Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood

Volume 9 Number 1 2008

www.wwwords.co.uk/CIEC

COLLOQUIUM

Understanding the Desirability of

English Language Education in Taiwan

CHAO-LING TSENG
Department of Curriculum and Instruction,
School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

ABSTRACT The popularity and desirability of English language education has become somewhat
unbeatable in Taiwan. This article seeks to understand the multiple threads of reasoning systems that
come together to constitute and sustain the desirability of English learning. It conceptualizes that
language education is more than teaching and learning a new/foreign language. Language is
intertwined with the sphere of culture. Thus, it is hoped to encourage an alternative perspective for
rethinking English language education in Taiwan.

The importance of English has become unquestionable in Taiwan. Outside the field of education,
English language education is promoted as a significant element of a ‘lifelong’ learning project for
all by the central government. Inside the field of education, English language education has been
classified as a required and mandatory curriculum/subject area in Taiwan’s national compulsory
educational system since 1968.[1] In addition, starting from the late 1990s, changes in English
language education, including augmentation of credit hours and an earlier starting point for the
teaching and learning of English, have been planned and implemented.[2]
Current changes concerning English language education signify the growing status of English
language and illustrate the desirability of English language education in Taiwan. The desirability of
English language education is multilayered. At one level, it is informed by the global circulation of
linguistic and language acquisition research studies and brain research literature that are related to
a critical period hypothesis of language acquisition (Lenneberg, 1964, 1967; Krashen, 1981, 1985;
Hoffmann, 1997; Birdsong, 1999; Chen, 2001). At another level, the drive towards an early start on
English language learning in Taiwan is related to a present construction of a particular national
imaginary that is related to a Taiwanese interpretation of globalization and ‘appropriate’ modern
education.
In the following sections of this article, a brief discussion on reconceptualizing the desirability
of English language education is presented to understand and analyze the desirability of English in
Taiwan.

The Circulation of a Critical Period Hypothesis in English Learning

Nowadays, many Taiwanese parents buy into the idea of the earlier the better, especially when it
comes to children’s English language learning. This is related to the circulation of a critical period
hypothesis on language acquisition (Penfield & Roberts, 1959; Lenneberg, 1964; Johnson, 1992). In
Lenneberg’s 1964 paper, The Capacity of Language Acquisition, he emphasized that the biological

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Chao-LingTseng

innateness of psychological capacities in language acquisition could lead to a hypothesis of a critical

language learning period.
The critical period hypothesis is associated with a particular assumption related to linear and
homogeneous human development. Lenneberg’s hypothesis on a critical period is closely associated
with human biological growth, such as neurological development. The ability to master a language
is linked with the plasticity of the brain. It is assumed that as one grows and develops from
childhood into adulthood, the loss of brain plasticity hinders one’s ability to master any language,
especially a foreign language. Such assumption and theorization about child development and
human growth has been mobilized in Taiwan to imply that if we miss the ‘teachable’ moment(s),
we lose the optimum opportunity to educate our next generation to become fluent and proficient
English speakers.
Lenneberg’s hypothesis is controversial (i.e. see the work of Marinova-Todd et al, 2000);
Taiwanese parents’ common fear of missing children’s optimum ages in learning a second or
foreign language has far exceeded any critiques or critical questioning on the validity of the critical
period hypothesis. Currently, making or even forcing children to take English lessons outside of
regular school hours or enrolling children in English enrichment classes/programs is deemed a
common parental and normal educational practice in Taiwanese preschool education (Ho & Wu,
2007). In addition, many parents believe that the preschool years are the prime years for learning
English as well as mastering it like a native English speaker.
The hypothesis of a critical period in English language learning has been neither challenged
nor reconceptualized in Taiwan, particularly in teaching and learning English as a second language
in the early years. Many parents and teachers have come to understand English language learning
as a ‘must-have’ curricular subject in preschool education; English language learning plays a key
role in influencing Taiwanese parents’ perception of what counts or qualifies as appropriate and
desirable early childhood education. In short, English has become a taken-for-granted second
language in Taiwan.

Constructing a Contemporary National Imaginary:

the promises of English language education
Working together with the circulation of the critical period hypothesis in supporting the
desirability of English language education in Taiwan is a particular national imaginary which
emphasizes the importance and political-economic power of English. In addition, the desirability of
English is constructed through national (local) and international (global) positioning on the status
of the English language. In Taiwan, the importance of English language is never doubted. As noted
in a government publication: ‘English is the language that links the world, the government should
designate English as a quasi-official language and actively expand the use of English as a part of
daily life’.[3] In conjunction with the launch of the Challenge 2008 national development plan
(Council for Economic Planning and Development, 2002; Executive Yuen, 2002), the Premier
during 2002-05, Yo Si-Kun, also announced that English should be recognized as an official language
of Taiwan in 5 years.[4] The push for English has grown into a national desire by all in Taiwan.
English, as it has been constructed as an ‘international’ and ‘global’ language, is a strongly
desired ‘tool’ that could ‘help’ Taiwan to become internationalized and globalized. However, such
cultural and economic reasoning could be dangerous without problematization. What does it mean
when English is promoted to become an official language in Taiwan? If the addition of English
classes is at the expense of native languages and Mandarin Chinese classes, the gaining of English
language education could ironically equate with the losing of ‘who we are’.

Some Concluding Thoughts

In sum, the desirability of English education in Taiwan has been sturdily constructed through
multiple reasoning systems. From the perspectives of economic planning and development at the
levels of personal interests and national interests, who could possibly reject or refuse the dream
and/or hope for becoming better or prosperous? Thus, the assumption of ‘earlier is better’ becomes
a normal educational practice to help children achieve fluent English. Laced with economic and

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English Language Education in Taiwan

cultural reasoning, the power and the promise of English education has become unbeatable and
reasonable in Taiwan as a new truth for all to desire.
While it seems reasonable and normal for one to desire English and to acquire English
education as early as possible, such a trend and shift in curriculum is not without danger and
should be problematized in that the growing attention to and demand for English education should
not be taken for granted. Questioning and problematizing the desirability of English language
education is not to deny or discriminate against English as a foreign and/or a second language.
Rather, this is to enable us to be critical and vigilant of current trends and popular constructions of
the importance of English education in Taiwan.
While it is fashionable to think of the contemporary world as a ‘global village’ in which a
global or world language is needed for communication, it is problematic to construct English as the
single world language. The debates on whether English is a killer language or the language of the
future are significant.[5] The power of English as a global or world language should be
reconceptualized as it helps to deconstruct the current desirability of English language education in
Taiwan. An important thinking point is that language learning embodies cultural learning. In other
words, the teaching and learning of any language is not just educational but also cultural and
political. As Soto (2005) asserts:
[Language is] a symbol of colonialism that promotes language domination, cultural invasion, loss
of sovereignty, loss of resources, loss of dignity, loss of humanity and silences the voices of
children and ‘others’. ... Language domination impacts the cultural, the social, the spiritual, the
civic, the moral, the economic, and the political. (p. 154)
Language embodies abstract forms of culture. When English becomes pervasive within Taiwanese
education, how is Taiwanese culture being transformed through the promotion of English
education? Recognizing and responding to the ‘needs’ of becoming proficient in English, an early
head start in English within the field of early childhood education seems to be fully embraced by
parents and teachers. However, if we do not problematize the desirability of English language
learning in Taiwan (or any non-English speaking countries), we risk supporting the reproduction of
a dominant narrative on ways of being.

Correspondence: Chao-Ling Tseng, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, School of Education,

The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 556 Teacher Education, 225 N. Mills Street, Madison,
Wisconsin 53706, USA (ctseng3@wisc.edu).

Notes
[1] The current structure of the nine-year compulsory education includes six years of primary school
education and three years of junior school education. In 1968, when the Ministry of Education
decided to extend its previously existing six-year compulsory primary education by adding another
three years of junior high school education for all, English became a required subject area in the
junior high school’s curriculum.
[2] For example, during the school year 1997-98, English as a subject was ‘pushed downward’ island-wide
in Taiwan from the junior high school level (seventh-ninth grades) to the higher elementary school
level (fifth and sixth grades). By the school year 2001-02, English language classes were further
pushed downward to be implemented starting at the thirrd grade island-wide in Taiwan. Moreover,
in some selected metropolitan regions, particularly in Taipei City and Taipei County, English
language education has had an earlier start from first grade since the school year 2006-07.
[3] See http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/4-oa/20020521/2002052101.html, under the section of
‘Cultivate Talent for the E-generation’.
[4] In one of his 2002 public policy address speeches, Yo Si-Kun announced that the English language
should become one of the official languages in Taiwan by 2008. The current official language in
Taiwan is Mandarin Chinese, which is taught as a mandatory language subject in the national
compulsory education system. All government documents, such as public policies, laws, and the
Constitution are written in traditional Mandarin Chinese. While not replacing Mandarin Chinese,
through adding the English language education classes as another mandatory language subject into
the compulsory educational system for all children in Taiwan, the intention is to adopt English as an

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official language. It is projected that by 2008, some official government documents should and will be
circulated in English and English should become a common mode of communication used by all in
Taiwan. In addition, it is important to note that there are multiple ethnic dialects currently being
recognized as ‘mother-tongues’ in the curriculum as optional/selective courses within the
compulsory educational system.
[5] For a detailed discussion, see
http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/diversity/eal/senior4/m5_t1-2b.pdf

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