In the News

Education ministry urges teachers to study English

• Publication Date：06/16/2009
• Source： China Times

Taiwan’s elementary school teachers must take the high-intermediate level of the General English Proficiency Test in preparation for 2011’s English Curriculum Guidelines for Elementary Schools, according to the Ministry of Education.

Director-general of the MOE’s Department of Elementary Education, Yang Chang-yu, said that the ministry will cover GEPT costs as a way of encouraging teachers to take the test. Teachers must sit the high-intermediate level so that their listening and speaking abilities are good enough to teach the new guidelines. The MOE will also expedite plans to included information about educators’ English proficiency on their teaching licenses.

Vincent Chang, convener of the curriculum guidelines and professor of English at National Taiwan Normal University, said the MOE’s August 2011 guidelines emphasized listening and speaking, and if teachers could not pass the GEPT, they may not qualify for a teaching license.
The NTNU professor said that when he was at school, listening and speaking were not highlighted in English courses. Students had to memorize vocabulary and this made learning a painful process. Chang said that nowadays, many pupils speak good English and it is the teachers who are under the gun.

According to Chang, the ministry originally expected teachers to pass the GEPT’s advanced level, but after review, the requirement was dropped to high-intermediate. He also said that if the pronunciation of teachers is not up to scratch, they will not qualify.

Wang Jia-pin, director of the National Teachers’ Association Department of Research, said that currently, the only requirement for elementary school English teachers is a teaching diploma, and there is a huge discrepancy in quality between Taiwan’s cities and counties.

At present, the MOE’s requirement is acceptable as it is willing to pay the GEPT fee, Wang said. But if the ministry makes passing the high-intermediate level test mandatory, this will be a problem. (WFW-JSM)