The government should include student opinions in its Bilingual 2030 initiative to promote English-language education, student group EdYouth said yesterday.
The Taiwanese education system is still beholden to examinations, with English education reduced to rote memorization and multiple-choice questions, said EdYouth cofounder Lee Ruei-lin (李瑞霖), a political science student at National Taiwan University.
Announcing the results of the group’s survey, Lee told a news conference in Taipei that 57.5 percent of students do not find their English courses enjoyable or helpful.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
Of the 1,025 junior and senior-high students surveyed, 42.5 percent said they were enjoyable or helpful, he said.
As for using English in other subjects, 30.4 percent said that teaching courses such as mathematics and geography in English would help their language ability, while 34.8 percent strongly disagreed.
Respondents were asked to rank their agreement on a scale of one to five, with one indicating strong disagreement, and two disagreement.
About 22.7 percent said that using English to teach other subjects would increase their interest in the subjects, while 36.7 percent disagreed.
About 36.5 percent said they believed that their studies of other subjects would be affected by the use of English, as opposed to the 19.9 percent who said it would not.
About 38.3 percent said that studying other subjects in English would increase their motivation to learn the language, while 24.5 percent said they strongly disagreed.
EdYouth said it was concerned that the Bilingual 2030 policy might widen the education gap, as only 17 percent of those who disagreed with the motivation question had achieved a B2 level of English or higher.
A first-year high-school student from Taichung told the news conference that they had no time to study English conversation or topics of interest to them, as they had to study for tests.
Of the respondents, 45.5 percent agreed that English ability is an indicator of competitiveness, but 41.8 percent said they worried that it would crowd out their mother tongues.
National Chengchi University law student Hsu Ruei-er (許瑞兒) said that although she had studied Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) for a decade, she still does not know it well.
Considering how the Taiwanese education system is oriented toward assessment and achievement, it would be difficult to adopt a bilingual curriculum, she said.
Most teachers are not prepared to teach in English, Action Alliance on Basic Education chairman Wang Han-yang (王瀚陽) said.
Forcing students without the language ability to take courses in English would severely affect their performance in other subjects, Wang said.
Schools in rural areas also do not have access to the same resources as those in cities such as Taipei, he said, adding that he was concerned students in those areas would fall further behind.
As teachers are sought for their English ability over professional aptitude, the policy would change the makeup of the nation’s teaching staff over time, National Federation of Teachers’ Unions chairman Hou Chun-liang (侯俊良) said, calling for English to be removed from the teachers’ exam for non-English instructors.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS