Email this article 
TAIWAN’S BILINGUAL NATION POLICY 2030: CONCERNED ISSUES AND SUGGESTIONS / 2030年國家雙語政策之重要問題與建議
Abstract
Since the inception of the new “Bilingual Nation Policy 2030” by the Ministry of Education, Taiwan, it has raised debates and concerns among people. Opinions of scholars and laymen on the new bilingual nation policy issues have been published. But so far, no local or international research papers have been published on how the people of Taiwan perceived it. The present quantitative research investigates the perceptions of people on issues such as if the policy is necessary for every Taiwanese, if the policy will neglect the local languages, if the policy can be achieved by 2030, if enough English teaching hours can be added, if enough budget can be invested, if enough trained teachers can be hired, if non-English major teachers can teach both in English and Mandarin medium by 2030, and what challenges the policy might face on its path. For this purpose, the researcher distributed a self-designed questionnaire including seven questions in which, 171 participants took part. Main findings: 55% of participants think the new policy is necessary for everyone, while 14% of them think the policy will neglect the local languages. However, only 11% of participants believe the policy can be achieved by 2030. 22% and 11% of participants respectively think Taiwan government can add enough English teaching hours and invest enough money. While 14% of participants think Taiwan government can hire enough trained teachers, and 77% of them think the policy will face many challenges like insufficient budget, lack of trained teachers and lack of equipment.
自從教育部提出“2030年雙語國家”政策以來，人們對此話題的辯論和關注程度突然升高。針對新的雙語政策，不論來自專家或是民間，各界已經發表了他們對這議題的意見。針對島內民眾對政策的觀感如何，直到目前為止，國內外還沒有學術論文的發表。本文採用量化研究，調查一般民眾對雙語政策的觀感，例如：該政策是否人人都需要它?會不會排擠母語？能不能在2030年達成雙語國家的目標?能不能增加足夠的英語教學時數? 能不能挹注充裕的經費？訓練有素的教師足夠嗎? 不是英語本科的老師們，能不能在2030年之前，同時具備母語與外語的授課能力？在施行的過程當中，可能會發生的什麼問題或挑戰?研究的目的，經由筆者親身設計的問卷，一共七題，由171名受訪者填寫完畢。主要發現如下：（一）有55%的受訪者認人人需要雙語政策，其中也有14%的受訪者也認為它會排擠母語。（二）只有11%受訪者相信該政策可能於2030年達成目標。（三）分別有22%與11%受訪者認為政府可能增加足夠的英語教學時數，與挹注充足的經費。（四）雖然有14%的受訪者認為政府可能聘用足夠的訓練有素的老師們，也有77%的受訪者認為該政策的實施將會面臨預算不足、缺乏培訓的教師，設備不足等諸多挑戰。
Article visualizations:
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Batchelor, T. & Lin, R. (2020, Nov. 30). Taiwan’s bilingual nation policy is well intended, but reflects cultural colonialism. Radical Perspectives on Taiwan and the Asia Pacific. New Bloom Magazine. https://newbloommag.net/2020/11/30/2030-bilingual-nation-policy/
Byca, M. (2011). Bilingual geography education models through the English language in Polish schools. Works and Geographical Studies, 48, 187–196. https://wgsr.uw.edu.pl/wgsr/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Byca.pdf
Chin, J. (2022, April 6). English-language classes to receive further subsidies. Taipei Times. Retrieved from https://taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2022/04/06/2003776085
Colin Baker (2001). Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism (3rd ed.). Biddles Ltd.
Cummins (2009). Bilingual and immersion programs. In: The Handbook of Language Teaching, Cummins J. (Ed.).
Czura, A., Papaja, K., & Urbaniak, M (2009). Bilingual Education and the Emergence of CLIL in Poland.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314869723_Bilingual_Education_and_the_Emergence_of_CLIL_in_Poland
Czura, A, & Papaja, K. (2016). Bilingual education project in Poland: A summary. In: Modernizing Education Practice: Perspectives in Content and Language Learning (CLIL), Papaja, K. & Swiatek, A. (Eds.), pp. 37-55. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314869723_Bilingual_Education_and_the_Emergence_of_CLIL_in_Poland/citations
Graaff, de R., & Costache, O. (2020). Current developments in bilingual primary education in the Netherlands. In Child Bilingualism and Second Language Learning. Multidisciplinary perspectives (pp. 137-165). John Benjamins.
Edwards, A. (2014). English in the Netherlands Functions, Forms and Attitudes. PhD Dissertation. University of Cambridge.
Eliassen, I. (2021). Language Diplomacy and Bilingual Ambitions in Taiwan. The Global Taiwan Brief, Vol. 6, Issue 15. https://ketagalanmedia.com/2021/09/07/language-diplomacy-and-bilingual-ambitions-in-taiwan/
Ferrer, Alessandra, Tzu-Bin, Lin (2021). Official bilingualism in a multilingual nation: a study of the 2030 bilingual nation policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development.
García, O. (2009). Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Guo, T., Liu, Y., & Wang, X. (2022, March). Implications of Singapore's bilingual education policy on bilingual policy in Tibet (J). Progress in Education, 12(3):834 https://doi.org/10.12677/AE.2022.123133
Hélot, C., & Cavalli, M. (2017). Bilingual education in Europe: Dominant languages. In: Garcia, O., Lin, A., & May, S. (Eds.) Bilingual and Multilingual Education. Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02324-3_26-3
Li, W. (2012). Conceptual and methodological issues in bilingualism and multilingualism research. In T. Bhatia & W. Ritchie (Eds., Second Edn.). The Handbook of Bilingualism and Multilingualism. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, Ltd, (pp. 26-51).
Maljers, A. (2007). The Netherlands. In A. Maljers, D. Marsh, & D. Wolff (Eds.), Windows on CLIL (pp. 130-138). The Hague: European Platform for Dutch Education.
Mearns, T., & De Graff, R. (2018). Bilingual education and CLIL in the Netherlands: The paradigm and the pedagogy. Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics, Volume 7, Issue 2, pp. 122 - 128
Ministry of Education, (2014, Section 5). Precautions should be paid for the establishment of local language elective courses in national primary and secondary schools. Taiwan’s Educational Laws and Regulations. Retrieved from https://edu.law.moe.gov.tw/LawContentHistory.aspx?hid=33128
Nikula, T. (2016). CLIL: A European approach to bilingual education. In N. V. Deusen-Scholl, & S. May (Eds.), Second and Foreign Language Education (pp. 1-14). Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-02323-6_10-1
Nuffic. (2020, Aug. 8). Bilingual education in Dutch schools: a success story. https://www.nuffic.nl/sites/default/files/2020-08/bilingual-education-in-dutch-schools-a-success-story.pdf
O’Sullivan, Barry (2021). Shaping Taiwan's Language Policy. English Language Assessment and Development Consultant, British Council. Taiwan. Retrieved from https://www.britishcouncil.org.tw/unit/Developing-a-Language-Policy
Romaine, Suzanne (2002). The impact of language policy on endangered languages by Suzanne Romain. International Journal of Multicultural Societies. Volume 4, No. 2.
Singh, N. & Wappel, M. (2021, 4 Oct.). Lessons for Bilingual Taiwan - the case of India. Common Wealth magazine. Retrieved from https://english.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=3090
“Taiwan passes extra $8.6bn defense budget as China threat grows” (2022, Jan. 11). Aljazeera News. Retrieved from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/11/taiwan-passes-extra-defence-budget-as-china-threat-grows.
Teng Pei-ju (28 Jan. 2022). Legislature approves NT$2.25 trillion central government budget. Focus Taiwan CAN English News. Retrieved from https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202201280021
Watt, L. (11 March, 2021). Aiming to Create a Bilingual Nation. Taiwan Business Topics. Commonwealth magazine. Retrieved from https://topics.amcham.com.tw/2021/03/aiming-to-create-bilingual-nation/
World Economic Forum (15 Nov., 2019). Which countries are best at English as a second language? Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/countries-that-speak-english-as-a-second-language.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejlll.v6i2.363
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2022 Shantikumar Meetei Ngangbam
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The research works published in this journal are free to be accessed. They can be shared (copied and redistributed in any medium or format) and\or adapted (remixed, transformed, and built upon the material for any purpose, commercially and\or not commercially) under the following terms: attribution (appropriate credit must be given indicating original authors, research work name and publication name mentioning if changes were made) and without adding additional restrictions (without restricting others from doing anything the actual license permits). Authors retain the full copyright of their published research works and cannot revoke these freedoms as long as the license terms are followed.
Copyright © 2017-2023. European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies (ISSN 2559 - 7914 / ISSN-L 2559 - 7914). All rights reserved.
This journal is a serial publication uniquely identified by an International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) serial number certificate issued by Romanian National Library. All the research works are uniquely identified by a CrossRef DOI digital object identifier supplied by indexing and repository platforms. All the research works published on this journal are meeting the Open Access Publishing requirements and standards formulated by Budapest Open Access Initiative (2002), the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing (2003) and Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities (2003) and can be freely accessed, shared, modified, distributed and used in educational, commercial and non-commercial purposes under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Copyrights of the published research works are retained by authors.
