Speaker
Description
Taiwan’s bilingual education policy, launched in 2018, required elementary and junior high school teachers to deliver some specific subjects in English, but soon faced issues of teacher shortages, inconsistent qualifications, scarce textbooks, and limited budgets. Universities also questioned their academic rigour and lack of evaluation schemes. In 2025, the government scaled back, allowing teachers to choose their teaching languages. While student English proficiency has risen, doubts remain about sustainability, leaving Taiwan’s bilingual dream an ambitious yet unresolved challenge.
Summary
This presentation will analyze key factors that made Taiwan’s Ministry of Education change its bilingual education policy for public elementary and junior high schools at the beginning of 2025 and argue many issues have to be sorted out if the government wishes bilingual education to be more widely and successfully implemented.
| Teaching Context | College and university education |
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