Home

Ma promises to set up a national `English village'

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, left, plays a pilot and speaks in English with schoolchildren during a visit to the Taoyuan English Village yesterday. PHOTO: LEE JUNG-PING, TAIPEI TIMES

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou vowed yesterday to establish a national "English village" to promote English education.

During a visit to the Happy Elementary School in Taoyuan County, Ma unveiled his English education platform aimed at strengthening "practical English teaching" in the country.

Ma said he would like to establish a national "English village" -- modeled after South Korea's experience -- that would coordinate activities among "English villages" in each city and county in Taiwan.

The English village in Taoyuan County, for example, could offer one-to-two-day study tour programs for all fifth graders in the county every semester, while sixth, seventh or eighth graders could participate in a one-week English program in the national English village, he said.

Such an English-learning environment can be established through collaboration between the government and civic groups, he said.

Taiwanese students have not been able to make significant progress in English learning because they do not have a "context" in which they can sharpen their English skills through frequent practice, he said.

Experimental English learning programs can also be run in small elementary schools in remote areas, he said, adding that these could help bridge the English-ability gap between students in cities and townships.

If these experimental programs prove to be a success in small schools, they could further be developed into small English villages, he said.

When approached by reporters later, Ma said he believed fifth grade is the best time for elementary schoolchildren to study English.

He said he was opposed to having kindergarten children spend the whole day learning English because they should master Mandarin before they learn any second language.

Ma also said it was unnecessary and unfeasible to make English an official language.