One does not need to be a math genius to do shopping in a grocery store, but one may have to if he/she is an astronaut. Taiwan is still a Chinese-speaking country, although some have advocated making English its official language. Now we are still working on our English proficiency without many real-life situations to apply it. Some students are lucky to have opportunities to travel study. There are also adults working for international corporations. Besides the needs for study or work, are there any other situations that enable students to use English in daily life?

Therefore, I think it is very natural for English education in school to focus on grammar. To be honest, before students leave school and figure out what career they are going to do, most of them learn for tests.

That is why once they become employees they will try to improve their speaking and listening skills because they need to communicate in English or they want a better pay or position. However, soon they also find that their poor grammar prevents them from being fully communicative because accuracy is not important, yet grammar is. If somehow students remember how English sentences are formed, their problem probably can be solved more easily.

In conclusion, first, I do not support the idea of starting learning English since the first grade because it is not what causes the poor performance of Taiwanese learners. Second, grammar should be respected, which in fact has been recognized in the field of EFL/ESL. Third, what should be changed is the way grammar is taught, and to do this, the government should create more opportunities for learners to use English in daily life, such as speeding up the construction of an English village, and teachers could use multiple tasks to help students understand how grammar can be used in real-life situations and why a specific rule is applied in the situation. Once students understand why, they will make fewer mistakes and be more communicative, maybe accurate at the same time.

1|2|3

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 1000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email