a child's interest in the cultures of other countries, which is the direction some European countries are taking in schools.

"Only when children have the desire to know another culture can they have the drive to explore the deeper levels of a language by reading or other ways," Cheung said.

Cheung said that the education ministry should make parents understand why the ministry promotes the learning of the mother tongue and Mandarin Chinese at an early age and explain the long-term advantages.