1.2.2 English in Taiwan
The situation with English is no less complicated than those with local languages. Just as seen in the advertisement, speakers are exposed to information-packed advertisements about English. Though speakers are entitled to evaluate the advertisement as either appealing or unconvincing, the existence of the advertisement speaks volume for the ideological
process of English in Taiwan. The language has been generally treated as fundamentally
‗foreign‘ but important. Chen (2010) notes that as a foreign language English is still used by a
comparatively small number of speakers and in restricted domains. The perceived instrumental value which English is thought to possess surpasses its actual use (S.-C. Chen 2010). Its perceived importance is probably best evidenced in parents‘ eagerness for their children to master English. Parents expect their children to start learning the language at a young age (Y.F. Chang 2008). Moreover, undergraduates in Taiwan who are preparing themselves to enter labor market believe English to be the ticket to move up the social ladder and to enter the global community as intellectuals (S.-y. Huang 2006). Exposure to English at the receiving end and for instrumental purposes probably best describes how English is seen in Taiwan. As far as language production is concerned, English lexical insertion in Taiwanese- or Chinese- dominated discourse is frequent. On the study of conventionalized codeswitching in Taiwan, Wasserfall (in press 2021) finds that the common English borrowings in the Chinese contexts have been conventionalized. For example, the word ‗fu‘
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(pronounced as [fju:]) to refer to ‗feeling‘ undergoes tonal change. The verb ‗po‘ for ‗post‘ is
adjusted (Wasserfall in press 2021). Nonetheless, codeswitching at daily sectors can potentially invite negative evaluations. A trendy expression, 撂英文 lao yingwen, labels the
perceivably insincere, pretentious and inauthentic use of English (Su in press 2021).
English learning has come a long way to establish the social recognition it enjoys nowadays. According to S.-C. Chen (in press 2021), English was taught as a required subject since 1968, but English-in-education could date back as early as the Japanese colonization period. Before people could realize, the use of English had already connected to internalization and globalization (S.-C. Chen 2010). Although other foreign languages started to thrive, English still occupies an eminent position for foreign language learning, as S.-C.
Chen (in press 2021) states and as my earlier study on interview data (Lee 2012) shows. Tsao (2008) reasons that the government‘s attempt to brand Taiwan as the center of Asian-Pacific business was practiced via building Taiwan as an English-friendly environment for international trade. The yearning to gain global visibility, according to Tsao (2008), is a consequence of Taiwan‘s obscure political state with China. English was originally incorporated only in middle school curriculum until 2001. In 2001, English education started in the fifth year in elementary school. This policy celebrated an earlier-than-ever exposure to English in school education. The belief that early exposure to English is beneficial furthered English-in-education when English education started in the third grade in elementary school
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in 2003 (Tsao 2008). The government has kept telling its citizens, through language management, the increasing importance of English by lengthening the class hours of English in school curriculum. English gradually plays a more critical role in the selection and elimination in education and labor market in Taiwan, just as discussed by Song (2011) in the South Korean context.
A capitalist view of language and its influence on price-tagging see prevalence of a language as a corollary of competition under free trade. In neoliberal view, languages are openly available for all language consumers to choose from. Nonetheless, Price (2014) states that acquiring English is more of a necessity than a choice in Taiwan and that the presumed choice is never equally available to all. When English is implemented in education, as Price explains, English language education manifests two contesting ideologies. First, when it is taught as a required subject, acquiring English becomes mandatory for all students, an ideology that Price (2014) terms ‗English for all.‘ Second, as English language education in
Taiwan has been severely influenced by resources provided by the government and by students‘ own familial background, Price finds that English learning is also socially stratified.
‗English for all,‘ according to Price‘s discussion (2014), is ‗English for a few‘ in essence. The
similar situation is also observed in higher education, where the approach of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) is treated as a measure to promote English, to boost international competitiveness and ranking, and to recruit more international students.
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Professors could have higher hourly pay and universities could apply for extra funding if EMI is practiced. However, only universities that are competitive enough to have received
sufficient funding previously could afford to conduct EMI (S.-C. Chen in press 2021). The view corresponds largely to Park and Wee‘s (2012) claim that English learning reflects and
reproduces social inequality. These findings reveal that academic attention to English in the Taiwanese context should critically reflect on what has been taken as ‗nothing wrong,‘ so as to capture the meaning-making as dynamic and ideological and to make social contributions with the findings. English tends to be separated from the discussion on local languages or national language planning as a ‗foreign‘ language, just as this study does in reviewing the sociolinguistic background of Taiwan. However, the study will present that from lay perspectives, the then implementation of Japanese and Chinese and the current implementation of English could show perceived similarities in their ideologizing process.