The Ministry of Education last week said it was planning to hire 300 foreign teachers as the government aims to bring widespread English-language fluency to Taiwan by 2030.
However, the NT$460 million (US$16.23 million) of tax money that it plans to spend annually might be better spent on infrastructure and equipment at rural schools. How much could the government achieve with 381 foreign teachers, including the 81 already employed in the public-school system?
Taiwan has more than 2,600 elementary schools alone. Even with teachers commuting between schools, they could never reach every elementary and junior-high school student.
Even with one foreign teacher at every school, a student could never reach fluency with just one or two classes per week.
Most people become fluent in a language either because it is what they speak at home or because they use it throughout grade school. That is why students at international schools are fluent in English, even though they might speak Chinese at home.
That is not to say fluency cannot be achieved in another way, but it would not be effective or practical to strive for widespread fluency without making English the language of instruction for all subjects at public schools — which is unlikely to happen.
Taiwan has many official languages, including Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Hakka. These became official languages to accommodate sizeable populations of speakers.
Similarly, Canada recognizes French as an official language given the large population of French speakers in Quebec and elsewhere. Other countries, such as Singapore and Switzerland, recognize multiple languages for the same reason. With English, Taiwan is approaching the situation backward, aiming to recognize an official language for which there is no sizeable population of native speakers, and then pushing to create such a population.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and other officials have said that fluency in English would allow Taiwanese to better connect with the international community, making them more competitive in international society.
However, those who travel or work abroad are usually already motivated to achieve a degree of English-language proficiency. A large number of Taiwanese already have achieved that proficiency, while those who are uninterested in connecting with people in other countries are unlikely to want to learn English.
It is not necessarily the case that a majority of a population has to be proficient in English for a nation to be competitive. For example, Japan is the third-largest economy in the world, but English is rarely spoken in official or business contexts there.
That is not to say that English should not be taught in Taiwan, or that fluency should not be encouraged.
However, the government should be realistic about what it can achieve and what value widespread fluency would bring.
Foreign-language ability is a soft skill, while fluency in another language alone does not make one competitive — even language teachers, translators and interpreters need skills beyond languages.
The ministry should use the money to put computers, Internet connections, telescopes, laboratories, musical and sports equipment, and other tools into the hands of students in rural areas so that they can acquire truly useful skills.
Taiwanese can do a fine job of providing weekly language classes on their own, if they are given proper resources and training.
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