A majority of Taiwanese adults, who consider themselves able to speak only "broken English" or "no English at all," think learning English is an important part of education in the era of globalization, a recent poll found.
The public opinion poll, conducted by the Chinese-language United Daily News, found that a great majority of Taiwanese adults believe it important to have their children begin studying English at a younger age, perhaps at the grade-school level.
A total of 47 percent of adults surveyed said they support the notion that English lessons be made a major part of the curriculum in primary school, as they consider it more important for youngsters to learn English than to learn Mandarin Chinese, the poll found.
Although many of the adults surveyed agreed that English learning should be a major part of the grade school curriculum, they remain divided over what the best time to begin such classes is, the survey found.
According to the poll, some 30 percent of the respondents said they think it is better to begin English lessons in the first or second grade, compared with 30 percent who favor English classes beginning in the third or fourth grade, and 26 percent who think it better to begin English lessons in the fifth or sixth grade.
Meanwhile, the poll found that only about 1 percent of those surveyed consider themselves to fluent English speakers, another 1 percent consider their English-speaking ability to be "so so," 28 percent said they are able to speak "some English," while a high of 60 percent admitted they "don't speak English at all."
Of those adults who have learned English in school, some 46 percent said they could not speak English publicly, according to the poll.
One the reasons why the average Taiwan adult cannot speak English, 46 percent of the respondents put the blame on a "lack of an environment to practice English."
Only 5 percent said they speak English "routinely" on a daily basis, compared with 22 percent who said it is necessary for them to speak English "every now and then," and a high of 74 percent who said there is no need at all for them to speak English at work.
Among the salary-class respondents, 9 percent said English is one of the major languages in their place of work, 24 percent said English speaking or usage is "occasional," and 67 percent said English is not required at all.
Despite the fact that most Taiwanese adults don't speak English and that the language is not required in most of their daily lives, 44 percent of the respondents said they still consider being able to speak English important to them, while 52 percent said it is not.
A total of 831 Taiwanese adults were interviewed via telephone between April 11-12 for the daily's most recent survey. The poll's margin of error is said to be 3.4 percentage points.
In related news, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has recently initiated a comprehensive English teaching program, which is part of the ongoing Six-year National Development Project, aiming at raising the English proficiency standards of all the people of Taiwan.
MOE officials said the ministry would push for a revision to the existing Education Law so as to enable foreign nationals who use English as their mother tongue to teach in primary schools nationwide in a bid to accelerate the "English learning for all people" campaign.
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