This is just a straw man argument. No academic really believes that all that is needed is an early start– as if this is the only factor and the quality of education, environment, motivation, ect don’t matter. Of course it is “a bit more complicated than just getting an early start”!

But the Taiwanese government actually goes many steps further and alleges not that it is “a bit more complicated than just getting an early start” but actually argues that English is harmful to children, and bans its presence by law in kindergartens.

There is an enormous logical gulf that separates these two positions, but all too often in Taiwanese government policy good research is substituted for slight of hand where the arguments above are used interchangeably. It is farce, and it is unfortunate. The real issue is the quality of English education that most kindergartens provide, which you have correctly alluded to in other posts, but again the slight of hand removes this from the equation and instead frames the argument around the presence of language programs rather than around their quality.

The result of the ban on rather than regulation of early childhood English education is the creation of a permanent underclass whereby the wealthy send their kids to experimental schools, international schools, bilingual schools that are rich enough to ignore the law, or hire private tutors, ect while the poor and middle class kids are barred by force of law from the same opportunities.

Li Jia, thank you very much for your comments. Language learning is a journey and not a destination. Something I think all students should bear in mind is the fact that there are different registers of language. The language level a student wants to attain needs to in line with the purpose of learning the language.

Andrew, Thank you very much for your interest in my post. I don’t necessarily think that starting at a young age is a bad thing. On the other hand, I have seen this earlier-the-better approach emphasized and it has not yielded very good results; Taiwan continues to be ranked very low internationally when it comes to English language learning. This indicates that there is a variety of other language learning factors that need to be considered. As for looking at the subject of language learning and its relation to a foundation in one’s native language, you might be interested in looking at chapter 2 and 9 of my Ph.D thesis.

Thank you very much for your interest in my post. There is certainly a lot of conflicting research and schools of thought when it comes to language learning. I do agree that language schools are cherry picking to suit their needs and ignoring a lot of the research that may not be in line with their own brand of language learning.

Clarissa, thanks for your comments. Although environment is not the sole determinant in language learning it does play a significant role. I have seen some Taiwanese achieve great English speaking ability without traveling abroad, but this is not the norm. Also, I don’t disagree with working to learn another language in one’s home country. After all, you have to start somewhere. However, I do think achieving a high level of proficiency is a bit more complicated than just getting an early start or manufacturing environments (English Village).

There are a lot of other problems with these pushes. For example, I also strongly feel that kids ought to have a choice about which L2 they learn. We (teachers, parents, citizens) need to bring up these drawbacks and also examine the profit motive involved in the case of testing companies, publishers, and private schools.