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CHAPTER
40
Review of indigenous language teaching and
beyond in Taiwan: A race against time
A
YMERIC
C
OLLART
,
J
OY
J.
W
U AND
L
ILLIAN
M.
H
UANG
Keywords: indigenous language teaching, language policy, teaching materials,
standardized language proficiency tests for indigenous languages,
revitalization
40.1 Introduction
After the lifting of the martial law in Taiwan in 1987, language policies shifted
from several decades of monolingualism during which the use of languages
other than Mandarin was restricted or prohibited (including not only
indigenous languages but also Southern Min and Hakka) to the recognition of
the linguistic diversity of Taiwan and the promotion of indigenous languages
as national languages. Yet, giving a voice back to languages which have been
silenced for so many decades is challenging. These languages, and especially
the indigenous non-Sinitic ones, need to be learned by the younger
generations, implying that they need to be taught. In this chapter, we review
the language policies which have been adopted regarding the teaching of
indigenous languages in Taiwan since 1987, as well as how they were translated
into action. This is also an attempt to understand how language teaching falls
within the context of language policies and how it contributes to the general
domain of the revitalization of the indigenous languages of Taiwan (see Tang
this handbook).
This chapter is structured as follows: First, an overview of the language
policies and their important concrete output is given in §40.2, in order to
understand the sociohistorical background behind the indigenous language
revitalization process. In the subsequent sections, the steps by which
components of indigenous language teaching have been created and
implemented will be described: the design of teaching materials (§40.3), the
training of indigenous language teachers (§40.4), and the creation of
standardized language proficiency tests (§40.5). The advances and limitations
in each of these domains will be discussed as well.
2 CHAPTER 40
Some terms must be defined before beginning the discussion. The term
nous local
indigenous speakers of Taiwan and officially recognized nowadays. The term
local is contrasted with non-indigenous local
other languages spoken in Taiwan for
non-
indigenous
1
The distinction is kept for clarity purposes in this chapter because some
decisions target the both the indigenous and non-indigenous local languages,
while some others target indigenous local languages specifically, as it will be
made clearer in the following section.
40.2 Sociohistorical context of indigenous language teaching policies and
their main outcomes since 1987: An overview
Due to historical factors, numerous languages are spoken in Taiwan, including
Mandarin, Southern Min and Hakka (Sinitic languages) as well as the
indigenous local languages (Austronesian languages).
2
However, not all of
these languages have enjoyed an equal sociolinguistic status throughout the
history of Taiwan, especially in light of systematic policies promoting one
language as the national language, if not the only spoken language.
Such policies were most efficient in the 20th century during the Japanese
colonialization of Taiwan (1895-1945) and the dictatorship of the Chinese
Nationalist (KMT) government (1949-1987). Throughout the Japanese
colonialization, restrictive language policies were adopted notably, after the
1920s when the Japanese authorities aimed at assimilating the Taiwanese
population (Lin et al. 2019, pp. 446-447). Residents of Taiwan were not allowed
to speak their own language in public, and Japanese was the language used at
school. By the end of World War 2, a great majority of the Taiwanese
population was able to understand and speak Japanese. In 1949, the KMT
leaders left mainland China to establish their government in Taiwan, and
another monolinguistic policy was implemented, this time promoting
1
Min and Hakka are not only spoken in Taiwan but also in some regions of mainland
China.
2
Today, speakers of other Southeast Asian languages are becoming increasingly
common in Taiwan due to migration, but this will not be further explored in this
chapter.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 3
Mandarin as the national language. Similar to the previous period, only a single
languagethis time Mandarinwas allowed in public and at school. Local
languagesboth indigenous and non-indigenouswere explicitly prohibited
447), and speaking these languages could even lead to physical punishment (K.
Chen 2008). The three decades of Mandarin Chinese monolingual policies
were very effective, especially concerning indigenous languages. Taking Truku
Seediq as an example, Tang (2021) clearly shows that even if the older
generations (i.e., people over 41 years old) are still able to speak their native
language in addition to Mandarin Chinese, younger speakers of Truku Seediq
exhibit a drastically-decreasing level of fluency in their ancestral language. As
Tang (2021, p. 198) observes -
dominant Truku to dominant Mandarin across a The same
tendency can be found in other indigenous languages in Taiwan such as Yami
(H. Chen 1998) and Puyuma (Wang 2022).
The dictatorship of the KMT eventually came to an end and martial law was
lifted in 1987, along with the prohibition on the use of indigenous and non-
indigenous local languages. Democratization impacted how linguistic
diversity was perceived in Taiwan, in that not only was the speaking of
languages other than Mandarin allowed, but consciousness arose concerning
the negative effect of the previous decades of monolingual policies on local
languages. Consequently, language policies in Taiwan shifted from
monolingualism to plurilingualism after 1987. Plurilingual policies were also
encouraged and advanced by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
administration (between 2000 and 2008, and since 2016) as the emphasis was
placed on the local cultural and linguistic identity of Taiwan. As Huang (1998,
p. 77) remarks, the transmission and revitalization of indigenous languages
requires several components: (a) the government as the initiator of systematic
language policies; (b) learning and teaching capacities, including (but not
restricted to) language teaching materials and professionals; and (c) language
proficiency tests in order to assess the proficiency of speakers/learners. This
tripartite relationship is summarized in Figure 40.1.
4 CHAPTER 40
Figure 40.1. Simplified representation of the necessary components for
indigenous language teaching and revitalization
Numerous governmental decisions have been made concerning preservation
and revitalization via language learning and teaching since the lifting of the
martial law in 1987. The main decisions, as well as some of their principal
concrete outcomes, are listed in Table 40.1 (based on Huang 1998, 2007a,
2007b, 2014; Lin et al., 2019; Liu Y. 2020; McNaught 2021; Tang 2021, pp. 205-
208; among others). Crucial years concerning indigenous language teaching
are marked in bold and highlighted in grey.
Table 40.1. Timeline of the main political decisions regarding indigenous
language teaching and their principal outcomes
3
Year
Event
Level
1987
Lifting of martial law
1988
1989
1990
Teaching of Atayal at the elementary school in Wulai
Local
1991
Project of romanization of indigenous languages
MOE
1992
3
Acronyms include: CIP = Council of Indigenous Peoples, MOC = Ministry of Culture,
MOE = Ministry of Education, MOST = Ministry of Science and Technology (now
National Science and Technology Council), NCCU = National Chengchi University,
ILRDF = Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 5
1993
Grants for textbooks, dictionaries and linguistic
material design
MOE
1994
Syllabi for teaching materials for indigenous languages
MOE
1995
Grants for the implementation of the teaching of
indigenous and non-indigenous local languages at
elementary schools
MOE
1996
Four-year compulsory education curriculum
(indigenous and non-indigenous local languages
optional)
MOE
Creation of the Council of Indigenous Peoples4
1997
1998
Education Act for Indigenous People
MOE
1999
First six-year indigenous cultural revitalization and
development plan
CIP
2000
2001
Nine-year compulsory education curriculum
(including indigenous and non-indigenous local
language courses)
MOE
Implementation of standardized indigenous
language proficiency tests
MOE
Creation of the f
Local
Training courses for seeding indigenous language
teachers
MOE
2002
Beginning of the design of the 9-Level Textbooks
MOE
& CIP
First workshop for training indigenous language
teachers (held annually or bi-annually)
CIP
Creation of the first indigenous community colleges
CIP
2003
2004
2005
Promulgation of the official indigenous language
writing system
MOE
& CIP
Publication of the 9-Level Textbooks
MOE
& CIP
Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV) channel
CIP
4
il of Indigenous as it became a ministry-level council.
6 CHAPTER 40
2006
Indigenous education development five-year midterm
case project
MOE
2007
First local workshops for training indigenous language
teachers
Local
Yami Language Learning Center
Local
2008
Second six-year indigenous cultural revitalization
and development plan
CIP
Six-
Revitalization (2008-2013)
CIP
2009
2010
Publication of the 1000-word wordlists
CIP
2011
White paper for indigenous education policy
MOE
2012
Publication of the Pronunciation series
(supplementary materials)
CIP
Creation of the -
CIP &
local
2013
Creation of the Indigenous Language Research and
Development Center
Launching of the Indigenous Language E-Park
CIP
Publication of the Dialogue series (supplementary
materials)
CIP
Indigenous Language Nanny Childcare Programme
CIP &
local
First immersive programs at the kindergarten level
CIP &
local
2014
Six-
Revitalization (2014-2019)
CIP
Twelve-year compulsory education curriculum
(including indigenous and non-indigenous local
language courses)
MOE
Publication of the Reading and Writing and
Conversation series (supplementary materials)
CIP
2015
2016
Indigenous education five-year midterm development
project
MOE
& CIP
Publication of a series of indigenous languages
reference grammars (14 languages)
MOST
& CIP
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 7
2017
Indigenous Language Development Act
CIP
Publication of the Culture companion textbooks
(supplementary materials)
CIP
Broadcast of the Alian 96.3 indigenous radio
CIP
Partnership CIP-NCCU-Samsung Electronics Taiwan
CIP &
local
2018
Addition of two languages to the indigenous languages
reference grammars (Kanakanavu and Saaroa) along
with the 2nd revised edition
CIP
2019
Development of National Languages Act
MOC
Writing of the first Wikipedia pages in indigenous
languages (Sakizaya)
CIP &
local
2020
2021
Amendment of Education Act for Indigenous Peoples
MOE
2022
Publication of a pedagogy-oriented series on word
classes (16 languages)
ILRDF
As Table 40.1 illustrates, numerous governmental decisions have been made in
order to revitalize indigenous languages since the lifting of the martial law in
1987. Such events can be divided into three categories: (a) governmental
decisions affecting the indigenous and non-indigenous local languages as a
whole (such as the compulsory education curriculum); (b) governmental
decisions concerning indigenous local languages; and (c) concrete outcomes,
such as the creation of the 9-Level Textbooks for indigenous languages, the
creation of the Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV) channel in 2005 or
publication of the series of indigenous language reference grammars in 2016.
5
Five dates can be identified as landmarks concerning the revitalization of
indigenous languages:
(1) 1987: End of the martial law and the return of the freedom to use
native language to communicate, opening the door to language
revitalization;
(2) 1996: Creation of the ministry-level Council of Indigenous Peoples
(CIP) as well as the adoption of the four-year mandatory education
curriculum which included optional teaching hours for indigenous and
non-indigenous local languages;
5
These grammars were written by a group of linguists, with the financial support of a
three-year MOST project (2011-2014).
8 CHAPTER 40
(3) 2001: Adoption of the nine-year mandatory education curriculum
which, unlike the previous curriculum, included courses on indigenous
and non-indigenous local languages (compulsory in elementary
schools and optional starting in junior high school) as well as the
creation of the first standardized indigenous language proficiency tests;
(4) 2008: Adoption of the first language revitalization plans by the CIP;
(5) 2014: Adoption of the second language revitalization by the CIP, and the
twelve-year mandatory education curriculum by the MOE, under which
indigenous and non-indigenous local languages courses are now
officially offered until senior high school (courses optional starting
from the third year of junior high school).
It is important to note that while the teaching of indigenous and non-
indigenous local languages has been mandatory in the official Taiwanese
education curriculum since 2001, this does not mean that each school offers
indigenous language classes. Indeed, the language taught depends on the
student demand and the availability of language teachers. For instance, S.
Chen (2007) mentions the case of Chiayi city, where 19 schools offered courses
of Southern Min and one offering Hakka, but none offering courses in any
indigenous language. Also, certain other important events could be considered
milestones as well, such as the Indigenous Language Development Act in 2017
and the Development of National Languages Act in 2019. However, it is hard to
assess the impact of these decisions at present due to their very recent
adoption.
Attempting to revitalize the indigenous languages which, quite often, are no
longer the first language of the younger generations (due to the sociohistorical
factors briefly presented in this section) implies that these languages need to
be taught and (re-)learned. This means that teaching materials (primarily
textbooks) need to be designed properly, indigenous language teachers need
to be trained, and proficiency tests need to be implemented to assess the
linguistic competence of the students, as will be discussed in §40.3, §40.4 and
§40.5, respectively.
40.3 Teaching materials: Design, development and limitations
This section discusses the design (§40.3.1) of indigenous language materials, as
well as some of their limitations (§40.3.2).
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 9
40.3.1 Design and development of teaching materials
As mentioned earlier, teaching a language usually goes hand in hand with
teaching materials. Before going into further
It is often associated with the materials used in the
classroom (or for self-study), such as textbooks. Unlike reference grammars,
teaching materials are not intended comprehensively describe the
grammatical and lexical properties of the language, but to gradually and
pedagogically introduce the learners to the language in question.
Teaching materials as defined above conventional materials, but
they are certainly not the only medium which can be used to teach a language.
Indeed, flyers, advertisements, newspapers, webpages, radio, TV, and even
human interactions such as language exchanges or immersion programs can
also serve this purpose. These less conventional teaching channels are also
considered in this section.
Crucially, designing such materials which are usually in written form
requires that the languages to be taught have an official and stable
orthography. To accomplish this, the MOE launched an orthography
development project for the indigenous languages as early as 1991, and official
orthographies systems for all the indigenous local languages and dialects were
promulgated in 2005. Yet facing the rapid loss of the indigenous languages, the
compilation of teaching materials, and especially textbooks, started years
before this, hence resulting in recurrent orthographic issues as will be shown
in the following sections. Note that Huang (2014, 2018) distinguishes four
stages which correspond to the milestone years mentioned in Section §40.3.
40.3.1.1 Stage 1 (before 1995): Individual initiatives
As mentioned above, the design of indigenous languages textbooks started
before the various central governmental initiatives. The first textbooks were
developed by interested individuals, schools, cultural groups or local
governments. For example, Huang (1998, pp. 82-85) provides a list of 43
textbooks compiled for nine languages (Amis, Atayal, Saisiyat, Thao, Truku,
Tsou, Rukai, Paiwan and Puyuma). These textbooks were created primarily by
elementary schools (such as Wulai Elementary School which started teaching
Atayal in 1990) and churches, as well as linguists interested in designing
textbooks (Huang 1998, p. 85).
These unofficial textbooks (in the sense that they were not sanctioned by
the national government) cover various genres and contents, such as texts,
dialogues, vocabulary, etc. Yet, as Huang (1998, pp. 85-87) points out, they
10 CHAPTER 40
suffer from a number of inadequacies. For instance, there is no common
transcription system across these textbooks: some use a romanized
transcription, while others use the bopomofo (or zhuyin)
6
system. In addition,
a word may be spelled in more than one way even within a single textbook.
The textbooks are also characterized by pedagogical incoherence, in that they
do not seem to be designed to facilitate the teaching of indigenous languages.
Huang (1998, pp. 86-87) remarks that this is likely due to the fact that their
designs were inspired by textbooks of other languages, with authors simply
copying and translating the content, thus introducing pedagogical
incoherency regarding the progression of the lessons, as well as cultural
shortcomings.
Even if this stage can be characterized as a period during which textbooks
were designed through lower-level initiatives, it should be noted that the MOE
was already interested in this issue as well. For example, in addition to the
project of romanization launched in 1991, grants were offered as early as 1993
in order to design textbooks, dictionaries and linguistic books, and a general
curriculum was proposed in 1994. In other words, the government sowed the
seeds of future developments in the teaching of indigenous languages,
reflecting a sociohistorical shift of new language policies (Ting 2020, p. 127).
This ideological shift led to the creation of, among others, the Council of
Indigenous Peoples.
40.3.1.2 Stage 2 (1995-1998): First official textbooks
The first official indigenous language textbooks were designed in the late
1990s. This was a direct result of education policies, notably the four-year
compulsory education curriculum (3rd to 6th grades), which included optional
indigenous and non-indigenous local language courses. Therefore, in addition
to Southern Min and Hakka, the MOE had the responsibility of providing
textbooks for indigenous language courses. Eleven languages were officially
recognized at that time, according to Huang (2007a, p. 216). The MOE
delegated the design of the indigenous languages materials to the local
governments in the areas where the languages were spoken. For instance, the
Atayal textbooks were developed by Wulai Elementary School under the
supervision of what was at that time Taipei County. Initially, the plan was to
publish the textbooks at a rate of one grade level per year (e.g., 3rd grade
6
The bopomofo consists of 37 symbols derived from Mandarin Chinese characters;
some of these symbols were slightly altered to convey sounds present in the
Formosan languages that are not found in Mandarin.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 11
textbooks in 1995, 4th grade in 1996, etc.).
Despite the collaboration between the MOE and local institutions, the
textbooks produced during this were not fully satisfactory, and Huang (2007a,
pp. 216-217) mentions a number of problems. The editors of the textbooks
lacked knowledge and experience in several domains, such as (a) the
publication of pedagogical-oriented materials and (b) linguistic knowledge
about the indigenous languages. These problems led to orthographic
inconsistencies, inaccurate language descriptions, and a general lack of
attractiveness in terms of presentation, and often resulted in textbooks which
were not designed to teach oral communication skills. Another problem with
the central-local collaboration was the unequal pedagogical and linguistic
knowledge across the different editorial teams working on each language, as
well as the fact that some members of the editorial teams of some textbooks
were not even from the same communalect as the textbook they were assigned
to. In other words, despite the fact that the textbooks were governed by the
same institution, the actual organization of their design resulted in textbooks
whose content quality varied from language to others.
40.3.1.3 Stage 3 (2002-2005): The 9-Level Textbooks and the first less
conventional teaching methods
In 2001, the MOE announced the compulsory nine-year school curriculum
which included indigenous and non-indigenous local languages courses. Yet,
unlike under the previous curriculum, the teaching of these languages became
mandatory (with the limitations mentioned in §40.2). Therefore, the MOE
took the initiative to design new textbooks in accordance with the new
curriculum. These textbooks, which are still largely used in language courses
nowadays, are gener-L,
and their development was different from those of the previous period. The
MOE mandated the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Center
(ICRDC) of National Chengchi University to work with native speakers to
design the textbooks within three years. While the work ultimately took four
years to complete, textbooks for 12 languages (40 dialects) were produced,
including use (Huang 2007a, p. 218). With
the development of new technologies and the Internet, these textbooks have
also been made available on online platforms with audio files. These textbooks
have been regularly updated since their first edition and there are now
textbooks for 16 languages (42 dialects).
The advantage of having the textbooks designed by the same editorial team
was that this improved consistency across languages in terms of the
12 CHAPTER 40
pedagogical content (which has been increasingly inspired by the
communicative approach in foreign language teaching), such as orthography,
the pedagogical progression, and the focus made oral communication.
7
However, despite improvements compared with the previous textbooks,
several flaws can be pointed out with the 9-Level Textbooks (Huang 2007a, pp.
219-220). Pedagogically speaking, the textbooks did not specifically teach the
orthography. In addition, the lack of diversity of lesson themes could be a
problem since they were designed to be used from elementary to junior high
school. In other words, while they may match the interest of younger learners,
this might not be the case for older students, which could adversely affect their
motivation. Another problem is that despite using the same orthography,
numerous inconsistencies could be found even within the same textbook, as
the same words may be found with different spellings. Another problem comes
from the fact that all the content of the textbooks was designed in Mandarin,
in order to achieve consistencies across the hundreds of textbooks, and then
translated into the indigenous languages, so the outcome was not natural and
instead reflected the calquing of Mandarin expressions. More details about the
linguistic problems of the 9-Level Textbooks are given in §40.2.2.1.
It must be noted that while the policies discussed so far have targeted
younger school-aged populations, opportunities to learn indigenous languages
also began to be offered to other audiences during this time. First, indigenous
community colleges were created in 2002, allowing adults to attend
indigenous language courses. Less conventional language programs were also
launched, such as the language nests in 2001 in Taipei and New Taipei
(formerly Taipei County). These programs were largely inspired by the
language nests created in New Zealand to revitalize the language
(Huang 2014, pp. 75-76; McNaught 2021, p. 136). The programs in Taiwan
consist of immersion programs for children which offer courses lasting for two
hours in the evening or on the weekend,
consist of four to eight hours every day. This relatively small number of
teaching hours led to insufficient results regarding the efficiency of the
language nest programs. The Taiwan Indigenous Television (TITV) channel, on
which the programming is delivered in Mandarin as well as indigenous
languages, was also launched during this period.
7
It must be remarked that these textbooks do not adopt the whole schema of the
Communicative Approach. For instance, the organization of the lessons is not based
on specific communicative functions.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 13
40.3.1.4 Stage 4 (2009-present): The communicative/task-based, multimedia
and less conventional approaches
In 2008, the Council of Indigenous Peoples launched the first Six-Year Plan for
-2013) which followed
a) suggestions.
8
The second -
Indigenous Languages Revitalization (2014-was adopted in 2014. These
two projects shared common goals in terms of teaching materials, which can
be summarized as follows (Lin et al. 2019, pp. 455-457): (a) diversification of
conventional teaching materials; (b) implementation of other (less-
conventional) forms of language teaching and use, such as family-based and
multimedia-based initiatives; (c) more systematic inclusion of language
experts such as linguists and researchers during the design processes; and (d)
legislative promotion, impacting the attitudes of learners towards indigenous
languages. The main advances pertaining to each of these points are described
in further detail below. /programs
refers to language teaching in the traditional sense, i.e., using textbooks, in a
classroom or online with a teacher or self- tional
teaching setting.
The textbooks used in indigenous language courses became more
diversified in that new textbooks were compiled in order to cover a wider
range of topics and levels. First, with the release of the twelve-year compulsory
education curriculum by the MOE in 2014, three more levels have been added
to the 9-Level Textbooks.
9
Other textbooks, which were not intended to
replace the 9-Level Textbooks but to complement them, were also designed.
Four series of complementary textbooks were published: the Pronunciation
series in 2012, the Conversation series in 2013, the Reading and Writing series in
2014, and the Culture series in 2017. While the first series may have been
oriented more toward elementary school students, the other three are more
suited toward more advanced learners. Note that these textbooks also appear
8
This project targeting language revitalization was instituted after the completion of
-year Indigenous Cultural Revitalization and Development Ped in
1998, as it became clear that the outcome was far from satisfactory and that the
indigenous languages of Taiwan were disappearing more and more rapidly.
9
Only eleven levels can be found online so far. The textbook for the last level was
scheduled to be published by the end of 2022 (F. Liu 2022). See also Center of
Aboriginal Studies NCCU (2020) for a summary of the procedure to implement the
three new levels.
14 CHAPTER 40
to compensate the limitations of the 9-Level Textbooks pointed out in
§40.3.1.3. s for
-word wordlists in 2010 which
include the most common and useful nouns. These materials are now
considered to be playing a significant role in the teaching of indigenous
languages.
Furthermore, as younger generations of Taiwanese indigenous are actually
learning and using these languages more like a second or even foreign
language (Yayut Isaw 2022), it would be more helpful to provide them with
materials that are better suited for that purpose. That is, learning would be
more effective if the textbooks presented sentence patterns that learners could
emulate to create new sentences. Unfortunately, this has not been the case as
will be further discussed in §40.3.2.3. Relevant to this observation, learning
materials including clear sentence structures were published in 2022,
specifically on how to teach the word classes of indigenous languages.
10
These
books do not only illustrate the structures with examples drawn from the
online teaching materials, especially the 9-Level Textbooks, but also suggest
activities for teaching the word classes in question. In this way, language
teachers can find information that can help them explain the examples in the
textbooks and replicate or revise the suggested activities for effective teaching.
In addition, two handbooks were created to help high school students
prepare for the beginner and intermediate levels of language proficiency tests.
The editorial team, led by Lillian M. Huang, extracted the common vocabulary
and sentence patterns from the 9-Level Textbooks and translated them into
Mandarin. They were then reorganized according to their level of difficulty.
Sentence examples other than those found in the textbooks were added in
order to illustrate the patterns, which included different vocabulary so that the
learners could acquire the ability to produce new sentences more easily. These
two learning handbooks were organized such that they could better address
the needs of second or foreign language learners. These two handbooks were
translated and adapted by native speakers of 42 languages or dialects thereof
with the help of linguists. Through such collaboration and cooperation, these
two handbooks marked an improvement in terms of orthographic accuracy
and the structural organization. They have been supplemented with a full set
of practice exercises and test items and can even be used in formal teaching.
Lillian M. Huang also assisted in designing another set of teaching materials
for stream teaching. She adopted a similar organization pattern for this set of
10
These books were written by linguists supported by a two-year MOST grant (2017-
2018).
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 15
textbooks, but included more texts such as readings and conversations, plus
exercises and tests.
With the coming of the digital era, the aforementioned teaching materials
as well as additional information related to teaching and learning of the 16
indigenous languages and their 42 dialects, have been converted into online
versions and are now collected on the free-access platform called the
Indigenous Language E-Park (created in 2013). This platform is not only
useful as supplementary material for students who are already enrolled in
indigenous language courses, but also for individuals who wish to learn the
languages by themselves. This multimedia t was also encouraged by the
CIP and has resulted in several outcomes identified by McNaught (2021, pp.
140-141). Among them, we can find online courses for Yami ( Yami
Language Center) developed by Victoria Rau starting in 2007. A more bottom-
up initiative that of the Sakizaya Language Promotion Group which took the
initiative to translate Wikipedia pages into Sakizaya.
11
Finally, we can also
mention the CIP-Samsung Electronics partnership in 2017 in order to design a
more technology-oriented teaching curriculum for indigenous languages, but
whose outcomes have yet to materialize.
Less conventional language programs, sponsored and funded by the CIP,
were also launched during this period, such as (a) Master-Apprentice
Program in 2012 (terminated in 2021); (b) Indigenous Language Nanny
Childcare Program in 2013; and (c) the immersive program and experimental
schools starting in 2013 (Huang 2014, pp. 77-78; McNaught 2021, pp. 137-140).
The Master-Apprentice program consisted of having young people willing to
learn the indigenous languages (apprentices) spending eight hours per day,
five days per week doing daily activities with fluent native speakers
(masters), with both the masters and the apprentices receiving a salary. This
program resulted, among other things, in the creation of the Sakizaya
Wikipedia pages and the rapid revitalization of Saaroa, which was moribund
in the mid-2000s, reflecting its considerable success in reaching its goals. The
Indigenous Language Nanny Childcare Program consists of recruiting and
training indigenous babysitters who, while taking care of the young children,
talk to them in their indigenous language, therefore creating a natural learning
environment at an ideal age for the children to acquire the language. This
program has been quite successful in developing the linguistic skills of
children, but their ability to speak these languages decreases when they are
enrolled in the official curriculum which is dominated by Mandarin (Lakaw &
11
Since then, Wikipedia languages have also been translated in four other indigenous
languages: Atayal, Seediq, Amis and Paiwan.
16 CHAPTER 40
Friedman 2022). Finally, immersive programs and experimental schools (often
located in indigenous villages) offer curricula including indigenous language
teaching with a relative success (notice that these curricula are mainly taught
in Mandarin). Again, however, skills fail to be maintained after students enter
junior/senior high school where classes are taught in Mandarin.
The current stage can also be characterized by the more systematic
inclusion of linguists, as already described, in language teaching decisions,
regarding the design of textbooks. The contribution of linguists is not limited
to their roles as consultants. For instance, linguists, in collaboration with
native speakers, wrote a new series of grammar (one per indigenous language)
under the leadership of Lillian M. Huang starting in 2011. By 2016, 14 grammars
had been published, and these were revised and republished in 2018 along with
two other languages which had just recently received official recognition,
Saaroa and Kanakanavu. These grammars are not pedagogy-oriented and
should not be used as textbooks for indigenous language teaching, but they
provide more accurate descriptions of the phonological, lexical, morphological
and syntactic characteristics of the languages in question, making them useful
references for indigenous teachers and advanced learners. It must also be
noted that these grammars are freely accessible online with audio files.
Finally, the indigenous languages gained more institutional legitimacy in
2017 with the adoption of the Indigenous Language Development Act and in
2019 with the Development of National Languages Act which promoted the
indigenous languages as national languages (see Ting 2020 for a discussion of
the political/ideological spect of the adoption of these acts). The Indigenous
Language Development Act assures the visibility of indigenous languages
institutionally (Lin et al. 2019, p. 449), namely, the inclusion of indigenous
languages in public spaces, such as information billboards which are written
not only in Mandarin but also in indigenous languages, and the presence of
agents who are supposed to be able to speak in indigenous languages at official
places such as post offices. These measures are not within the scope of
teaching materials per se, but surely have an impact on indigenous language
learning. First, considering indigenous languages as national languages may
learning motivation. Second, promoting an environment in which the
indigenous languages are more and more present is consistent with the recent
pedagogical developments of indigenous language teaching. Indeed,
consistent with the Communicative Approach which was adopted in the
design of the most recent textbooks, learners can be aware of the fact that the
vocabulary and sentence structures they are taught can be found and used out
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 17
of the classroom.
12
40.3.1.5 Interim summary
There have been many institutional decisions and pedagogical initiatives
regarding the teaching of the indigenous languages of Taiwan since the lifting
of martial law in 1987. The development of indigenous language teaching has
gone through a number of changes over the past 35 years. The first three stages
in the development of indigenous language teaching policies were
characterized as top-down decisions, in that the teaching policies were
initiated at the government-level and implemented by local governments (e.g.,
counties) under the auspices of the central administration, resulting in the
publication of many textbooks. Although these decisions were necessary, they
were not sufficient on their own and could not stop the decline in transmission
of the indigenous languages. For instance, the recent investigations by the
Indigenous Languages Research and Development Foundation show that the
first language of 63.3% of the indigenous peoples above 40 years old is their
own indigenous language, while this proportion drops to 9.4% for the
indigenous peoples under 40 years old, whose first language is mainly
Mandarin (ILRDF 2021, p. 36).Therefore, the government, essentially via the
CIP, encouraged bottom-up initiatives, i.e., the teaching of indigenous
languages at the individual/familial levels. This is reflected by the less-
conventional teaching materials and methods which became more and more
numerous after the adoption of the first Six-
Languages Revitalization (2008-2013).
Despite some relative success, the decline of the indigenous languages in
terms of numbers of competent speakers is far from being reversed. One of the
many reasons may lie in the quality of the conventional teaching materials
themselves. These are reviewed in greater details in the following section.
40.3.2 The limitations of conventional teaching materials: Examples from the 9-
Level Textbooks and 1000-word wordlists
In this section, two types of teaching materials are considered more closely:
(a) the 9-Level Textbooks and (b) the 1000-word wordlists. They have been
selected due to their considerable influence in the area of indigenous language
teaching in Taiwan, and are the basis for many language-related activities such
12
It must be reminded that the Communicative Approach was only partly adopted as
mentioned in the footnote 7.
18 CHAPTER 40
as official teaching and test design as well as competitions (e.g., the National
Vocabulary Competition for Indigenous Languages).
13
They are useful and essential teaching tools, but they also exhibit problems
of several kinds across different languages, which can be summarized as
follows: (a) problems regarding orthography; (b) problems regarding the
accuracy of language description; and (c) problems regarding the pedagogical
design.
40.3.2.1 Problems regarding orthography
One of the problems encountered in the 9-Level Textbooks concerns the
accuracy and consistency of the orthography, which has been a recurrent
problem since the creation of the first textbooks. For example, the compilers
of the Northern Amis textbooks misused the symbol for the pharyngealized
glottal stop to transcribe the plain glottal stop, and leave the pharyngealized
glottal stop unwritten. According to the official Amis orthography system, the
symbol ^ is used to represent the plain glottal stop [] while represents the
pharangealized glottal stop []. However, the compilers of the Northern Amis
textbooks seem to reject the symbol ^ and instead use to write the plain glottal
stop, as is done in other languages. In other words, since the same symbol is
used to represent two different sounds in Amis, there is a risk that one of these
two sounds will disappear as a result of learning the language with the 9-Level
Textbooks.
Orthographic problems also involve consistency in addition to accuracy.
Despite the numerous revisions of the 9-Level Textbooks and the 1000-word
wordlists, there are still cases where words are spelled differently across
materials. It is even more striking to notice that this problem of consistency
occurs with words which are very common. Amis can also be cited to illustrate
this point, as the negation marker can be found spelled differently (e.g.,
caay and ), which may create many difficulties for learners. Indeed, while
they might learn an incorrect orthography, they might also drop one sound,
and they might even infer that these are two different negation markers in
Amis.
One of the possible reasons for the inconsistencies between these two types
of teaching materials is that they have been maintained by different
authorities (the 9-Level Textbooks by the MOE and the wordlists by the CIP),
and their compilers may not be the same. The orthographic inconsistencies
have worsened over the past two years (2021 and 2022) as the 9-Level
13
See https://exam.sce.ntnu.edu.tw/abst/src/upload/file_2.pdf.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 19
Textbooks have transitioned to using new orthographic conventions that have
not yet been officially approved, while the wordlists still use the older,
officially-approved conventions.
Orthographic problems are not limited to Amis, as according to a survey by
Maital Manghuhu Tanapima (2016), such inaccuracies and inconsistencies are
also found in Paiwan, Puyuma, Tsou, Bunun and Kavalan, among others.
40.3.2.2 Problems regarding language descriptions
Another problem encountered in these two types of teaching materials is the
accuracy of the language descriptions. Indeed, many of the compilers may
have little or no training in language analysis, and failed to provide correct
glossing for the sentences used in the textbooks. One example of this is the lack
of proper distinctions in the glossing of forms with different functions such as
case markers and aspectual markers. manuals are not very
helpful in this regard as the explanations provided are largely limited to
cultural information, and not to the analysis of the grammar or the teaching of
certain structures.
14
Problems involving the accuracy of language descriptions are not limited to
grammatical descriptions but may also involve phonological descriptions. For
instance, Wang (2022, p. 65) points out that the Puyuma Pronunciation
textbook, after introducing the vowels and consonants, contains a table listing
all the possible Consonant + Vowel (CV) combinations (e.g., [b] + [a] results in
the syllable [ba]). However, while this presentation might be helpful in terms
of pedagogy, it also introduces several errors. For instance, the syllables [ye]
and [we] are listed even though they never occur in Puyuma. Another problem
is that all listed syllables are of the shape CV, even though V, VC and CVC also
occur in Puyuma.
40.3.2.3 Pedagogical problems
The 9-Level Textbooks have also often been criticized due to the pedagogical
problems they exhibit. Even if these textbooks were designed with an
emphasis on everyday communication, it is not clear which teaching method
they were based on. In the domain of second/foreign language teaching,
several methods have been developed, such as the Direct Method, the Audio-
lingual Method, the Communicative Approach or the Task-Based Perspective
14
Note, however,
language to language.
20 CHAPTER 40
(Rodgers 2009), each proposing systematic teaching methodologies based on
different assumptions (e.g., whether teaching grammar should be indictive or
deductive, etc.).
However, a closer inspection of the 9-Level Textbooks (including the
complementary textbooks) reveals that the teaching method is not consistent.
Liu Y. (2020, p. 31), after examining the Atayal textbooks, remarks that they do
not reflect any of the teaching methods mentioned above. For instance, the
Direct Method focuses on teaching concrete words by using only the target
language for classroom instruction and pointing the actual objects the nouns
refer to
d, which are not grounded in the Direct Method. The
Audio-lingual Method puts the emphasis on the acquisition of the oral
language in the context of a dialogue, yet, the sentences introduced in the
lesson Liu Y. (2020) examines do not form a coherent and structured dialogue
The same
problem is pointed out concerning the Communicative Approach. Finally, the
Task-Based Perspective does not focus only on language-for-communication,
but on language-as-task-performing and language-as-culture (e.g., using the
language to order food at the restaurant, send a letter at the post office, etc.).
Yet, apart from the complementary textbooks which teach traditional songs,
none of the others clearly adopt this method.
In addition, there is a lack of systematic organization in the textbooks, and
they often fail to reflect the levels of difficulty of the language structures. The
textbooks in general follow a notion-based syllabus that adheres to the themes
stated in the Grade 1-9 Curriculum Guidelines, but they fail to follow the stages
of grammar development. Moreover, the same types of structures may appear
in different levels without real systematicity. This shortcoming may
complicate teaching, as more difficult structures might appear earlier than the
easier ones, and the instructors often have to synthesize different units at
different levels in teaching a given structure. This problem is also found in the
1000-word wordlists. For example, the same word may be placed at different
levels because of its different Mandarin translation. This is the case in the Amis
wordlists, where the word konga sweet potato, yam
level when the common term is given as its Mandarin equivalent, and the same
word is placed at the advanced level when the scientific name is given as the
Mandarin translation instead. Another problem is the lack of consensus about
word selection for a polysemous Mandarin word. For instance, while the same
Chinese word is used for both to hang from and to hang upside down, it is
often the case that the indigenous languages use different words for the two
meanings. However, different words may be chosen depending on the dialect
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 21
for the wordlists when translating this Chinese word into each language.
Finally, the explanations about grammar and pronunciation, whose
audience should be the learner, may be too technical and employ unfamiliar
linguistic terms. For instance, Wang (2022, p. 42) remarks that the textbooks
make use of terms such as plosive, fricative, and nasal when describing
the consonants of Puyuma. These terms are linguistically accurate, their
opacity for learners without any linguistic training could negatively affect the
efficiency of the teaching of pronunciation.
40.4 Training of indigenous language teachers
40.4.1 The need for indigenous language teachers since 1996
Learning a language in a classroom (whether as part of formal education for
younger students or personal interest for older students) requires not only
teaching materials, but also teachers who are able to teach the language.
Huang (1998, pp. 87-89) pointed out early on that many more indigenous
language teachers should be trained, especially since the MOE started to
include indigenous language courses in the official curriculum in 1996.
Unfortunately, even at present, there are still not enough language teachers.
Another problem stems from the fact that most of the indigenous language
teachers were notand are still notcompletely qualified. First, their
proficiency in their native language may not be high enough, for instance, to
hold a conversation. Second, they may not possess any professional teaching
qualifications, meaning that they are not able to properly conduct the in-class
activities and the progression of the course Additionally, since the
development of institutionalized teaching materials began only recently, these
materials are not yet completely accurate and stable, and need to be updated
rather frequently.
In other words, the need for indigenous language training is crucial not only
to have more teachers available, but also to ensure that they are able to teach
the languages as accurately as possible in order to properly transmit these
languages to the learners.
40.4.2 Evolution of training programs for indigenous language teachers
40.4.2.1 Overview
In response to in 1998, more systematic training
22 CHAPTER 40
programs were set up in 2001. These training programs were established by the
central or local governments and have been reshuffled several times since their
creation, becoming more diversified and specialized in order to respond to the
needs and expectations of the indigenous language teachers and to resolve
recurrent problems.
Based largely on Huang (2011, 2014, 2018), this section will explore the
evolution of the training programs by describing how they were created and
modified throughout the years. Training programs established at the central-
government level are discussed first before examining those at the local-
government level.
40.4.2.2 Central-government-level training programs
The central-government-level training programs were first initiated in 2001 by
the MOE, followed by the CIP starting in 2002. As previously mentioned, these
programs have become more and more diversified over the years in order to
meet the needs and interests of current and future language teachers. Only one
single program was offered in 2001, while in 2002, two types of programs were
available: (a) teaching-related courses, and (b) internship-like courses. These
became more
diversified, multiple categories of courses were added. In 2008, a third type of
program was proposed, corresponding to advanced teaching-related courses.
The evolution of these programs is summarized in Figure 40.2 and is further
described in this section.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 23
Figure 40.2. Evolution of the central-government-level teaching programs
for indigenous languages (based on Huang 2011, pp. 70-91)
The first teaching program, held in 2001, was organized by the MOE. It
24 CHAPTER 40
consisted of 72-hour intensive courses on three main topics:
Indigenous culture (18 hours, 5 courses)
Structure of indigenous languages (22 hours, 3 courses)
Pedagogical issues in indigenous language teaching (32 hours, 6 courses)
Topics on indigenous languages covered three components: (a) phonetics and
transcription, (b) lexicon and syntactic structures, and (c) fieldwork methods.
The training programs were organized by the CIP starting in 2002 at the
same time as they were also designing the 9-Level Textbooks. In 2002, the
intensive courses consisted of the same topics as in 2001. However, the
program only lasted 36 hours with the following courses:
Indigenous culture (2 hours, 1 course)
course was removed)
Pedagogical issues in indigenous language teaching (16 hours, 2 courses)
The multiple-category program was launched in 2003 with the intention of
focusing more on language revitalization topics (Huang 2011, pp. 75-76).
such as teaching material design, dictionary compilation and teaching
with multimedia were offered.
These additional courses were optional. Huang (2011, p. 78) remarks that
only 4% of the participants in the training program held in 2007 also took these
additional courses, showing that the implementation of these courses was not
ideal for the trainees. Therefore, the CIP decided to redesign the program and
split the courses into two kinds: (a) basic courses and (b) advanced courses.
The basic courses were similar to the curriculum of the previous programs.
They were divided between topics about language (4 courses, 17 hours),
pedagogy (3 courses, 11 hours) and culture (2 courses, 6 hours). Also included
in the basic program was an additional course concerning the use of
multimedia for indigenous language teaching (in keeping with the
multimedia described in §40.2.1.4).
The advanced program included courses which focused more on the
pedagogical issues that the indigenous language teachers could face. These
courses were divided between (a) basic issues (e.g., language revitalization
policies and dialectal variation within indigenous languages), (b)
professional teaching (e.g., design of teaching/lesson plan), (c) teaching
theories (e.g., language acquisition and language teaching, teaching with
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 25
multimedia) and (d) experience-sharing courses. In total, the courses lasted
for 36 hours.
In addition to the training programs, a 20-credit teacher training program
has been offered in five colleges since 2017 (Huang 2018). These programs were
sponsored by the MOE and were implemented in the four-year curriculum of
undergraduate education. As the participants have been college students who
aim to become language teachers, language classes of different levels were also
offered in addition to courses related to professional knowledge for language
teaching. Such classes were not included in the previously mentioned short-
term programs, most of whose participants already had better language
proficiency. The same 20-credit program has also been offered by the seven
regional learning centers sponsored by the CIP and are open to anyone
interested, not just college students.
In parallel with the training programs described above, the CIP has also
provided traineeships starting from 2002 (Huang 2011, pp. 87-91), with the goal
of further professionalizing the indigenous language teaching workforce. From
2002 to 2007, the traineeships consisted of the observation of language
classrooms and the practical application of these observations, as well as the
understanding of the design of the textbooks and the current situation of
indigenous language teaching, among other topics. In 2008, the CIP decided to
reorganize the traineeship program as the teachers would not necessarily be
limited to teaching junior high school students (see less-conventional
in §40.3.1.4). In addition, the content of the program needed to be updated
since newer textbooks were available for the teachers. Therefore, the CIP
offered different categories of traineeships starting in 2008 in order to target
the full range of needs, such as teaching indigenous languages in
urban area, teaching in a multi-dialect area, teaching indigenous languages
to children, etc.
However, in 2010, the CIP remarked that these programs were not properly
organized and adapted for the teachers to efficiently meet
In response, in 2010, the CIP established the magic school traineeship which
involved a new perspective on indigenous language teaching (Siri Silan 2010;
Huang 2011, p. 90). Specifically, the CIP explicitly recognized that the
indigenous languages were no longer the native languages of the younger
generations, and instead considered them second or foreign languages from a
psycholinguistic perspective. Consequently, teaching methodology should
correspond to that of second language instruction in order to be more efficient.
This concept resulted in the implementation of the Communicative Approach
in the new traineeship program reflecting the pedagogical direction taken by
the CIP in the indigenous languages revitalization plans (see Council of
26 CHAPTER 40
Indigenous Peoples 2014).
40.4.2.3 Local-government level training programs
Training programs for indigenous language teachers have also been offered by
city and county governments. Huang (2011, pp. 91-101) exemplifies them with
the workshops held by Nantou County, Hsinchu County and New Taipei
(formerly Taipei County) from 2007 to 2010. The aim of this section is to
understand the extent to which these local programs differ from those
implemented by the central government.
The training workshops in Nantou were held in 2007 and 2008. Each
consisted of 36-hour intensive courses covering topics related to linguistic
analysis of the language (e.g., phonetic and orthographic systems, lexicon,
syntactic structures) and pedagogical issues (e.g., design and application of the
9-Level and companion textbooks). The 2008 workshop was slightly different
in that courses on language policies, literature and culture were also offered.
In other words, at first glance, the content of the courses does not seem to differ
greatly from those offered by the central government. However, a closer
inspection of the local programs indicates that the content of the courses was
adapted for the indigenous languages spoken (and therefore very likely to be
taught at school) in the region of Nantou County. For instance, phonetics and
transcription courses targeted Atayal (in 2007 and 2008), Seediq (2008),
Bunun (2008) as well as Thao (2008). In addition, dialectal differences were
also taught. The same remarks as above could also be made about the
workshops proposed by Hsinchu County in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The content
of the courses was also language- and pedagogical-oriented, with a focus on
the indigenous languages of Hsinchu County (e.g., Atayal).
The workshops held by the former Taipei County were of different kinds.
Indeed, the sociolinguistic characteristics of Taipei County are very different
from other counties in Taiwan for several reasons. First, unlike Nantou and
Hsinchu County, no Formosan language is spoken indigenously in Taipei
County nowadays. Instead, the only speakers of indigenous languages in Taipei
and New Taipei are migrants who have moved to the capital city and
surrounding areas for economic reasons. Second, the area of the former Taipei
County is very urbanized, so there are other considerations to take into
account when teaching indigenous languages. Therefore, instead of focusing
on the local indigenous languages, the workshops held in Taipei County
concentrated on topics related to teaching in urban areas, such as the
understanding of the language policies (including very practical issues such as
the establishment of contracts under such policies), teaching at language nests,
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 27
the implementation of the Communicative Approach in the classrooms, as
well as more culture-related courses, since the original indigenous cultures
cannot be experienced in the capital city (see also S. Chen (2016) who
emphasizes the importance of training the teachers to transmit cultural
content in addition to language).
40.4.3 The limitations of the training programs for indigenous language
teachers
The training programs proposed by the central and local authorities are
necessary and certainly beneficial for the teachers of indigenous languages.
However, several limitations can be pointed out.
First, participation is not mandatory, meaning that there are still quite a few
teachers who have not received such training. Based on the statistics provided
by Huang (2014, pp. 71-72) regarding the number of participants in the
workshops held by the central government between 2002 and 2013, it is clear
that there are fewer and fewer teachers attending them. This is surely due to
the fact that teachers of indigenous languages are not obligated to do so. A
second problem concerns the shortness of the training programs, consisting of
only 36 hours. McNaught (2021, p. 134) compares with the qualifications for
teaching English as a foreign language which requires several hundred hours
of courses and training.
15
Indeed, as a result of these two limitations, the
training of indigenous language teachers may not be comprehensive enough,
which may affect the pedagogy employed during the class. For instance, Rau
et al. (2007, p. 167) report the following comments from a teacher of Yami:
immediately saw that the students struggled greatly and could not keep up.
e the grammar translation method,
so we began to go back to grammar translation, or we would not have been
Consequently, the teacher favors the passive
learning of the language, i.e., the analytic abilities and comprehension of the
language by the students, meaning that they are not taught to communicate in
makes reference to Mandarin-specific constructions (e.g., the ba-construction)
to explain the grammatical rules. At the same time, the teacher also admits
that she uses audio-lingual practices. Taken together, these show that different
pedagogical methodologies are used within the same course even if these
methodologies are based on different concepts and have different objectives.
15
The same remarks could also be made for other languages such as French.
28 CHAPTER 40
This exemplifies to some extent a lack of theoretical and practical training on
the part of the teacher. Hence, in taking the course, the students mostly
memorize sentences in order to pass the indigenous language exams, rather
than learning how to communicate (Rau 2015, p. 44). These problems are not
restricted to the Yami courses. Wang (2022, pp. 27-29), while describing the
Puyuma courses he attended, remarks that the main activities consisted of
reading texts while the teacher explains the grammatical rules and the
meaning of the words. Again, only the comprehension capacities of the
students are targeted, and not their communicative abilities. This pedagogy is
similar to the Grammar-Translation method, which is conceptually distant
from the Communicative Approach promoted by the CIP.
However, it must be noted that comparing the teacher training workshops
for indigenous languages with graduate programs for teaching English or
French as a foreign language is not completely fair. Indeed, the sociolinguistic
situation of world major languages is obviously quite different from that of
are endangered and do not have
enough teachers able to teach them. In other words, the training of teachers of
is a matter of emergency, and given the rate at
they are disappearing, one may wonder whether it is realistic to spend several
years training teachers. In addition, promoting such graduate programs raises
other concerns. First, this assumes that there are people qualified in each
language/dialect able to train the teachers-to-be who can commit to this task
for several years. While this would obviously be the ideal situation, it is far from
realistic. Indeed, as illustrated by Huang (2011), most of the trainers are
university professors, researchers, school principals, etc., meaning that it is
practically impossible for them to commit to another graduate program. In
addition, most of the trainees are not full-time students and need to work
(often already as teachers of indigenous languages) in addition to attending
workshops. Therefore, while McNaught (2021, p. 134) are
legitimate, one must also keep in mind that the teaching of indigenous
languages in Taiwan faces numerous specific obstacles, foremost among which
are (a) the relatively large number of languages/dialects to teach, and (b) the
.
Nevertheless, it must also be noted that Huang (2011, pp. 102-105) offered
several suggestions regarding university-level curriculum for the teaching of
indigenous languages. These suggestions have been put into practice as the 20-
credit curriculum is now available in at least five colleges and seven regional
learning centers. However, it is still too early to assess the effects of these
programs as they have only been offered for a few years.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 29
40.5 Implementing the standardized language proficiency tests
40.5.1 Overview
The teaching of the indigenous languages of Taiwan did not only depend on
the design of teaching materials and programs to train language teachers, but
also on the implementation of standardized language proficiency tests, which
were probably the first of their kinds in the world (Wu 2019). Currently, these
tests are divided into five levels: elementary, intermediate, high intermediate,
advanced and superior. One specific issue with these tests is that they were
designed for purposes other than assessing the proficiency of learners of
indigenous languages. For instance, one must pass the advanced test to qualify
to be a language teacher. The elementary and intermediate tests are necessary
in order to obtain extra points when taking high school and university
entrance examinations.
The evolution of the standardized proficiency tests is summarized in Figure
40.3 below. In total, five different stages can be identified concerning this
evolution (Huang 2014, Wu & Huang 2018, Wu 2019). Each stage is further
described in the remaining of this section.
30 CHAPTER 40
Figure 40.3. Evolution of the standardized proficiency tests (based on
Huang 2014, Wu & Huang 2018, Wu 2019)
40.5.2 The evolution of the design of the standardized indigenous language
proficiency tests
40.5.2.1 Stage 1 (2001-2006): The tests for language teachers
The standardized proficiency tests were first implemented by the CIP in 2001,
and were the direct result of the nine-year compulsory curriculum which
included courses on indigenous languages, thus necessitating teaching
materials and qualified teachers, as discussed in §40.3 and §40.4. One of the
major issues was the proficiency in the language they
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 31
intended to teach; in other words, were they fluent enough to teach these
languages? The standardized indigenous language proficiency tests were
designed in order to address this issue. Anyone who wanted to become a
teacher of indigenous language was required to pass this examination (Huang
2003, p. 7). The first session was held in 2001 by the National Chengchi
University Center of Aboriginal Studies, and had a passing rate of 72.9% among
the 2956 examinees (Huang 2007b, p. 90). The tests represented 12 languages
with versions for the different dialects thereof, yielding a total of 38 versions of
the tests.
Due to the success of the tests in 2001 in terms of the number of participants,
they were offered again during the following years but with important changes.
First, two additional dialects were included. Second, the tests were held at
National Taiwan Normal University. Third, linguists were involved in the
development of the tests starting in 2002, which, far from trivial, brought about
important changes and improvements. For instance, the transcription system
had not been completely accurate and consistent across the different
languages and dialects in 2001; the test items were not diverse enough; there
were too many discrepancies in terms of level of difficulty between
languages/dialects, etc. To address these issues, at least one linguist was
assigned to each dialect to design and/or correct the tests (Huang 2003, pp. 8-
9; Huang 2007b, p. 86).
16
The tests were divided into two types of items,
depending on whether they were targeting (a) written comprehension or (b)
oral comprehension and production. The written comprehension section
consisted of 50 items, including tasks of different kinds (e.g., putting words in
order to create a well-formed sentence, fill-in-the-blank, etc.). The oral
examination took the form of a discussion, and the oral competence was
assessed by the examiners.
Progressively fewer people signed up for the tests in 2003 and 2004, and the
tests were cancelled in 2005 and 2006 (Huang 2014, p. 78).
40.5.2.2 Stage 2 (2007-2012): The tests for high school students
The proficiency tests were redesigned in 2007 to serve two purposes. In
addition to assessing the language proficiency of prospective teachers as in the
original version, a student test was also created so that indigenous students
could be credited extra points in high school and college entrance exam,
following a decision by the CIP and MOE. In order to obtain these extra points,
16
This means that each linguist likely assisted with the tests for more than one
language/dialect.
32 CHAPTER 40
the indigenous students were required to pass the language test.
17
However,
the original tests were designed for presumably-fluent adults, and were thus
not adapted for a young(er) public. Therefore, a second test was needed. This
test was simpler, in that it only assessed the listening and speaking
abilities.
40.5.2.3 Stage 3 (2013): Division of the student tests into two
As previously mentioned, the student test was designed to assess the language
proficiency of students who wished to gain extra points on their senior high
school and college entry examinations. This meant that students at both levels
had to take a common test which was not fine-tuned to either group in terms
of complexity. In other words, tests designed to be difficult enough to assess
the proficiency of senior high school students were too difficult for junior high
school students. Conversely, it was not possible to adapt these tests for the
junior high school students as this would have made them too easy for the
senior high school students. Therefore, the CIP decided to split the student
tests into two types in order to target different audiences: (a) junior high school
students taking the senior high school entrance examination; and (b) senior
high school students taking the college entrance examination. These two tests
differed in terms of difficulty, which was defined according to the 9-Level
Textbooks: The tests for junior high school students only covered the
vocabulary and sentence patterns of the first three levels, while the one for
senior high school students included the fourth level.
40.5.2.4 Stage 4 (2014-2016): Separation of the tests by level
The language proficiency tests were overhauled in 2014, prior to which their
primary targets were either adults seeking to become language teachers, or
students who wanted to obtain extra points on entrance examinations. With
the pre-2014 from of the tests, individuals who were interested in assessing
their own proficiency in indigenous languages for any other reason might have
been confused about which test to take, as the difference in difficulty was not
made explicitly clear (Huang 2014, p. 79). Therefore, the tests were reworked
based on four levels: elementary, intermediate, advanced and superior. The
elementary and intermediate tests correspond to the two student tests, while
17
In other words, this means that having an indigenous ethnic identity is not sufficient
for obtaining extra points, contrary to the common misunderstanding among many
Taiwanese people.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 33
the advanced test serves the same similar purpose as the earlier adult test, to
certify native speakers seeking to become language teachers. However, unlike
the adult test, all four skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) are
assessed at the advanced level. In other words, the elementary and
intermediate tests contain only listening and speaking skills. The superior level
(the highest level) was established to certify native speakers who would like to
become masters of their native languages. Like the advanced level, the
superior level includes the assessment of four skills, and there are no
limitations in terms of vocabulary and content used on the tests.
The creation of the advanced and superior tests followed three phases. The
first phase involved the designing of model test items. This phase was initially
led by the Indigenous Languages Research and Development Centre (ILRDC),
and later by the Indigenous Languages Research and Development
Foundation (ILRDF). The ILRDC and ILRDF formed a small research group
that consisted of (a) several native speakers of different languages, (b)
researchers from the ILRDC or the ILRFD, and (c) two linguists. Most of the
recruited native speakers had received some training in linguistics, and they
were asked with creating several sets of model test items for the higher levels
with the help of the ILRDC or ILRDF researchers and the linguists. Each test
item was then translated into Mandarin. These model test items serve as a
basis for the second phase, which was the building of the test item bank. The
Mandarin version was first screened and revised by a group whose members
were mostly linguists, and then the revised version was converted by the native
speakers into test items for a total of 42 dialects representing 16 indigenous
languages. Before the conversion task, these native speakers went through a
tutorial workshop on item design. Then, the native speakers worked on the
revision of the converted test item with a linguist who had specialized in the
target language. The third phase was the final proof-reading and revision
before the implementation of the tests. This three-phase procedure thus
increased consistency among the test items created by speakers of different
languages as well as improved accuracy due to the collaboration with
researchers and linguists.
It is thus obvious that beginning with this stage, the role of the linguists has
become crucial as they are not only consultants, but have significant tasks to
perform. For example, to ensure accuracy and quality, they need to carefully
read and consider the questions at least twice, once during the building of the
test item bank and again before the implementation of the tests. They need to
help eliminate errors in orthography, punctuation, and style. For the high-
intermediate and advanced levels, they needed to ensure that each test item
adhered to the vocabulary rules, so that words would not exceed the
34 CHAPTER 40
appropriate level. In addition, linguists needed to (a) remind native speakers
not to produce Mandarin-like sentences (i.e., calques), and (b) encourage
them to follow the rule of using words included in the official reference
materials (e.g., the wordlists and the 9-Level Textbooks) and structures that
most examinees could comprehend instead of dialectal forms.
Finally, another difference must be noted between (a) the elementary and
intermediate tests and (b) the advanced and superior tests. While the items on
the two lower-level tests are the same for each session, the items on the two
higher tests are replaced for each session, meaning that these tests undergo the
aforementioned three-phase process each time, including the involvement of
linguists and native speakers.
40.5.2.5 Stage 5 (2017-present): Addition of the high-intermediate test
A high-intermediate level has been added to the original four-level tests to
compensate for the gap in the difficulty level between the intermediate and
advanced levels. Nowadays, passing this new level is a requirement before
graduation for government-funded college students who enrol in the teacher
training program, so that a certain level of language competence can be
guaranteed among future teachers.
Changes also occurred in 2017 concerning the training of the native speakers
composing the teams creating the test items. Some linguists have been
recruited by a research group of the ILRDC and ILRDF in order to lead this
training. Its content is as follows.
The linguists first teach the native speakers the fundamental knowledge and
skills of designing test items for speaking, listening, reading, and writing before
the native speakers start to work. Following this, the linguists meet regularly
with the native speakers and advise them how to revise their items. Moreover,
this training is only offered to a small number of native speakers possessing a
considerable knowledge of linguistics as an additional tutorial for advanced
participants. It is hoped that after this training, the native speakers will be
competent enough to train future test item providers for their own languages.
Finally, it should be noticed that it takes at least four months to create the
test items for each level. For instance, a program for training test item
providers for the advanced level was held from August 2022 to October 2022.
Some of the native speakers who joined the research groups before were
recruited to teach the tutorial courses for that program. During the four
months, the group members met bi-weekly to discuss the test items. Before
each meeting, the linguists had to read the draft questions and provide
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 35
comments and suggestions for revision.
18
40.5.1.2 The limitations of the standardized proficiency tests
According to Wu & Huang (2018) and Wu (2019), there are quite a few
problems or challenges that have been encountered in the implementation of
the standardized proficiency tests, particularly in the development of the test
item. These problems are further described below.
40.5.1.2.1 The production of the lower-level tests
The lower-level tests, which include the former student tests and the later
beginner as well as the intermediate levels, are constructed by extracting the
examples and practice questions from two learning handbooks that are
compiled to assist participants when preparing for the standardized tests.
Every year, the same sentences are chosen from the handbooks and rearranged
into different sets for the tests. Even if a native speaker of each dialect is
recruited to check the accuracy of the question sets before the administration
of the tests, there is in fact hardly any revision or replacement of the test items.
This has caused some language teachers to complain about the low
difficulty level of the questions. This is the case for instance of a Yami teacher
who, while being interviewed by Rau (2015, p. 44), remarked that the students
mostly memorize the sentences, leading to unnatural situations as they all
provide almost the same answers to the same questions.
However, the authorities have been hesitant to revise the questions as
increasing their difficulty might lower the passing rate and negatively affect
the benefits of the test takers, especially those who need the passing certificate
for their school or job application. In addition, especially at the elementary
level, it is complicated to create a large variety of sentences covering the
targeted communicative competences. In other words, these limitations could
be considered a necessary evil.
18
Notice that all tasks mentioned in Stages 4 and 5 require considerable time and effort
from the linguists who provide assistance in addition to their regular job. They often
have to hold meetings with the native speakers and discuss how to revise the test
items and explain their rationales. However, sad to say, not all the native speakers
appreciate their help. Some even refuse to follow their suggestions and corrections.
For linguists, on the other hand, this is also a place to observe language change and
obsolescence.
36 CHAPTER 40
40.5.1.2.2 The production of the higher-level tests
Unlike the lower-level tests, new test items are created for the higher levels
each time the tests are offered. The three-phase process for creating the test
items, described in §40.4.2.4., has certainly been successful in mitigating the
limitations of these tests. Nevertheless, some problems remain.
First of all, most of the native speakers involved do not have sufficient
professional knowledge or experience designing test items. Most simply
translate the Mandarin questions into their own languages instead of adapting
them to meet the features of their own language, thus creating items that are
not suitable for the test takers. For example, it is often the case that the context
depicted in the Mandarin questions does not fit the culture of the target
language, but the test item providers fail to revise these questions and increase
their level of difficulty. They may even create questions with more than one
correct answer s a result of this problem. In addition, they may use Mandarin-
like structures when translating the Mandarin questions into their native
insufficient language abilities but also their lack of knowledge about the test
design.
Second, many native speakers are not used to the official orthography
system, let alone the correct punctuations. Such native speakers often simply
follow their own writing habits and may even spell a single word in two
different ways. In addition, these test item providers tend to follow the
punctuation rules for Mandarin instead of those of their own languages when
composing the questions.
The last . Some of them
may fail to preserve the confidentiality of their jobs and reveal the test items
to other people even though they have signed an agreement to not reveal their
work to outsiders. Such illegal behavior has caused problems at the
administrative level as well as unfairness for the examinees. However, even if
such problems have been encountered with some test item providers, the
production of the test items still relies on them, as there is a shortage of
competent speakers that can be recruited to do this work.
40.6 Concluding remarks
The lifting of the martial law in 1987 undoubtedly changed the fate of the
languages spoken in Taiwan, including non-indigenous local languages
(Southern Min and Hakka) and indigenous local languages. However, decades
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 37
of strict prohibition of speaking these languages had a severe negative effect
on these languages, and especially the indigenous languages, of which most (if
not all) are now endangered. This chapter has attempted to provide an
overview of the significant decisions and policies which have been adopted
regarding the revitalization of indigenous languages, in particular
regarding the teaching thereof. A summary was provided of how indigenous
language teaching has developed over the last three decades, focusing on the
three main elements as proposed by Huang (1998, p. 77): (a) language policies
favoring the development, teaching and continued transmission of indigenous
languages; (b) the materials and programs which have been developed for the
learning and teaching of these languages; and (c) the language proficiency
tests related to specific language policies. The main achievements are
summarized in Figure 40.4.
38 CHAPTER 40
Figure 40.4. Main achievements of the development of indigenous
language teaching in Taiwan (1996-2022)
The indigenous languages of Taiwan are far from being revitalized, and many
of them are still on the verge of disappearing. Nevertheless, native speakers,
linguists, experts and authorities have not been unresponsive in the face of this
situation. On the contrary, we must acknowledge the considerable time, effort
and willingness to cooperate that these parties have contributed in order to
revitalize the indigenous languages of Taiwan.
REVIEW OF TAIWAN INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE TEACHING 39
The unique historical and sociolinguistic situation of the indigenous
languages of Taiwan complicates effort to revitalize them through teaching, far
more than in Zealand. Indeed, where the
abovementioned parties in other countries can focus their effort on a single
language needing revitalization, Taiwan has 16 languages and 42 dialects
needing attention, requiring more time and effort. As a result, while policy-
ma
situation in Taiwan requires the development of far more complex
revitalization plans than elsewhere.
Finally, we should not forget that language revitalization involves changing
individuals who
represent the part of the indigenous population which is the primary target of
current language policy. However, these youths are growing up in a world that
is more and more globalized and internationalized, which is reflected, for
example, in the intention by the Taiwanese government to boost the teaching
of English so that most of
Mandarin and English (Lin 2021). Such decisions also involve indigenous
children who, consequently, are being asked to provide much more effort in
school, despite the socioeconomic hardships that they are already
experiencing as a result of historical issues (S. Chen 2020, pp. 130-135;
McNaught 2021, pp. 132-134). These factors, and others, should also be
considered in the development of future language policies involving the
teaching of indigenous, Southern Min, Hakka or foreign languages (Her 2020).
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