Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Volume.8 Number4 December 2017 Pp 23-38
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol8no4.2
The Ideology of the-Best-English-Teaching-Method in Taiwan’s Children English Language Schools
Jackie Chang
English Department
National Pingtung University
Pingtung City, Taiwan
Abstract:
Taiwanese people’s motivation to learn English is a desire to communicate: a major obstacle to the mastery of spoken English has been the lack of opportunities to speak it. The traditional English teaching method cannot produce fluent English speakers. English teaching methodologies, such as English-only and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), have been widely adopted as practical and the best way to acquire English speaking proficiency in children English language schools, to the point where they are taken for granted by many Taiwanese people. The central argument of this study is that the evaluation of the so-called the-best-English-teaching-method in children English language schools and as common practice in Taiwanese society is ideological. To explore the ideological concept of the-best-English-teaching-method used in children English language schools, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) was employed to analyze data drawn from children English language schools’ promotional materials or advertisements. The results indicate the promotion of the-best-English-teaching-method by children English language schools has resulted in social injustice, such as native speaker ideology, native and non-native division, white and non-white division, and English proficiency gap in the rich and the poor and urban and rural areas. It is hoped that the results of this study can enable Taiwanese people to escape the ideologies which have been taken for granted for so long.
Keywords: Critical Discourses Analysis (CDA), ideology, the-best-English-teaching-method
Cite as: Chang, J. (2017). The Ideology of the-Best-English-Teaching-Method in Taiwan’s Children English Language Schools. Arab World English Journal, 8 (4).
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.24093/awej/vol8no4.2