Moving Towards a More Balanced English Teaching: A Case from Taiwanese EFL Classrooms

In recent years, learning English has become a national movement. This article examines the national K-12 English curriculum in Taiwan, with specific criticism offered against some the prevailing practices that occur in Taiwanese classrooms. Influenced by the philosophy of essentialism and by an institutional regard for college and high school entrance requirements, many Taiwanese teachers spend their time teaching to the tests. But the tests only assess a partial range of skills and knowledge that successful language learners need. Teaching is not neutral. So if we examine the implicit curriculum, we could begin to appreciate some of the latent messages sent by schools in Taiwan, including important ones about reading and writing skills and the attitudes toward learning. Even the register of speech varieties and the sociolinguistics aspects of language play some role in the implicit curriculum. At last, the implications of ACTFL standards for language teaching and learning are discussed to further guide the English curriculum in Taiwan.