Teachers and lawmakers yesterday expressed concern that the aims of the government’s policy for promoting improved English-language proficiency are unclear, and would affect learning of other subjects.
The government’s Bilingual 2030 policy — a reference to its emphasis on proficiency in English in addition to the speaker’s primary language — is aimed at “helping Taiwan’s workforce connect with the world” and “attracting international enterprises to Taiwan; enabling Taiwanese industries to connect to global markets and create high-quality jobs,” the National Development Council’s Web site for the policy says.
New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭) yesterday held a joint news conference with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信), National Taiwan University (NTU) professor Sebastian Liao (廖咸浩) and members of the National Federation of Teachers’ Unions (NFTU) ahead of the Executive Yuan’s review today of a planned “bilingual national development center.”
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
Wang called on the Executive Yuan, the council and the Ministry of Education to rein in spending and legislation related to the policy until its aims are clear, and the concerns of educators and others are addressed.
“Parents are worried that their children’s English-language ability will not improve, and at the same time, their performance in other subjects will suffer,” Wang said.
Liao questioned the logic behind the policy being promoted by the council while being under the executive authority of the ministry.
Proficiency in English would not necessarily equate to international competitiveness, she added.
“For example, people in the Philippines speak English natively, but are often forced to go abroad to find work,” he said. “Meanwhile, Japanese regularly test poorly in English, but Japan is a leading nation in terms of economy, technology and cultural influence.”
Another argument is that artificial intelligence might replace foreign-language learning within a decade, so the promotion of bilingual education would become an outdated policy, he said.
“Countries with bilingual or multilingual policies tend to be those where the languages promoted by the policy are widely used, such as Belgium and Singapore,” he said. “Taiwan is a country with various native languages, but none of them are English.”
NFTU president Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) said that a petition started online on April 7 asking the public whether the bilingual policy should be halted reached the threshold of signatures required for government consideration quickly.
“Many teachers left messages expressing their anger, arguing that the bilingual policy has seriously interfered with normal teaching and affected students’ learning rights,” he said.
Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) yesterday said on Facebook that the intention of the policy and the bilingual national development center was not to make English an official language in Taiwan, but rather to promote proficiency in the language to make Taiwanese more internationally competitive.
“Language is an indispensable medium for communication between people, and an important carrier of cultural and knowledge inheritance,” he wrote. “Taiwan needs to preserve and cherish its own languages, but should also develop the ability to read the international pulse and seamlessly connect with the world.”
The government would support the needs of teachers, and ensure that the rights and interests of teachers and students are protected, he said.
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