Up to 70 percent of parents in a recent survey said they would like the government to create more “English village” language-learning facilities.
“English villages” offer simulated environments such as restaurants and airplane cabins to allow English learners to use the language in a variety of “real-life” situations.
Such villages have been created by some local governments, including Kaohsiung City and County, and organizations like the King Car Education Foundation.
THIRD GRADE
In the Chinese-language Mandarin Daily News survey — conducted last month and this month with 1,394 parents of students at 11 randomly chosen elementary schools nationwide — 88 percent of respondents supported the Ministry of Education’s policy of starting English education in the third grade.
Almost 9 percent of parents opposed creating more “English villages,” the survey found.
About 60 percent of parents said they were concerned about their children’s ability to compete with others in terms of foreign languages, while 90 percent said the ability to compete in the global arena was important for their children’s future.
Close to 70 percent of respondents expressed concern about the difficulty their children might face later in finding employment.
COMPETING
The majority of respondents said character, academic background, confidence and creativity were factors that would affect their children’s ability to compete, while about 17 percent named the ability to cooperate with others.
Most respondents also chose proficiency in foreign languages, professional expertise and the ability to be independent as factors for international competitiveness.
About 11 percent of respondents named knowledge of international etiquette.
About 45 percent said children should begin to acquire the skills they will need to compete later in elementary school. About 21 percent said children should start learning these skills as toddlers.
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