| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 91 === In the modern world of technology, information, and business, Taiwanese are encouraged to equip themselves with the competence of the English language so as to increase their competitive ability in the global stage. However, there has been a voice calling for attention to the need of preserving local cultures. Promotion of native languages, crucial elements of local cultures, is thus being the focus of nativistic campaigns. Facing the dilemma between ‘globalization’ and ‘localization,’ what kind of attitudes do Taiwanese hold toward both language educational policies and toward the issue of choosing Taiwan’s second official language, English or indigenous languages? Together with the language issues, the degree of Taiwanese’ solidarity with their own ethnolinguistic group and inter-group relationship are another two concerns of this study. Four Research Questions of this study are listed as follows:
1. What are Taiwanese attitudes toward the current English
educational policies and relevant issues?
2. What are Taiwanese attitudes toward the current mother-
tongue educational policies and relevant issues?
3. What is the degree of Taiwanese solidarity with their own
ethnic-linguistic group?
4. What are Taiwanese preference of choosing a national
language and an official language?
The instrument in this study was a questionnaire. More than one thousand copies were distributed to seventeen cities and counties of the island. Of the collected copies, 947 were effective and statistically analyzed.
The major findings are summarized as follows:
1. Most of the respondents recognized the dominant linguistic
role that English plays internationally, and also they
realized the importance of English education and promotion
for the entire nation and individuals in an era of
globalization. Moreover, the statistical results indicate
a tendency: the general public showed demanding attitudes
toward the quantity of English education and the
qualifications of English teachers. In addition, the
results suggested that most of the respondents was
inclined to support English education to be implemented in
an earlier stage of the elementary school. Nevertheless,
to some extent, some respondents were worried about the
possible language interference when English, Mandarin, and
the indigenous language are simultaneously instructed.
2. The results of data analysis indicated that the respondents
generally expressed an affirmative attitude toward mother-
tongue maintenance in both family and school domains.
Besides, resources and supports of the government, local or
central, were regarded necessary for the success of mother
tongue promotion and maintenance. Furthermore, the
implementation of mother-tongue education was considered by
more than 75% of them to be beneficial for enhancing inter- group relations.
3. The respondent in general expressed more degree of
generosity in inter-group relations and less degree of
insistence on ethnic solidarity. When asked about which
ethnic group of members they felt more comfortable to get
along, about 44% of them replied that they felt easy to be
with members of any ethnic groups. Harmonious inter-group
relationship was thus proved. From the intra-group
perspective, the A/A group showed the strongest degree of
solidarity, the SM/SM group was reported to be second to
the A/A group, while the M/M demonstrated the weakest
degree. Another pleasant finding was that ethnic
identities of different groups were respected by t
he majority of the respondents. Furthermore, the result
showed that if the respondents could have a choice, more
than 40% of them expressed that they would accept any of
the four ethnic identities.
4. The results revealed that Mandarin was considered, by more
than 60 % of the rspondnets, suitable to be listed as the
official and the national language. However, the
percentage of the respondents supporting English to be
listed as the official language was about 50%, not as high
as that of supporting Mandarin. In addition, although
there is a symbolic or sentimental connection between one''s
mother-tongue and his/her ethnicity, the data showed that
members of each ethnolinguistic group did not express
intensive intention of listing their ethnic marking
language as the official or national language.
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