The China Post
Date: June 27, 2017
By: The China Post
Government rules for how and when English is taught are proving highly unpopular, according to a poll
(CNA)
released Sunday.
About 75 percent of those polled say it’s “unreasonable” for the government to restrict teachers from teaching English pronunciation using zhuyin, Taiwan’s phonetic system, the Huang Kun-huei Foundation said at a press conference.
About 70 percent of respondents said it was “unreasonable” for the government to require that English lessons begin at the third grade, which they claimed was too late.
Hsu Li-chuan (許麗娟), an official from Education Ministry’s K-12 Education Administration, said the decision to start formal English instruction at the third grade was based on the research of experts and scholars and had been the policy for more than a decade.
Addressing the suggestion that English lessons begin in kindergarten, Hsu said the kindergarten should not be the same as what takes place in elementary schools. [FULL STORY]