"I Can Say My ABCs!" English Instruction Goes "Prime" Time

For students in grades 1 and 2, school should finish at midday, but at Chunghsing Primary School in Hsimen District, the grade 2 students are performing an abridged English language version of the play "Cinderella." Their teacher, Shen, says the line "My Prince Charming!" and the young girl playing the part of Cinderella, repeats it after her word for word. Then the young boy playing the prince replies "You are beautiful!" Their audience of classmates breaks into laughter.

After this, the class plays 'Teacher Says.' Speaking in English the teacher tells the children to do various actions: stand up, sit down, touch your hair, touch your nose.... Anyone who gets the action wrong is out.

In today's English lesson, a grade 4 class at Jen Ai Primary School is starting sentences with 'I can.' The teacher explains the basic pattern then the class begins a game of charades. Children mime movements at the front of the class: swimming, dancing, jumping, running etc, and their classmates have to use English to describe what they're doing. Next is story telling time; today's story is about a child who just can't stop sneezing. What is he so sensitive to? Is it dust? a plant? perfume? pepper? the story finishes as the bell sounds to end the lesson. Forty minutes have passed in the blink of an eye.

After 4 pm students wearing the uniforms of Jen Ai, Tunhua, and Chien An primary schools stream into a private English school in a lane off Tunhua South Road. In one classroom seven or eight students look at phonetic symbols on the blackboard and repeat the words after their teacher in a loud chorus, learning the relationship between the phonetic symbols and the letters.

Putting down roots

Just how widespread is this English learning among our primary students?

Mr. Chen lives in Neihu. Four years earlier his daughter, now in grade 3, attended English classes at a well known private kindergarten in Neihu. Every evening just on dusk the kindergarten's minibus would pick up his daughter and take her away to spend two happy hours each day in a "totally American" language environment.

"If your English is good, it gives you an edge. It's essential," says Chen. "I grew up in a rural area, and never had an environment like this. When I made my way into the wider world, I was on the back foot compared to people with good English." He wants his children to be better prepared for life than he was, so like the children of many of his friends and relatives, they began learning English in kindergarten. "As long as we can find the money, at least they won't be left behind at the starting line." Even though the fees for his two children to attend a bilingual kindergarten came to NT$80,000 for just one term, Chen considers it "money well spent."

Mrs. Liu, a mother living on Minsheng East Road recalls some years ago, before English teaching in primary schools started in earnest. Her daughter, then in grade 3, started attending a private English school. She really enjoyed it and she found she was able to listen to English language educational programs on the radio all by herself. "English is definitely an international language, and it's become indispensable for getting by in the world-like being able to use a computer. You simply can't find work without it."

These days learning English is part and parcel of a primary student's life, unlike their parents who first met " A, B, C..." when they began high school.

Following on research done by Chu Hui-mei, head of the English Department at the Taipei Municipal Teachers College, in September, 1997, Taipei City selected 19 primary schools to pilot a grade 3 English program. Together with schools not participating in this pilot program, by the end of 1997 there were already 112 primary schools in Taipei City teaching English (75% of the total).

That same year, Kaohsiung City selected 77 primary schools to implement a comprehensive English language program for grades 5 and 6, while in other areas, such as Taipei County, Ilan County and Yunlin County, the Bureau of Education was giving more urgency to the promotion of English in primary schools.

English language teaching in primary schools is a key plank in a range of curriculum reforms to take us into the new century.

As early as 1996, the Educational Reform Committee of the Executive Yuan proposed that the Ministry of Education include English in the primary school curriculum. After taking office the former Minister for Education, Wu Ching, put forward the idea of a "nine-year integrated curriculum" encompassing primary and secondary education. In 1998, the President of the Academia Sinica, Lee Yuan-tseh, indicated to a meeting of the Science and Technology Committee of the Executive Yuan that because English had been taught in Taiwan as a "discipline" rather than as a "communication tool," Taiwanese who went to study overseas found they were unable to read what their professors had prescribed in the time available. Morris Chang, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, echoed these sentiments, pointing out that compared with Hong Kong and Singapore, the English competency of our high school and tertiary graduates is inadequate for any practical use. This is affecting Taiwan's access to information and acting as a barrier to increasing our productivity. When he was premier, Vincent Siew agreed in principle to introducing English instruction in the earlier years of schooling.

Situational ABC

In actual fact, English for children was already popular all over Taiwan even before these moves. In 1997 associate professor Chang Hsien-ta of the National Taiwan University Linguistics Research Institute investigated whether or not a "second language" was being taught in public and privately run kindergartens in Taipei City and County, and Hsinchu City and County, and found that 79% were doing so. In these kindergartens English was by far the most popular second language, being taught in 77.5%. In Taipei City the figure was 90%.

In the current climate of almost unanimous community support for the expansion of English teaching into early education, the primary schools of Taipei City with its rich resources, were the first to pilot this, but the investment of the parents has also been crucial. Huang Yuan-tai, an administrator at Chunghsing Primary School gives an example: four years ago a parent who had worked in America approached the school, saying that at home they often told their children stories in English, and they wanted the other children to enjoy similar benefits. The school responded positively and for the next two years, gathered students in the middle and elementary grades together in a large group in the school hall each morning in their study hour, and conducted a program. Two years ago, realizing that the local parents had to work in the daytime, the school began holding supplementary after-school classes offering English lessons every Wednesday afternoon for the elementary grades. "The parents are delighted. They think it's far better for their children to be here improving their English than sitting at home in front of a TV."

The current model is very different to how English used to be taught in secondary schools, which was "first learn to read and write, then learn to speak." English lessons for children emphasize situations, fun, and practice.

"We're basically creating the same environment for our children as an American preschooler would have," says Shen Hui-lien, a teacher at Chunghsing Primary School. On Wednesday afternoons she speaks only English with the children. They must ask "May I go to the bathroom?" to get her permission to leave the room when the need arises. "Children in these earliest grades are soak up everything like a sponge. This is the ideal time to establish their listening comprehension and pronunciation."

Jen Ai Primary School has over 100 classes. Eight years ago it was approached by a parent offering to come to the school to teach the students some English songs and tell some English stories. A few years ago, the school began allowing grades 1 to 6 to turn on the TV sets in their classrooms every morning between 8:00 and 8:15, and watch simple English dialogue videos produced by their teachers.

Big classes, little practice

What strikes people as curious is, if their schools have had English classes for a long time now then why do so many students need to go to private language schools?

Chen Chien-hao, another teacher at Jen Ai Primary School, says that at least two-thirds of his more than 600 students are getting extra English lessons outside school.

"If they weren't doing this extra work, they'd never be able to keep up after entering junior high school." According to Mrs. Su, a mother living in Tanshui, many junior high schools include English listening comprehension tests in the entrance examinations and if primary school students don't improve their skills then they simply won't make the grade. In her family the problem is that her son began learning English when he was four, and so when he went to primary school, the English lessons were just too simple for him. And you really need small class sizes for the training of listening comprehension, and this is another thing the schools cannot provide. So the only thing to do is keep on sending him to the private language school, where classes are more ideally sized.

Another mother, Mrs. Chang, who lives on Chunghsiao East Road, recalls what happened a year earlier when her son's school began teaching English. From the very beginning the teacher only spoke English and her son suffered a lot of setbacks. "He just couldn't understand a thing his teacher was saying, and he asked if he could go to a private English school." She couldn't see any other choice and agreed to let him enroll at one nearby.

The Taipei City Government Bureau of Education invited experts to form a working team to visit primary schools and inspect their English instruction programs. It found that for the majority of teachers, the greatest difficulty is the vast range of English levels of the students in a single class. Some have been learning English since very young and find class too easy, and so when the lesson starts their enthusiasm evaporates. For other students meeting English for the first time, however, the lessons are hard going. Added to this is the perennial problem of class sizes being too large, and not enough English classes scheduled-only one or two a week. It's extremely difficult to correct pronunciation problems, or to achieve any educational goals at all, under these conditions.

The parents have a number of concerns. If the teachers only speak English in class it will frighten children who have never learnt English before. Some teachers teach too quickly and some of their students can't keep up, so all parents can do is send their kids to private language schools. Singing and jumping around are not really suitable for the senior grades, and parents hope that teachers will keep in mind the different needs of different age groups.

Parents and teachers both raised the idea of "ability streaming," i.e., different classes for different ability levels, to address the difficulties of large classes. Educators, however, have many reservations. Chu Hui-mei explains, "Every Chinese family is preoccupied with being able to get ahead in the world, but our past experience with ability-based class groupings has taught us some bitter lessons." When students are grouped on the basis of ability, some parents get upset when their children are placed in a lower level group, which makes them lose face. It can also affect the children's confidence. "We have large numbers of students. People need to think about what resources the schools have, and whether they could help in some way." She suggests that schools can organize English Clubs for the more advanced students, and their teachers can provide them with interesting story books which are more demanding. This way, they'll feel that the teacher is giving them some attention, and that their needs are also being catered for.

"Private language schools fill a need for small-group learning." Professor Chang Hsien-ta recommends that teachers use "co-operative learning" methods. For example, divide a large class into groups to discuss what they would buy with NT$100. The more advanced students can lead the discussion, which gives them a sense of participation. But this kind of activity may not succeed the first few times-it takes time to get used to group learning.

With regard to the problems of having too few classes a week and learning very little English, the working group suggested that schools could take advantage of times such as early-morning study hour, cleaning time, and the lunch break to play tapes or practise speaking English, to give students more exposure to English.

Fewer foreign teachers

In the past, English teaching placed too much emphasis on reading and writing, whereas now for most primary school students, "learning to understand and speak is foremost, reading and writing is secondary." Nevertheless many people have reservations about the pronunciation of the English teachers in our primary schools. Private language schools also seem aware of this, and many prominently advertise the fact that they employ foreign teachers. But do the foreign teachers really teach more effectively than our local teachers?

"Many people put the root of the problems they had learning English down to not being able to speak." Chu Hui-mei says that while there are differences it's difficult to say whether foreign or local teachers are better. Native speakers of English "may not understand what it's like for someone learning English as a foreign language and the kinds of problems they face."

Chu Hui-mei took part in the inspection visits to primary schools, and foung that local teachers understand the children's way of thinking and have a much better grasp of the course. Foreign teachers' strengths lie in dialogue and accurate pronunciation. Besides, "We can't put the whole responsibility of English language teaching onto foreign teachers."

Several years ago when there was a shortage of English teachers in the primary schools, many schools employed foreign teachers on an hourly basis, or made staff sharing arrangements with private language schools. But these were stopgap measures. The Ministry of Education has already drawn up a whole range of plans for teacher training. These include establishing English Teaching Departments at teacher training colleges and supplementary education courses at tertiary institutions, allowing graduates who intend to become English teachers in primary schools to obtain official teaching qualifications, and providing further training for qualified teachers who have never taught English, to equip them with appropriate language teaching skills and methods.

The primary school English train has already left the station. What can we look forward to?

Yutsai Primary School in Taipei County did a survey of how parents felt about the primary English teaching program. It found that 52% thought that the goal was to stimulate the students' interest in learning English, and 45% thought it was to establish a solid grounding in English for the children while they were still young.

Professor Chang Hsien-ta says that given the expansion of English teaching into the primary schools, we cannot allow a great gap to open between what's happening in the primary and the secondary schools. Primary schools include a lot of games and activities in their English teaching, and while this is very lively, if all it amounts to is a lot of jumping around and loud pronunciation practice, the children may get a quite incorrect idea of what English is all about. When the day comes that they go to high school, and they have to settle down and read an essay, they could well find that really boring. "Listening, speaking, reading and writing all have their place. None should be overemphasized at the expense of the others."

"The way children learn English now won't be the same as it was for us. Resources have improved tremendously, and how things are done has changed along with the environment. The younger the students, the more essential it is to pay very serious attention to course standards," says Chu Hui-mei. The current educational mantra is "student centered learning," and the teacher's role is extremely important. According to her understanding, more than 80% of the primary school teachers in Taipei City are outstanding. "What we envisage as a reasonable target is for the children to learn to hear and understand-and be able to say-200 words after two years." She wants the children to understand how to use the words, to be willing to use them, and to use them whenever the opportunity arises. She also hopes that they will get a lot of pleasure from reading English storybooks.

"The primary English program is not a subject like mathematics or Chinese. It's something new and it's still finding its place in the curriculum," says Chen Chien-hao, from Jen Ai Primary School. As he sees it, the children must not feel that learning English is putting them under a lot of pressure. If they can see a word and read it aloud, that's fine. They can leave memorizing word lists until they get to high school.

Children come into contact with English all the time. They can learn from The Little English Whiz on television, or read the children's English language magazine EZ Talk. Let's hope they'll feel completely at ease speaking English and enjoy the learning process.

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Time for English class. Taiwanese kids today are beginning English study earlier than ever before.

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Snowman, present, candy, socks... With the words and pictures side-by-side up on the blackboard, the kids grasp immediately that the subject is Christmas. Singing songs is a popular technique for teaching English to kids.

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In both quantity and quality, the English teaching materials of today leave those of before in the dust.

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It has become popular in recent years to send children to academic camps overseas to learn English while getting a look at the big, wide world. (courtesy of The Farmhouse)

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The nice thing about languages is that you can make use of them. For people living in cosmopolitan Taipei, there are lots of opportunities to speak English.

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It's not just the responsibility of schools and teachers to spur children's interest in language. Parents should also look at picture books with their children to get them used to foreign languages.