English Language Education in the National Development Planning of Modern Taiwan

Articulating and implementing national development plans (NDPS) has been a popular approach taken by most governments in the world in response to the opportunities and challenges occurring in domestic and international spheres. Since the 2000s the Taiwanese government has launched a series of NDPS with different goals, foci, and tactical approaches. This paper adopts a retrospective lens to examine how English language education has been strategically situated in the NDPS of Taiwan and reflects on both the alignments and misalignments between the unveiled goals of the NDPS and the policies pertaining to English language education of the nation over the last two decades. In the pursuit of the goals of the contemporary NDPS of the nation, strategic remodelling of teacher education programmes is needed through: (1) expanding bilingual/all-English programmes within departments; (2) advocating departmental interaction within/across teacher training institutes; and (3) optimising training and teaching opportunities for foreign students.