English As A National Language in Taiwan: Public Sentiment

This is a student submission co-authored with Prof. Timothy S. Rich, an associate professor of political science at Western Kentucky University. His main area of research focuses on the electoral politics in East Asian democracies.

Language has been an important topic of debate in the run up to Taiwan’s 2020 presidential elections. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)’s presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu’s wife Lee Chia-Fen questioned the value of learning Taiwanese (Tai-gi) in schools, leading to considerable backlash from Taiwanese speakers and indigenous communities as well as claims that this amounted to an attack on multiculturalism. Meanwhile, the Tsai administration introduced mother tongue curriculum targeting Southeast Asian immigrant communities to encourage multilingualism.

Aside from the controversy over local languages and immigrant languages, another language plays a significant role in Taiwan: English. The Ministry of Education aims to make Taiwan into a Mandarin-English bilingual nation by 2030. After the initial policy announcement, further details were released regarding exact planning policies:English classes in elementary and junior high schools are to be conducted entirely in English, providing an immersion environment for students. In 2018, the Ministry of Education announced its intent to train 5,000 Taiwanese teachers to provide the desired English immersion classes by 2030. However, few updates have occurred since initial announcement.

The policy initially included a plan to make English into a second national language in Taiwan. While this ultimately failed due to the high costs of translating all government documents to English, other planned aspects of the policy remain the same. To be effective, any English language policy requires public support.

Yet, little attention has been placed on public perceptions of these policies. One survey, released around the time of initial unveiling of the new English policy, indicated that 87% of Taiwanese supported English as a second official language. However, this survey addressed only one aspect of a deep and complex issue.

The general public often prefers native English speakers as English language teachers due to their native-sounding accents and fluency with the language. Taiwanese teachers, on the other hand, may have accents when they speak English and use non-native phrasing.

However, these instinctive preferences for native speakers do not always follow linguistic research on the matter. For instance, English speakers from the American South speak very differently from English speakers in New York or Ireland. Because even native English speakers have many different kinds of accents, it is inaccurate to say that native English speakers are better English teachers because they have a standard accent. Additionally, accent is often the hardest aspect of a language to perfect. Many adults who speak a second language have excellent grammatical skills but strong accents. Therefore, excessive focus on accent may be detrimental to students’ overall language learning experience.

Public sentiment on English policy

As part of our broader web survey on Taiwanese public opinion conducted through PollcracyLab at National Chengchi University’s (NCCU) Election Study Center, we asked five hundred and two respondents four questions related to English language policy.

First, we asked “In your opinion, should Taiwan establish English alongside Mandarin as a national language?”

Over two-thirds of respondents, 71.1%, stated their support for English policies, although a clear distinction emerges on partisan lines, with KMT supporters more supportive than their DPP counterparts (77.5% versus 65.6%). Surprisingly, those supportive of eventual unification with China were more supportive of English policies (75%) compared to pro-independence respondents (67.6%).

Our previous survey on the topic, conducted in November of 2018, found that 71.7% of respondents were supportive of establishing English as an additional national language in Taiwan, although then DPP supporters were more supportive than their KMT counterparts (80.4% vs. 71.2%). Majorities were supportive across all gender and political divisions, with pro-unification Taiwanese the least supportive at 66.04% in favor of English as a national language. Despite the variation in support across the surveys, our results suggest a general consensus on English language policy.

Secondly, we asked respondents to evaluate the following statement on a five-point scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree: “I would prefer an American teacher of English to a Taiwanese teacher of English.”

Little consensus emerges, with nearly half of respondents giving an ambivalent answer (46.4%), with nearly equal rates disagreeing (25.3%) and agreeing (28.1%). We did find that those supportive of English as a national language were more likely to prefer an American English teacher than those who did not (31.7% versus 19.3%).

The results suggest that this particular framing—an American teacher rather than other native or non-native English speakers—is not particularly salient even if Taiwanese are generally supportive of English promotion. Likewise, these results may be a function of experiences, with the assumption that if students studying English or their parents were asked this question, they may have stronger responses due to their real life experiences. 

“I would prefer an American teacher of English to a Taiwanese teacher of English” (by Isabel Eliassen)

Third, we asked the following open-ended question about teaching: “What qualifications do you believe should be required for foreigners who are native English speakers to teach English in Taiwan?” For simplicity, we generated a word cloud that only includes those answers mentioned by at least two respondents, although the excluded answers largely make similar claims.

Seventeen respondents said teaching qualifications should be required, and a further three specified an English teaching license was needed. Eleven respondents said a “major” and seven said a “license,” presumably in teaching. Interestingly, four respondents said the teacher should be able to speak Chinese, indicating that some Taiwanese do not believe pure immersion classrooms with foreign teachers are the best method of English education. These opinions fall in line with current government regulations for foreign English teachers in Taiwanese public schools.

Certification is the largest top priority (by Isabel Eliassen)

Finally, we asked respondents to rank order their preference for who they would prefer as an English teacher. The options were:

1. A Taiwanese person with an English teaching degree
2. A Taiwanese person with a general teaching degree
3. A Taiwanese person with a college degree
4. A native English speaker with an English teaching degree
5. A native English speaker with a general teaching degree
6. A native English speaker with a college degree
7. A native English speaker

For simplicity, we present the top three preferences below. Our findings show and unambiguous preference for native English speakers, preferably with an English teaching degree, but that a Taiwanese person with similar academic credentials are preferred over native English speakers.

The option “a native English speaker with an English teaching degree” was the first choice of 57.4% of respondents, while 25.1% of respondents chose the equally qualified Taiwanese person (“a Taiwanese person with an English teaching degree”), together totaling 82.5% of respondents. Thus, for many respondents, an English teaching degree was the most important factor, while the teacher’s native language was a secondary concern. This means some Taiwanese people understand the importance of properly trained teachers and are not only concerned with teachers’ accents.

On the other hand, 15.2% of people’s first choice teacher went to native English speakers with other qualifications or no qualifications, while only 2.4% of people selected Taiwanese with other qualifications. Therefore, outside of teachers with an English teaching degree, a preference for native English speakers becomes apparent.

Despite the issues linguistic research has discovered with untrained native English speakers serving as language teachers, they are still widely coveted in English classrooms abroad due to their accents, and Taiwan is no exception. While this study finds that Taiwanese have some preference for native English speakers as English teachers, it does not address how Taiwanese perceive “Standard English” or what varieties of English they consider more desirable. This study does not address teachers’ gender and ethnicity, factors which have been known to influence perceptions of teachers. Therefore, more research on this topic is needed in order to paint a clear picture of Taiwanese perceptions of English teachers.

As Taiwan becomes a more global country, English will play an important role. If Taiwan continues to ally itself closely with the United States, English language skills will play a critical role, aiding tourism, education, and political relationships between the US and Taiwan. Taiwanese businesses will also need English to become internationally competitive. A better understanding of Taiwanese perceptions and preferences regarding English will help the government address public concerns and construct policy Taiwanese support.