Bilingual Education in Taiwan

[Heaven]

Recently years, bilingual education in Taiwan has become a tendency especially English learning. However, it also becomes a big educational problem in Taiwan. On the whole, I observe some social phenomena and generalize three reasons why does the bilingual education become a difficult point of educational system. First, the qualities of bilingual education do not standardize, for instance, different schools and cram schools take different bilingual curriculums or the standard is also different to recruit foreign teachers. Second, the purpose of bilingual education has changed and become a means to make money. For example, some unworthy operators only know to charge high tuition fees from parents but do not care about students’ ages, quality, and degree or learning situations. In fact, the real goal of bilingual education is to promote our students’ abilities of foreign language to compete with other people in international. Finally, the ages of learning foreign language have become lower year after year but the government is at a loss what to do to improve this phenomenon. If young children receive bilingual education too early, it is easy to cause their learning obstacles and even hate to learn other curriculums. Because of unrealistic expectations from parents or teachers would become a shadow in their mind, if they cannot do the best. To sum up above three points, in Taiwan we maybe need a set of real, complete, practical and standard system of bilingual education but not is a test tool or means for making money. (about247words)

[Roger]

What are you ram,bling on about? Sure, Taiwan does not have bilingual education? Teaching English as a subject does not make a school, its students or its curriculum bilingual!

[Fannie]

Dear Heaven:
You observe the bilingual education in Taiwan carefully. I have another point to share with you. The practice of the bilingual education whether it will success lies in the children's will. After all, children is those who to learn. There is no denying that children may early touch the language of the another conutry. However, it is possible that children in their childrenhood would lose something, such as the happy time to get along with friends. In addition to this, children may take the bilingual education under their parents pressure. The kind of examples in Taiwan are too numerous to enumerate. In other words, parents should not ask their children to take bilingual education just becuase they consider that it is good for their children.

[Eileen]

Heaven, you observe the binlingual education impressing me. I think what you said is right. In Taiwan, however, binlingual education really becomes a trend and necessity.

[LarryLatham]

Dear Heaven,

Your observations about the reality of English education in Taiwan may be quite true. But your terminology is not quite right. "Bilingual Education" is not practiced in Taiwan, as far as I know (although it may be possible that in some places, subjects might be taught in both Mandarin and Taiwanese). Bilingual Education is the teaching of basic subjects in two different languages, for the purpose of accommodating students who may not speak the "official" language of a government administrated school district. If schools in Taiwan teach mathmatics in both Chinese and in English, then that is Bilingual Education. If Chinese history is taught in both Chinese and some other language, then that would be Bilingual Education. What you are talking about, I think, is the lack of standards in public and private schools, and corrupt business practices in private schools, as well as social and family pressures on children, regarding the teaching of English language to children in Taiwan.

Larry Latham
(A teacher who spent four years in Taipei, and observed some of the problems you have mentioned here)