Kaohsiung’s Beiling Elementary School has become the nation’s first experimental immersion school for the Hoklo language, (often known as Taiwanese, or Tai-gi). It is a huge step forward for Hoklo-language education, and hopes are high that it could pave the way for more schools around the country.
In immersion schools, all teaching and communication on school grounds is carried out in Hoklo, directly and naturally benefiting students’ learning. In Taiwan, other examples include the Hakka-language immersion programs that have been introduced across preschool, elementary and junior high schools since 2019. New Zealand is well known for its te reo Maori immersion schools, which began in the mid-1980s.
Beiling Elementary School’s Hoklo-language immersion program was started last year by the Kaohsiung City Government. A trial period was followed by the school’s official opening earlier this year. The long-term goal is for the central government to adopt the model and encourage schools across the country to implement their own programs.
Native speakers of Hoklo once formed the largest linguistic community in Taiwan, but under the policy of enforcing Mandarin, the number of Hoklo speakers declined rapidly. There is some exposure for younger children who are cared for by grandparents, but after entering kindergarten and elementary school, instruction is conducted entirely in Mandarin and the development of Hoklo as a mother-tongue language is effectively ended. As a result, only 7.4 percent of children between the ages of six and 14 still use the language.
The suppression of local languages in Taiwan has caused widespread mother-tongue losses, including Hakka and indigenous languages. The establishment of this Hoklo-language school in Kaohsiung, therefore, has raised hopes among grassroots language revitalization groups.
There are growing pains in early stages of implementation as teachers and parents adjust. Reaching for the necessary vocabulary across different classes can be challenging, and in the short term, there is no harm in mixing in Mandarin to smooth the transition process. With commitment, teachers can learn and improve through the practice of teaching itself. Despite the obstacles, it is vital that these local languages, as the mother tongues of Taiwan’s various linguistic communities, be respected, and for effort to be spent for their preservation and revitalization.
Although some worry about children’s learning difficulties, students are the group that require the least concern. Preschool and elementary school are in the golden years of language acquisition. Given the opportunity and the right environment, children naturally acquire strong proficiency in their mother tongues. The crisis of decline in these local languages seen today in Taiwan is, by and large, a result of missing this critical window — many are cut off by the age of seven.
After this golden period, students start to lose the ability to easily pick up new pronunciations and often grow weary of study. With mounting workloads starting from junior high school, many lose the will to engage in any additional learning without the right encouragement. This is why it is so important to cement mother-tongue proficiency before elementary school graduation.
As with language learning, the beginning can be tough, but the path ahead can be forged through conviction. Through the combined efforts of teachers, parents and the Ministry of Education, we can realize the dream of revitalizing local languages as mother tongues in Taiwan.
Chiang Jih-yingh is a junior-high school teacher and supervisor of the Taiwanese Romanization Association.
Translated by Gilda Knox Streader
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