The government should reduce the frequency of English classes and increase the amount of resources available to schools, participants said at a meeting on bilingualism hosted by the New Power Party (NPP) on Saturday.
Teachers and principals were invited to give feedback on progress regarding the government’s goal of becoming a Mandarin-English bilingual nation by 2030.
At the meeting in Taipei, participants said a lack of English-language teaching resources was the biggest factor hampering progress, adding that the government should focus on creating language environments that better facilitate the use of English by students.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
“Students need an environment where the English they learn is used, or it just comes across as pretentious,” Taipei Municipal Zhong Zheng Senior High School principal Chiang Hui-chen (江惠真) said. “We also need better training to produce qualified bilingual teachers, and a road map for students’ progress.”
The government must clearly define what it means by “bilingualism,” and must set a clear ratio of how much focus to place on language and how much to place on subject material, Taipei Municipal Dongxin Elementary School principal Cheng Sheng-yuan (鄭盛元) said.
Very few qualified bilingual teachers take on positions in Taipei, and schools lack bilingual curricula that fit the local education system, he said.
“Teachers are doing their best to meet the expectations of parents, but they are getting worn out,” he said.
Liu Ya-hsin (柳雅馨), an English teacher at Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, said there was a large consensus among those she asked in Taipei that the English-Mandarin bilingualism program is unpopular.
The problem is that most students who study English are familiar with some aspects of the language, but cannot speak, read or write full sentences, she said.
In a class of 40 students, at most 10 could be considered “fluent,” she said.
“One of the biggest problems is that the K-12 Education Administration has no progressive, annual plans in place for this bilingualism policy,” she said. “They do not see the results they are looking for, so salaries do not go up and the number of classes does not go down.”
If foreign teachers are employed, the school must also have bilingual teachers who can answer questions in Mandarin, she said.
Deputy Representative to Canada Po Chan-yu (柏單于), who also attended the event, cited Canada’s experience with English and French bilingualism, and said that resources must be evenly distributed to avoid unfair public policy.
“In Canada, the public has the right to decide which of the two official languages it wants services in. Taiwan should ensure that its own policy of bilingualism does not leave anyone behind,” he said.
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