台湾における小学校英語教員の養成 : その現状と課題

Abstract

本稿では､台湾における小学校英語教育の導入経緯と現状について､英語教員の状況に注目しながら考察する｡具体的には､英語教育導入により多くの英語教員が必要になった状況に､政府がどのように対応し､これに対して教員を採用する学校がどのように対処したかを明らかにする｡ これにより英語教育を小学校に導入する際の教員に関する問題点と対策を明らかにする｡

This paper examines the current situation of Taiwan's primary school English teacher training program. Primary school homeroom teachers there used to teach all subjects. In the academic year 2001, English became a required subject in primary schools. Besides adding a Teaching English to Children program in the current teacher training program, the Ministry of Education has also started an urgent Primary English teacher training program. Thus English in Taiwan is being taught by specially trained teachers. However, not all of these teachers have the chance to teach in primary schools. Because primary schools have the authority to hire teachers, they usually prefer to train their own instead of hiring new ones. Furthermore, most English teachers tend to work in the metropolitan areas. Thus, the problem of the discrepancy between cities and rural locales has become severe. Country schools have a great demand for English teachers. To solve this problem, county governments have implemented diverse methods, such as hiring native speakers, setting up a post-bachelor program, developing a second-skill training program, and encouraging teachers to take the English proficiency test. After reviewing the problems in Taiwan, it is to be hoped that this paper will make a positive contribution to the primary school English education in Japan.