Teaching English in Taiwan: the English Only Method

[Jim Walsh]

Today while the public schools (generally) continue to teach English by
translation, grammar rules and endless testing, many of the private English
schools (not the test-preparation "cram schools") use the English only
method.

It is more and more widely accepted in the marketplace.

When I first arrived (9/1987) only the rare teacher and the even rarer school
that used this method. Frankly, I found myself doing it (at first) because I
arrived with no Chinese language skill at all. In time, I came to see it as
the correct way to teach.

Before explaining the reasons why I believe "English Only" is the correct way
to teach English in Taiwan, I will discuss the problems created by teaching
by translation.

[h***@gmail.com]

Post by Jim Walsh
Today while the public schools (generally) continue to teach English by
translation, grammar rules and endless testing, many of the private English
schools (not the test-preparation "cram schools") use the English only
method.
It is more and more widely accepted in the marketplace.
When I first arrived (9/1987) only the rare teacher and the even rarer school
that used this method. Frankly, I found myself doing it (at first) because I
arrived with no Chinese language skill at all. In time, I came to see it as
the correct way to teach.
Before explaining the reasons why I believe "English Only" is the correct way
to teach English in Taiwan, I will discuss the problems created by teaching
by translation.
--
Love, Jim
(I often delete parts of the previous post and I often remove excessive
crossposts.)
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Another excellent point. You were ahead of the curve!

[Django Cat]

Post by Jim Walsh
Today while the public schools (generally) continue to teach English
by translation, grammar rules and endless testing, many of the
private English schools (not the test-preparation "cram schools") use
the English only method.
It is more and more widely accepted in the marketplace.
When I first arrived (9/1987) only the rare teacher and the even
rarer school that used this method. Frankly, I found myself doing it
(at first) because I arrived with no Chinese language skill at all.
In time, I came to see it as the correct way to teach.
Before explaining the reasons why I believe "English Only" is the
correct way to teach English in Taiwan, I will discuss the problems
created by teaching by translation.

Sounds interesting.

MELE's a fairly moribund group these days, and would benefit from some
new stuff. However, while usenet groups are fine for getting a
discussion going, if you want to publish a series of more or less
didactic pieces, you might be better off keeping a blog. Try
www.blogspot.com to get started.

DC

--

[Zetsu]

Post by Django Cat

Post by Jim Walsh
Today while the public schools (generally) continue to teach English
by translation, grammar rules and endless testing, many of the
private English schools (not the test-preparation "cram schools") use
the English only method.
It is more and more widely accepted in the marketplace.
When I first arrived (9/1987) only the rare teacher and the even
rarer school that used this method. Frankly, I found myself doing it
(at first) because I arrived with no Chinese language skill at all.
In time, I came to see it as the correct way to teach.
Before explaining the reasons why I believe "English Only" is the
correct way to teach English in Taiwan, I will discuss the problems
created by teaching by translation.

Sounds interesting.
MELE's a fairly moribund group these days, and would benefit from some
new stuff. However, while usenet groups are fine for getting a
discussion going, if you want to publish a series of more or less
didactic pieces, you might be better off keeping a blog. Trywww.blogspot.comto get started.
DC
--

I think if you want to learn a language in just how to read it then
actually, the old method of translating long passages of text in the
foreign language to the native can in fact be quite effective, even if
it is tedious and boring at first. I'm a year 11 high school student
from the UK, studying French at GCSE level, and frequently reading
French stories or articles and fetching a dictionary to translate a
word I didn't understand, which was practically all of the words, I
found was a great way to learn rapidly because the translations
automatically became drilled into my head and after a while I was able
to dispense of the dictionary for a longer and longer time while going
through a text. This however did very little to improve my speaking
ability in French, because the way the words are written are often so
different from the way they are spoken by a native French person.

And so for the speaking aspect of a language you are no doubt
completely right, speaking it constantly is the best way to learn,
just as learning to walk necessities the act of walking, and as doing
almost anything with proficiency requires doing it in the first place.

[Jim Walsh]

Post by Django Cat

Post by Jim Walsh
Today while the public schools (generally) continue to teach English
by translation, grammar rules and endless testing, many of the
private English schools (not the test-preparation "cram schools") use
the English only method.
It is more and more widely accepted in the marketplace.
When I first arrived (9/1987) only the rare teacher and the even
rarer school that used this method. Frankly, I found myself doing it
(at first) because I arrived with no Chinese language skill at all.
In time, I came to see it as the correct way to teach.
Before explaining the reasons why I believe "English Only" is the
correct way to teach English in Taiwan, I will discuss the problems
created by teaching by translation.

Sounds interesting.
MELE's a fairly moribund group these days, and would benefit from some
new stuff. However, while usenet groups are fine for getting a
discussion going, if you want to publish a series of more or less
didactic pieces, you might be better off keeping a blog. Try
www.blogspot.com to get started.
DC

Thanks.