Abstract
The implementation of the Taiwanese policy of Bilingual Nation 2030 and its effects on the development of English literacy in the public secondary schools in Taiwan and multilingual students in particular are discussed in this article. Although the policy anticipates that English would be one of the primary drivers of modernization and international competitiveness, studies and reports by practitioners show a discrepancy between such goals and actual classroom conditions. Based on the qualitative content analysis of seven recent studies, the study examines the populace's opinion, ideological framing, teacher agency, career design, and equity themes.
The results indicate that the top-down policy is prone to ignoring Taiwanese multilingual character, centralizing the disparity between urban and rural schools, and marginalizing foreign teachers, relegating them to minor symbolic duties. Nonetheless, research also identifies such promising practices as local curriculum customization, translanguaging, scaffolding, and collaborative teaching methods, such as co-teaching. These findings are supported by my experience as a Foreign English Teacher, which demonstrates that students can flourish under the conditions of teaching related to cultural contexts and purport to fail when the reforms are abstract or inflexible. The article concludes with policy recommendations to policymakers: establishing flexible national systems, investing in constant professional growth, equally redistributing resources, incorporating foreign teachers with purpose, and promoting multilingualism. Only by inclusive and context-sensitive measures will the bilingual reforms in Taiwan be applicable and lead to sustainable literacy results.
Recommended Citation
Valdes, E. (2026). A Study of English Literacy Challenges in Taiwanese Public High Schools: Foreign Teachers and Taiwan's Bilingual 2030 Policy. Wellspring: A Practitioner-Oriented Journal of Literacy and Language Education, 4(1). Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/wellspringlled/vol4/iss1/2
Included in
Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Secondary Education Commons
