DEAR STUDENTS AND TEACHERS

Since 2011, New Taipei City has been pushing local elementary schools to conduct bilingual lessons for their students, introducing foreign teachers and staffs, building an international environment for our next generation, in order to develop competitive talents.

The project started with five schools, and gradually expanded to 14 schools in 2017. Each of the participating schools has their own special features regarding bilingual courses. For instance, Longpu Elementary School emphasizes on group works, offering extensive English classes for students who show interests. Paiyun Elementary School combined foreign teachers and voluntary parents to provide English classes in the area of arts and literature. Touhu Elementary School sees the importance of helping overseas born students to adapt local education, by arranging foreign and local teachers to give independent courses for the student on language learning.

It is important to understand that the project aims to provide an English learning environment for the children. Learning English does not necessarily happen only in English classes, but can be practiced in other subjects of learning, also in other forms such as English broadcasting, journals, or clubs. It has been shown that higher grade students found it helpful after this approach has been applied.

New Taipei City expects to construct an appropriate roadmap of bilingual education for the city by this project. In the future, combining the experience accumulated with right policy, strong faculty, and teaching resources, elevate the education quality not only for the students, but also for the teachers.