Earlier this month, the media devoted massive coverage to the new policy related to the General English Proficiency Test (GEPT).
According to the China Times, Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (
In another report with a sensational headline -- "Taiwanese students' English ability is poor, lags behind in Asia" -- the newspaper quoted statistics from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) which showed that Taiwan ranked third from the bottom among the Asian countries in terms of the Taiwanese students' average score for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) between July 2001 and June 2002.
All English teachers and parents must have felt very sad when reading this. They must have wondered what exactly has gone wrong with our English education.
But we would like to offer our personal opinion and an explanation of the ETS figures.
We assume that the above numbers provided by the ETS are correct. But we must understand that when making a statistical comparison, we have to follow an important principle: compare only things which are based on certain similar conditions.
If we closely examine the TOEFL scores and rankings of the 15 major Asian countries, we find at least two different conditions in the comparison.
First, some of the countries -- including Singapore, India, the Philippines and Malaysia -- have made English one of their official languages. These countries all came out on top in the test.
Second, the sources of students who took the test were different.
For example, the population of Taiwan is about one-fifty-seventh that of China. But the number of Taiwanese students who took the test (25,443) is in fact higher than the number of Chinese students (22,699). Most of the Chinese students who took the test were likely the country's elite students.
By simply taking a superficial look at the quantitative statistics we may not be able to see the whole truth. Therefore, discussion of student quality is also necessary.
If we really want to understand Taiwanese students' English abilities compared to those of other Asian students, a more suitable evaluation is the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) Test -- an internationally standardized English assessment -- as mentioned in a Liberty Times report.
Or perhaps the ETS should also provide the percentages of all test takers' educational levels, not just their TOEFL scores.
Of course, from an educational perspective, we certainly hope that our English education can reach the high standards set by the Ministry of Education to boost the public's English ability. After all, this is the primary goal that Taiwan English instruction must strive for. It is hoped that this article can encourage all our English teachers, as well as those who enthusiastically promote English education here.
Hopefully, Taiwanese students' English ability will come out on top very soon through our collective efforts.
Larry Ting is a professor emeritus at National Kaohsiung Normal University and a consultant to the education ministry 's National English Proficiency Test for All on the Web project. Chuang Yuang-shan is a professor of English at the same university and a member of the ministry's English Education Promotion Committee.