Drama Education Enhancing Multilingual Languages for Substation Learning in Taiwan

Abstract

Since 2018, the Taiwan government has issued the “Bilingual National Policy Blueprint”; most consider bilinguals as speaking Chinese and English. This policy of exclusively preferring English is very controversial in school education; not only do the professors of the English department, who seem to benefit from the policy have opinions, but some primary and secondary school teachers have changed bilingual education into EMI (English as Medium of Instruction) in class. In addition, representatives of the European Union and its member countries in Taiwan jointly wrote to the Executive Yuan to express their concern: the exclusive focus on English language will weaken the connection between Taiwan and European culture.

Bilingual education should be oriented towards multilingual education. Language learning must be integrated into life, learning in dialogue, situation, body, and emotion, just like the drama mode of young children playing make-believe. If this is the case, the Department of Linguistics could also add drama to make for a more “humanistic” in the use of language. When drama becomes an assistant, there is an additional layer of protection for student ‘future work. It will naturally increase the number of students in the department so that drama and learning foreign languages coexist.

If teachers or college students in the Department of Foreign Language learn drama conventions along with the language, they can understand that studying in this Department is not only about learning languages but also drama and they can see how the Taiwanese opera or puppet shows relate to drama. Just as British students in Tudor ages, combined learning language with drama, it was natural to have drama in the English Literature curriculum. In short, the performing arts course in Taiwan is not only to learn what drama is but also to learn other disciplines through drama, not only to use the playing elements of drama but also to assist the communication skills of language learning. Therefore, learning drama and foreign languages in this model is a win-win and sustainable in the discipline.