Challenges to Taiwans English Education in the Context of Globalization

1
Challenges to Taiwans English Education in the
Context of Globalization

• Vincent W. Chang
• Professor Dean,
• College of Liberal Arts,
• National Taiwan Normal University

2
Growing importance of English in the global
village

• Large numbers of people will learn English as a
  foreign language in the 21st century and they
  will need teachers, dictionaries and grammar
  books (Graddol, 1999)
• English as the language of business, technology,
  science, the Internet, popular entertainment, and
  even sports (Nunan, 2003)

3
Growing importance of English at home (I)

• English as the second official language (Chen
  March 2002)
• English as a quasi-official language in 8-10
  years (You Feb. 2003)
• Promoting every citizens English proficiency to
  ensure Taiwans competitiveness in the global
  arena (Executive Yuan Challenge 2008)

4
Growing importance of English at home (II)

• Government employees seeking promotion will be
  awarded bonus points if they meet a specified
  level of English proficiency (Executive Yuan
  Committee of Laws and Regulations)
• English as a required subject in 5th grade
  beginning fall of 2001 (Ministry of Education)
• Further lowering to 3rd grade in fall of 2005

5
English Learning Preschoolers (I)

• The craze to get an early start in English
  learning parents anxiety and high expectations
  (unpleasant past English learning experiences
  English proficiency required for better jobs)
• Advertisements urging parents not to have their
  children lag behind in English learning
• The Critical Period in language learning/
  acquisition (Eric Lenneberg1964) the the
  earlier, the better myth

6
English Learning Preschoolers (II)

• Catherine Snow (2000) Age is not the only
  factor more is involved (teachers, methods,
  motivation, among others)
• Former Minister of Education Tseng (2000) the
  critical period remains a controversial issue

7
Challenges to Primary English Education One
nation, different practices (I)

• Officially, in 2001 English instruction was to
  start at 5th grade
• Only 6 counties and cities followed this policy
  at the time the policy was implemented
• Cities and counties with more resources started
  as early as 2nd or even 1st grade
• Counties less resourceful also started at 1st
  grade despite lack of qualified teachers and
  other instructional resources

8
Challenges to Primary English Education One
nation, different practices (II)

• Measures taken by MOE
• 1. Counties and cities that start earlier than
  the mandated 5th grade must submit proposals
  showing careful planning and adequate teaching
  resources
• Violators are penalized reduction in MOE funding
  and subsidy
• 2. Lowering to 3th grade nation-wide beginning
  fall of 2005
• The craze of English learning in Taiwanlearning
  English has become a national sport
• The hope that all cities and counties will start
  uniformly at 3rd grade

9
Challenges to Primary English Education Teachers
(I)

• Qualified English teachers competent in terms of
  both English language proficiency professional
  knowledge
• Shortage of qualified English teachers a common
  phenomenon the problem becomes more severe in
  remote areas
• Lowering to 3rd grade required an estimated 4,000
  teachers more
• A 2006 survey showed only 51.7 of the 7,023
  teachers currently teaching in pubic primary
  schools can be considered qualified

10
Challenges to Primary English Education Teachers
(II)

• Downsizing of primary schools due to lower
  birthrate has further worsened the situation
  qualified teachers new to the school are
  generally the first ones to leave
• Homeroom teachers with some English proficiency
  are now urged to enroll in ELT training programs
  in order to take over the English teaching
  responsibility many of them, however, are
  unwilling and reluctant because of the lack of
  incentives

11
Challenges to Primary English Education Teachers
(III)

• The survey further indicated that 1,194 (17)
  substitute teachers were employed, with the
  majority in the remote areas of the island
• Learners in less resourceful areas are thus
  further disadvantaged, as the professional
  knowledge and English language proficiency of
  these teachers are generally found to be less
  than satisfactory

12
Challenges to Primary English Education Students
with Mixed Ability Levels (I)

• Considerably large class size (30-40) and
  students with diverse levels of English
  proficiency are found in the same class
• Students who started English learning since
  preschool and have pretty good command of English
  in speaking and reading
• Students (mostly from socio-economically
  disadvantaged family) who have just started their
  English learning

13
Challenges to Primary English Education Students
with Mixed Ability Levels (II)

• The one nation, different practices dilemma has
  caused special problems for students whose
  parents have to move from one part of the island
  to another
• The situation worsens in view of the fact that
  different textbooks are used in different schools
  in different cities and counties
• The pressing issue for the teacher
• WHO to teach, WHAT to teach and HOW?

14
Challenges to Primary English Education Students
with Mixed Ability Levels (III)

• Other concerns
• The self-perceived superiority of the more
  proficient students
• The (gradual) loss of self-confidence among the
  slower learners
• Measures taken
• Ability grouping has been proposed as a measure
  to help solve this problem
• Negative impact, however, has been reportedin
  particular the labeling effect on the low
  achievers

15
Challenges to Primary English Education Weekly
Teaching Hours

• 1-2 hours of English instruction per weeknot
  sufficient to ensure successful learning of
  English in the classroom
• Concerned parents sending their children to
  English language institutes or cram schools
• Widening gap between more proficient students and
  slower ones, whose parents cannot afford the
  expenses
• Creating more problems for primary English
  teachers

16
Challenges to Primary English Education Textbooks

• The same curriculum guide--multiple versions of
  textbooks policy
• A highly competitive English textbook market
• Main issues
• ensuring the quality of the textbooks (content,
  language, activities, etc.)
• ensuring congruence between different versions of
  textbooks as well as coherence in different
  books in the same series

17
Challenges to Junior High English Education The
Bi-polarity Phenomenon (I)

• The bi-polarity phenomenon in the BCT
• BCT the Basic Competence Testa high-stakes test
  administered twice annually to junior high
  graduates
• The results of the BCT shows two distinct groups
  of students, one performing exceedingly well and
  the other showing little or no learning of
  English at all

18
Challenges to Junior High English Education The
Bi-polarity Phenomenon (II)

• As a general rule, students in the remote areas
  show less satisfactory performance in the English
  test of BCT
• Average performance of graduates in Taipei City
  far better6 points higher--than the national
  average
• The worrying fact that bi-polarity is found in
  each city and county and in every schooleven
  within the same classroom

19
Challenges to Junior High English Education The
Bi-polarity Phenomenon (III)

• Causes
• Differences in terms of time and effort devoted
  to learning and practicing English
• Differences in terms of the amount of learning
  resources and input provided by parents and
  community
• Factors relating to teachers and teaching
  methodology
• Focus of classroom activities
• Motivation on the part of the students

20
Challenges to Junior High English Education The
Bi-polarity Phenomenon (IV)

• Measures for Resolving the Issue
• Motivating the slower learners with appropriate
  learning strategies and activities
• Adopting an eclectic teaching syllabus based on
  the learners level of proficiency and pace of
  learning
• Creating a friendly English-learning
• environment
• Implementing Cooperative Learning

21
Challenges to Junior High English Education High
Achievers

• For those more proficient in English, textbooks
  and classroom teaching are not challenging
• Special measures must be implemented for these
  learners in particular, programs encouraging
  extensive reading should be imposed to ensure
  that English proficiency of these learners is
  constantly upgraded

22
Challenges to Junior High English Education ???

• Reports that students have far more contact every
  day with these supplementary practice/ reference
  books than regular textbooks
• Harmful effect resulting from excessive exposure
  to errors in these books, e.g. Rented (For Rent)
  a cake diagram (a pie diagram)

23
Challenges to Senior High English Education (I)

• 10th graders in general consider English learning
  much tougher than before more vocabulary to
  learn greater length in each reading selection
  far more complex grammatical patterns
• Greater challenge for those who managed only to
  familiarize themselves only with the 1,000 basic
  vocabulary items required for BCT during junior
  high

24
Challenges to Senior High English Education (II)

• Reduction of weekly instruction hours from 5 in
  the past to 4 at present
• Difficulty in upgrading the vocabulary size from
  1,000 to the 4,000 or more needed in the college
  entrance examsnot to mention achieving the
  curriculum goal of a balanced development of all
  four language skills

25
Challenges to Senior High English Education (III)

• On the whole, secondary level students are found
  to have made noticeable progress in speaking and
  listening over the years
• Progress has been reported on reading
  proficiency, though not as significant
• Students writing proficiency, however, clearly
  has been declining in recent years

26
Challenges to Senior High English Education (IV)

• Student performance at the SAT (Scholastic
  Achievement Test) English test in 2005
• National average of 35.63 (out of 72) in the
  reading section (vocabulary, cloze, reading
  comprehension)
• Average of 7.80 (out of 28) in the writing
  section 2.09 (out of 8) in translation and 5.78
  (out of 20) in English composition

27
Challenges to Senior High English Education (V)

• Typical errors found read/study (reading)
  lebatory/labrary (library)lend book/borrow school
  (borrow books)
• people all know read be child is well
• Teacher should courage student to rent book to
  libertary?

28
Challenges to Secondary English Education The
Vocational Track (I)

• Students on the vocational track are lagging
  farther and farther behind in English learning
• These students generally do not perform well on
  the BCT English test
• Most of these students are from less economically
  sufficient families and many show little or no
  interest in learning English
• The majority of these students receive only 2
  hours of weekly instruction in English
• Only in the last decade has the overall quality
  of English teaching has been significantly
  upgraded

29
Challenges to Secondary English Education The
Vocational Track (II)

• The performance of graduates of the vocational
  track in college/university entrance exams shows
  there is still great room for improvement in
  English learning
• About 21 of the 2005 graduates scored lower than
  25 points in the English test of the joint
  entrance exam for technological and vocational
  colleges and universities
• Translation of ????????by students of a
  university of technology as What is watch?or
  Now oclock? (A survey by former legislator
  ??? Oct. 2005)

30
Challenges to English Education at the College/
University Level (I)

• More incentives are needed for students at
  comprehensive universities
• Some students even find their English proficiency
  deteriorating after four years in
  college/university
• Weekly English instruction hours need to be
  increased
• More emphasis on communication skills than merely
  on reading

31
Challenges to English Education at the College/
University Level (II)

• Imposing an exit requirement, demanding students
  to meet a certain level of English language
  proficiency
• National Taiwan University those enrolled in the
  2002 academic year must demonstrate competency of
  the GEPT high-intermediate level or its
  equivalent
• NTU students meeting this requirement 34.87,
  40.66, and 35.87 in the academic year 2002,
  2003, and 2005, respectively

32
Challenges to English Education at the College/
University Level (III)

• The statistics show that annually, more than 50
  of NTU students still need improvement in English
  and that the requirement is high even for
  students at NTU, which as a general rule, admits
  the topmost high school graduates
• Remedial measures students failing to meet the
  requirement must get enrolled in a required
  English course

33
English Education at the College/ University
Level MOE Measures

• Encouraging the use of English as the medium of
  instruction
• Recruiting scholars and exchange students from
  abroad for campuses to go international
• Setting up Foreign Languages Centers to
  integrate educational resources for foreign
  language learning and teaching

34
English Education at the College/ University
Level Some Effective Measures

• More weekly hours of English instruction
• Innovation of the curriculum (Advanced English,
  English for Specific Purposes. Academic
  English, etc.)
• Careful selection of instructional materials
• Recruiting competent language teachers
• Effective use of multimedia resources
• Valid and reliable tools of assessment

35
Challenges to English Education at Colleges/
Universities of Technology (I)

• Students mainly from secondary schools of the
  vocational track
• English proficiency comparatively weaker
• Even lower motivation in learning English
• English courses are generally quite difficult for
  these students

36
Challenges to English Education at Colleges/
Universities of Technology (II)

• Dept. of Technological and Vocational Education
  (MOE) Passing rates among students of colleges
  and universities of technology randomly selected
  for the GEPT Elementary Test in the academic
  years 2001, 2002, and 2003 were as low as 15.8,
  14.9, and 18.1
• Theres indeed a huge gap between the ideal and
  the reality

37
English Education at Colleges/ Universities of
Technology MOE Measures

• Setting up Technological and Vocational English
  Teaching and Learning Resources Centers
• Subsidizing colleges/universities of technology
  which have taken concrete measures to upgrade
  students English proficiency and have achieved
  desired effect
• More effective measures are needed to upgrade
  English proficiency on slower learners

38
Conclusion

• With English continuing to exert its influence on
  the global arena, the craze with English learning
  in Taiwan will definitely continue to grow
• In view of the above-mentioned problems related
  to English education, ELT scholars, researchers
  and teachers in Taiwan indeed have great
  responsibilities to shoulder and must work
  together with the government to resolve the
  thorny issues

39
Thank you!

• ???!