The education ministry has announced a new initiative to help Taiwan meet its goal for English language proficiency by 2030. The plan involves having English language departments at Taiwan's universities help elementary school students in remote areas.
All of the university students in this program have scored over 800 on the English TOEIC exam or passed an advanced level on the GEPT. These university students will be equipped with materials from the education ministry and use methods like learning English from popular music to improve the English skills of these young children.
The head of the ministry's elementary school department Liao Man-yun says that the young students will learn from fun programs like English karaoke, where they will practice filling in missing words to well-known English songs. She says this will be a more interesting way for students to learn English compared to traditional study methods.
The ministry says that currently over 200 university students are ready to work with over 460 elementary school students from 46 different schools. The ministry anticipates raising the number of university students in the program to about 400 next year. In addition, the ministry will make plans to host English camps during summer and winter vacations for students in these remote areas to enhance their English abilities.