Education Minister Pan Wen-chung has given a report to the Legislature’s education and culture committee on programs designed to boost students’ English proficiency.
During the report on Wednesday, Pan said the education ministry is encouraging middle schools and high schools to use only English in English language classes. He also said the ministry wants schools to use English as the medium of instruction in other subjects too, with the exceptions of Chinese and social studies.
Pan said that in order to make this a practical option, the ministry is helping eight universities that train future teachers set up bilingual education centers. These centers develop teaching materials and techniques.
It also started a program to make working teachers better able to teach in a bilingual environment last year. So far, 150 teachers are enrolled, and the ministry expects to train 1,500 teachers each year in the future. In addition, the ministry may eventually send teachers abroad for short-term training sessions.
Meanwhile, at the university and junior college level, the ministry plans to step up recruitment of native English speaking instructors. It will also work to increase the number of classes taught in only English, including required courses, as well as the proportion of research reports written in English.