There are many things wrong with English education here. My niece attended an excellent elementary school English program and is amazingly proficient in English with an advanced vocab for a Taiwanese student her age. Now she has entered junior high school, and they are making her memorize KK equivalents to English words and testing her on it, treating the KK spellings as gospel instead of a guide. Moreover, the KK often differs from the accent she learned to speak (a West coast American accent). Thankfully, sheâs smart enough to realize how ridiculous the situation is.
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I donât completely disagree with KK. It teaches some valuable phonics concepts and is useful for as an introduction to the IPA. Itâs certainly difficult to learn all of the sounds of English, especially when many of those sounds are vowels and/or not part of your L1. Iâm still piecing together how I introduce phonics to my students so I can appreciate the different approaches.
I am firmly opposed to KK.
If students actually understood how English phonics worked in general, introducing KK at the high school level would be great for accent reduction. Thatâs what the ESL teacher at my uni did with the exchange student class. (Except she used IPA- the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is slightly different but almost the same as KK). It worked well because they were already pretty good speakers and could now learn the difference between previously confused sounds.
The problem is most students in TW donât understand that English words contain letters, which represent sounds (How many of you have had students look at a word like âitâ and say âthisâ? Theyâre just guessing and thus lack the most basic literacy skill). Introducing KK just adds one more thing to their list of worthless skills that arenât helping them become fluent users of the English language (at the early stages of language acquisition)
Iâve had parents of fourth graders beg me to tutor their kids in KK because theyâre appalled that elementary schools donât teach it anymore. They donât like it when I tell them that the only place in English language media that has âKKâ is an old dictionary. You canât pick up Harry Potter and expect to see KK by the words you donât know. You make your best guess how to say âHermioneâ and when youâre wrong, well, someone will hopefully correct you.
Even when I was in elementary school in the US, if there was a ânew wordâ in the science textbook, it was followed by a phonetic spelling, like âinformation [in-fer- mey -sh uh n ]â. If you understand how English phonics work, thereâs no need to learn what sound an upside down e makes or that d3 makes a âjâ sound.
IPA is used by linguists and singers, and the three people left on earth who use textbooks without audio to learn languages. There is no reason to confuse already unmotivated brains with something the average native English speaker doesnât even know exists. Wait til theyâre at an intermediate advanced level at least.
I teach phonics using Nat Geoâs âour world phonicsâ series coupled with Oxford Phonics World. I spend an exorbitant amount of class time teaching phonics and do not accept guesses or âyou havenât taught that wordâ when a word is phonetic. Thereâs too much research out showing that the way American schools require teachers to teach literacy is damaging to the natural acquisition of reading skills, namely âcueingâ, aka straight up guessing what a word is from context instead of sounding it out. This has proven to cause even adults who had literacy help at an older age to be less confident in their reading skills and be slower readers. If thereâs no KK and the student hasnât memorized the word, the only thing they can do is guess. Exactly what researchers have shown is bad for reading acquisition. No, not all words in English are phonetic, but that doesnât mean schools should toss out the whole English alphabet and itâs typical phonics rules because of the exceptions.
As for acquiring sounds that donât exist in Chinese, input, input, input!! The only way to really learn a language is through input. You can teach long e vs short i til youâre blue in the face; if the students arenât hearing native speakers make those sounds in context through audiobooks, recorded dialogues, short videos, cartoons, YouTube videos, and movies, itâs just another thing for them to forget the moment they stand up to leave the room.
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Weâre not that bad, once you get to know us, haha!
I agree that KK is confusing and largely misused, (/i/ vs. (/I/) for example. IPA also has different guidelines: phonemic vs. phonetic transcription. Phonics, in a natural setting for language acquisition is, in my opinion, impossible. That being said, my uni and grad students nearly all use KK as a crutch while cramming for standardized tests.
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KK is useless rubbish. Itâs only used in Taiwan. Listen to the atrocious English pronunciation (or lack of) around here for proof. A convenient system for the fools in elementary schools who teach âelloâ, âeffuâ âacheeâ, âunnâ, âekaseâ and âolangeeâ.
And whatâs this obsession with AMERICAN PRONUNCIATION about, anyway? AmeriKKKa has loads of different dialects. Thereâs no such thing as an âAmerican accentâ. Itâs like saying âspeak with a British accentâ. Which one? London, Manchester, Newcastle or Glasgow? All vastly different.
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Oh but do they know that? I had a guy who spoke fantastic English ask me if I spoke âè±èȘâ (yingyu, as in âspoken Englishâ), because he needed someone to translate a British person who was visiting and no one where he worked (a museum or something) spoke it. He genuinely thought they were as different as ćèȘ Guoyu and ć°èȘ Taiyu. He couldnât seem to wrap his head around me speaking âAmericanâ and other person speaking âBritishâ and both of us being able to understand each other. Itâs like a Beijinger speaking to someone from Taipei? (As someone who has lived both and learned both, I think I can vouch for that).
Iâve also had people (usually parents or older people who want to learn) ask me the difference between the two. Because they see cram schools everywhere, some of which advertise è±èȘ and some çŸèȘ, Iâm hardly surprised they think theyâre different. âWell, the British Empire took over the entire world for a good few hundred years. One of those places was part of North America. In 1776âŠâ
For some reason âAmericanâ is the trendy thing to learn here, but if youâre going to learn English for global use, you need to learn/be exposed to all Englishes, which includes British and Indian for sure. Singlish probs too. But every language on earth has its dialects. Gotta start with somethingâŠmight as well start with the one from the country selling unwanted weapons for exorbitant prices that you build castles in Neihu for.
My solution: spell the words the way the letters are being pronounced.
For example, âelloâ = âLOâ. Have them spell âhelloâ. If they say âelloâ instead of âelâ, you spell it on the board that way, nice and big âheLOLOâ and then look at them, then add a final âoâ. When they try to correct you, tell them they said âL-Oâ, so thatâs what you wrote, then continue writing âLOâ for âlâ until someone eventually says âelâ. Thereâs always someone who knows itâs âelâ. If there isnât, teach them to say it correctly and continue to spell âelloâ as âLOâ until they figure it out.
For ekese, I write âehćŻæ»â and then make an appalled face because they shouldnât be wishing death on âehâ. They get the idea because Iâve already beaten âelloâ to death for them.
And when they donât say vowels when a consonant name has a vowel final sound, like for âgetâ they spell it âgee-teeâ (the âeâ is blended into the âgâ, I write âgtâ and ask where the vowel is in the word. Yeah, they get frustrated, but they also quickly learn that the letter names are not what they think they are.
It doesnât help that the local English teachers continue to teach letter names the wrong way, but were one of my students to have the chance to use English with people who speak English, they would at least have some idea from me of whatâs âcorrectâ. Itâs those baby steps or whatever.
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totally agree, phonics is so important and so overlooked in schools here. Iâve taught every age group here in Taiwan from kindy to adults. Itâs depressing to hear a 25 year old grown adult still saying âeh-guh-suhâ when trying to pronounce âeggsâ
I am leaving Taiwan for good. My contract is not going to be renewed. And looking at the faults of the bilingual program in the public schools, I would rather just stick to teaching EFL. It makes no sense for me to teach in the bilingual program when all the textbooks are
not even bilingual. One of my co-teachers said to me that I have to understand the course and prepare it. True, but how can I understand a course when the entire textbook is in Mandarin? I cannot read or speak Mandarin. Plus I arrived late last September because I had to wait 7 weeks for my work permit to be processed. When I arrived late, they could not expect me to be all that prepared for the school year when I didnât even have the chance to come to Taiwan earlier in August, when I was waiting all that time in August for my work permit to be processed.
I really tried my best in my schoolâs bilingual program. But you cannot expect me to do that good teaching subjects that I am not a specialist in, such as drama or Physical Education. I am not trying to short sell myself, but you see I donât think the public school system is that well equipped for bilingual (Mandarin-English) education, in fact I am not even bilingual to be able to make the bilingual education more effective. I refuse to stress out myself so I think it is in my best interest to leave.
In my next mission, I will be teaching EFL in a public high school in Thailand.
I feel like Iâve seen this before.
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Can you explain to me what KK is?
The last time I wrote on this thread I said I was going to Thailand. Well, that didnât happen because I signed a new contract elsewhere here in Taiwan. Only this time itâs not the Bilingual program. I am only teaching EFL.
This week and 2 weeks ago I have attended a training session and a workshop. There is talk in this jurisdiction about CLIL (Collaborative Language Integrated Learning). That is literally what the Bilingual program is called. Yes, it is based on the new curriculum they are implementing here in Taiwan. There are some things that I do agree with on the new curriculum, but the main thing I do not agree with is CLIL. There needs to be no explanation as to why I disagree with CLIL. MY concern is that if they implement this program here in this local jurisdiction where I am, then they better not assign me to teach in the CLIL. And seeing how I am teaching mainly grade 6 English, I can assure you that if they implement the grade 6 students into CLIL, these grade 6 kids will break their minds out of stress, or perhaps I may as well leave Taiwan for good by 2021 or 2022. Because frankly, I have spoken to other teachers including one Canadian professor who thinks that CLIL is BS. I was at the Taiwan Adventist College Campus for a church service last weekend, I met an American educator there who also says that he is against the bilingual program.
So if I am teaching EFL to my students where I am, I want it to stay that way, and I will have to enjoy this job to the fullest as much as I can because I donât know what will become of me by next year.
Content and Language Integrated Learning.
A pedant writes.
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If one is to have an opinion on a thing, it is helpful that they know what the thing isâŠ
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The problem with CLIL is that it canât work the way Taiwan is trying to implement it. It DOES work (very well) if the learners have a foundation in the language and are able to COMMUNICATE in the language at a basic level. 99.9% of Taiwanese kids donât know what âhow are you?â means, let alone have an ability to communicate on anything else. Throwing them in a dance class in English will be a great way for them to exercise, but they wonât learn English.
It can also work if you have highly motivated learners and TEACHERS WHO ARE âHIGHLYâ TRAINED IN USING IT.
What Taiwan is doing is taking a concept that might be successfully implemented in, say, a culinary school in France. In this example, there are a bunch of adult (or at least 16+ y/o) students who want to learn how to cook and therefore will try their hardest to understand the French-speaking cooking teacher even if they understand no French. Hearing the language repeatedly and then doing the skills with it = TPR, which is a fantastic way to teach/learn language. This doesnât work in TW because the love of learning at all has been squashed out of the kids. They donât care what youâre there to teach, they want to go home and sleep until the day they die. It also doesnât work in Taiwan because effective TPR means NO TRANSLATION PERIOD and Taiwanese teachers are incapable of teaching anything in English without translating it.
Finally, CLIL is not bilingual education. Itâs one of many language teaching strategies that can be used when teaching/learning another language. Like taking a Tai Chi class to improve your already foundational Mandarin. Itâs a supplement to your existing knowledge. If your school has lessons exclusively in English and all you do is bake cookies and do science experiments all day (with instructions and follow up work in English and English only), maybe you could call that CLIL. But only if youâre using very simplified language and giving the kids the chance to repeat the skills and words over and over and over and over some more.
You literally cannot use CLIL as the exclusive method of English teaching and call that âbilingual educationâ. By definition, bilingual ed means that at least 51% of academic classes are taught in the target language. Science class could work, if you did experiments with simple vocabulary every day, but math or literature would literally just be an immersion class. And how are you going to teach kids to read and write in English using CLIL? Few Taiwanese people understand that English is a phonetic language, and reading is not a skill that most people can âjust pick up along the wayâ. There would need to be supplemental work that, at some point, will circle back to just doing workbooks and worksheets and translating everything.
I still thinking sending a letter to the English Veggie (by which I mean President Tsai) expressing our disgust at all the above might be the most effective way to embarrass the morons in charge who know nothing of bilingual ed. CC the letter to the press? This might be face-loosing enough that it would force the TW government to hire people who actually know how to implement bilingual education programs. Like Canadians. Or literally every nation in the EU. Or half of SEA.
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Thanks for the clarification.
If you ask me, if there should be any bilingual schools, these schools would
have to be select high schools, or you could describe them as magnet schools
(like what we call them in Canada), meaning that if any student wants to attend
a high school that is a magnet school for English-Mandarin bilingual education,
they have to try out.
Itâs like for instance, the two magnet high schools in the Peel District School
Board in Canada where I was educated under. In the Peel DSB they have two
magnet schools for arts and culture, my cousin went to one of them. If any
student wants to attend of these magnet schools, they have to try out. That is
what should be done here in Taiwan. Have about one to three magnet high
schools in each school district (depending on the size of these districts), for
bilingual education. For the rest, they need to stick with EFL.
CLIL is great. I learned under it and have been teaching it for ten years.
Thatâs not a powerful argument
That isnât strong evidence
I know nothing of the technical language you guys are using.
All I know is that the children of Taiwan have extremely high expectations placed on them and that pressure is showing.
For the children I interact with. Most children have a foundation level of English. Most high school students have the same foundation level of English. Unless they are self motivated to improve they are happy to pass the exams they are forced to take and forget everything as soon as the exam is over. No learning it taking place. Only passing exams. This saddens me as so much money time and effort is being spent and the outcome is not showing.
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True. Itâs all short term learning they do when they study English to pass an exam.
As a Canadian professor with a PhD from a bilingual university, and having published on CLIL, I think the OPâs issue lies more with local culture than any specific approach to second language educationâŠ
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