Taiwan Aims To Go 'Bilingual' by 2030
Taiwan's government wants to boost the country's English ability by 2030. But views on this "bilingual" policy are divided.
Transcript
00:00 [Bell ringing]
00:06 Take out your textbooks right now.
00:08 And today we're going to focus on Unified Fifth Class.
00:12 As Taiwan's government sees it, English is the future.
00:15 [Speaking in Chinese]
00:17 Kyoto has so much more to teach us.
00:21 It's a policy of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party
00:23 to make the country bilingual in Chinese and English by 2030.
00:27 And it's at schools like this that better English begins.
00:30 Right now, let's take a look at paragraph two.
00:34 Officials want more schools teaching English through English.
00:37 And in schools that are ready, they even want some other subjects taught in English, too.
00:42 But Taiwan's schools have always taught the language.
00:45 Why push the bar up to bilingual?
00:47 Taiwan is a trade-dependent country.
00:50 And we are making every effort to attract multinational companies to Taiwan.
00:56 Unfortunately, a lot of times we lose out to Singapore
00:59 because those multinational companies found that our professionals
01:04 are not that fluent in English as the Singaporeans are.
01:08 Chinese character, all right?
01:10 The National Development Council, charged with making the plan a success,
01:13 says Taiwan needs English to ensure the country's voice is heard on the world stage.
01:18 That's especially important given the growing clout of nearby China,
01:21 a country that claims Taiwan as its own
01:23 and does its best to keep Taiwan out of global organizations.
01:27 Experts have good news.
01:29 For a non-English-speaking country,
01:31 Taiwan has a high percentage of high school grads with strong English language skills.
01:36 These are women dressing in deliques.
01:41 We conducted a baseline study of English proficiency
01:45 for the Ministry of Education back in 2020.
01:48 And that showed that 21% of students at senior high school
01:54 were achieving upper intermediate or advanced levels of English language proficiency.
02:00 But this enthusiasm for English has some strong critics,
02:03 among them Professor Liao Hsien-Hao.
02:06 He says too much English too early will stunt students' first language,
02:10 their critical thinking and their academic performance.
02:13 He also sees Taiwan's local languages, including Mandarin, withering away.
02:18 Countries like Holland, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark,
02:25 they are becoming aware of the pitfalls of this whole policy.
02:30 So Holland, I think in June this year,
02:33 the Ministry of Education has put out this regulation
02:38 that the universities should at least provide two-thirds of the courses in Dutch,
02:46 for fear that the Dutch language would become obsolete one day.
02:51 The campaign to become bilingual is going ahead all the same.
02:57 So what does it look like on the ground?
03:00 Here at Nei Li High School in the northern city of Taoyuan,
03:03 students can choose an experimental biology class taught in English.
03:07 Though the English teachers here see a boost in language skills,
03:10 they say it's come at a price.
03:12 It requires a massive amount of work for them to be really proficient in English
03:18 and to connect with those vocabulary, those technical terms in different fields.
03:25 So at first I feel very stressful.
03:27 Teenagers stay up all night because of abundant assignments.
03:31 And the students clearly feel the same way.
03:34 What the hell is this education about?
03:37 Stressed teachers, stressed students, and a tense political debate.
03:42 It doesn't have to be this way, some experts say.
03:45 Dr. Steven Krashen, who has spent decades studying language acquisition, is one of them.
03:50 He's found that with gripping stories and a lot of free reading,
03:53 stress-free bilingualism is not only possible, but inevitable.
03:57 Kids need libraries filled with good books, both in English and their native language,
04:02 and the rest will take care of itself.
04:05 What we have found, if you--for every hour of reading you do,
04:11 you gain about a half a point, actually a little more, on the TOEIC test,
04:16 which means a couple of years, you're way up there.
04:20 Not from doing flashcards, not from studying grammar, just from reading.
04:24 And the best thing we can do is supply kids with lots and lots of interesting books.
04:29 Testing will not even be an issue.
04:31 They're going to score very high on all kinds of tests of comprehension,
04:35 and on tests of speaking, because that's the result of getting this input.
04:40 Indigenous culture is diverse. Birth is what we are made of.
04:46 For now, conventional language classes are still the norm,
04:50 and packed schedules leave students little time to read for fun.
04:53 But Taiwan's people and government do have a choice to make.
04:57 Is English really Taiwan's future?
04:59 And is the current plan the right way to get there?
05:02 As 2030 inches closer, time is running out to decide.
05:06 Howard Zhang and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.
05:10 [BLANK_AUDIO]