Seventy percent of middle and elementary schools now conduct English classes entirely in English, the Ministry of Education said, as it encourages schools nationwide to adopt this practice
Minister of Education (MOE) Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) is scheduled to present a report on the government’s bilingual education policy to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee today.
The report would outline strategies aimed at expanding access to education, reducing regional disparities and improving talent cultivation.
Photo courtesy of the Tainan City Government’s Bureau of Education
Implementation of bilingual education policies has varied across local governments, occasionally drawing public criticism.
For example, some schools have required teachers of non-English subjects to pass English proficiency tests, while others have mandated that non-English subjects be taught bilingually.
K-12 Education Administration head Peng Fu-yuan (彭富源) on Saturday said that English classes should be taught in English following the principle of “maximizing classroom input and output.”
Teachers should conduct lessons in English as much as possible based on students’ language levels and promote peer-to-peer communication to increase opportunities for English language use, Peng said.
The ministry provides various resources, including manuals, games and a database of 95 instructional videos to help improve English teachers’ professional abilities, he said.
As of this February, 10,184 bilingual teachers have undergone training, with 6,525 currently employed as full-time teachers, the ministry said.
The ministry has also expanded its recruitment of foreign educators, with 1,184 full-time foreign English teachers and 3,021 part-time foreign teaching assistants currently employed, it said.
To encourage the use of English in daily life, the ministry said it has integrated community resources to create maps of English-friendly stores around school campuses.
The ministry has also launched a free English self-assessment system, allowing students and teachers to evaluate their language proficiency independently.
In addition, its online learning platform, Cool English, incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including English chatbots and AI-powered writing assistants, to enhance language learning, it said.
The platform has been accessed more than 2.95 million times, helping to bridge educational gaps, the ministry said.
Lin Hsiang-yin (林香吟), principal of Kaohsiung Municipal Chungshan Senior High School, said that instruction in English is a core component of the bilingual education initiative.
In the past, English classes were typically taught in Mandarin, with an overemphasis on grammar and exam preparation, Lin said.
However, the new approach shifts the focus toward immersive, communicative learning, she said.
Adjusting the language of instruction, as the ministry has done, is not only a necessary first step, but also yields rapid results, she said, adding that students immersed in an all-English curriculum tend to make swift progress.
National Federation of Teachers Unions president Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) expressed support for the ministry’s decision to focus on English instruction specifically in English classes, rather than requiring all subjects to be taught bilingually.
Hou said that implementing the policy is more challenging in elementary schools than in middle and high schools.
This is due not only to disparities between urban and rural areas, but also to the wide variation in students’ English proficiency levels upon entering elementary school.
While classes should be tailored to students’ proficiency, some students attend all-English kindergartens while others do not, Hou said.
National Alliance of Parents Organization chairman Hsiao Tung-yuan (蕭東原) said that Taiwan needs bilingual education to cultivate the next generation’s English abilities.
Considering that there is a shortage of teachers, the ministry’s choice to emphasize teaching English classes in English is correct for the short term, Hsiao said.
However, training more teachers is necessary to ensure that all subjects can be taught bilingually over the long term, he added.
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
RSS