Chang Wu-chang, a professor of English at Taiwan Normal University, said that the future English program at elementary schools must stress the students' ability to understand spoken English as well as to speak the language because this will make learning English easier.

Elementary school authorities in Taipei pointed out that teachers with only the "higher-middle" level in English proficiency are not sufficiently qualified to teach. They asserted that "high-level English qualifying tests" are needed.

However, elementary school principles in remote areas in the countryside complained about the difficulty of getting any kind of English teachers, let alone instructors of "higher-middle" or "high" levels. Several primary schools around Mt. Ali, for example, share only one English teacher who passed the qualifying examination at the higher-middle level. Therefore, they suggested that different areas adopt different plans.

A few vital issues are involved in English teaching in Taiwan. First, it has long been known that one of the weakest points of local English programs is its lack of resources required to develop students' listening and speaking abilities.

While impartation of grammar and vocabulary can be achieved through the utilization of ordinary tools such as textbooks and dictionaries, the training of speech and listening needs a special environment in which the instructor, preferably a native speaker or a professionally trained person specializing in teaching English as a second language, must master the pronunciation and intonation and the usage of American-English as it is spoken everyday by ordinary Americans.

Thus, students need the opportunity to get in touch personally with English-speaking people or to have access to an audio-visual lab. Not many of them are so lucky and privileged.

A noted scholar and columnist, recently writing in a major local newspaper, recalled his own experience learning English in school. He said while studying in Taiwan he used "stupid" methods to memorize vocabulary and grammar, and through vigorous self-study and extensive readings he began to see a "very big, big world," which in turn prompted him to study English harder in order to go overseas to see the "big world" in person.Even though he had not received sufficient training in listening and speaking, he managed to acquire the necessary English proficiency in the United States with the rich vocabulary and grammar he had learned in Taiwan and with the help of the environment at Harvard. Hence, the columnist concluded that he did not support the idea that the English program in Taiwan should emphasize listening comprehension and speech.

Educational institutions here generally lack the resources to offer students satisfactory training in listening and speech. Consequently, the columnist asserted, such a policy as recommended by scholars above, will only result in inequality in education by depriving many highly motivated and yet underprivileged students of their opportunity to receive better education as well as dampening their zeal to pursue advanced studies abroad.

The writer's argument does have some justification. The significance of enhancing the student's ability in listening comprehension and speaking, however, should not be ignored. Since teaching English grammar and vocabulary and teaching how to speak the language differ considerably in nature and methodology, it is, therefore, suggested that conversation courses, apart from regular programs, should be offered at elementary schools so that children may have the best opportunity to learn to speak good English in the early years of their lives when they have the highest capacity for learning.

Discrepancies do exist between urban and rural areas in almost all aspects of human affairs, and education is certainly no different. But, apparently, a responsible government should not treat any group of its residents as "second-class citizens" by providing them with inferior education for any reasons. Thus, the Ma Ying-jeou administration must find ways to staff all elementary schools, wherever they are, with capable English teachers.

All governments in the world have the duty to give all its citizens the best education possible with equal opportunities. It may mean that the authorities concerned need to spend more money on education.

In the case of English teaching in Taiwan, the Ma administration must be ready to bear the increasing cost of hiring more qualified instructors for far-away areas, particularly those with expertise in teaching English conversation, as well purchasing the expensive equipment necessary to support the program. Therefore, the current policy of indiscriminate and staggering spending on free lunches for students should be reconsidered with the money thus saved to subsidize comprehensive and high-quality English-teaching programs for all those who need them.