April 4-10, 2011
General Assembly News
PCTGAO promotes fun curriculum for kids to learn Taiwanese
Reported by Chiou Kuo-rong
Written by Lydia Ma
PCT General Assembly Office (PCTGAO) recently unveiled a brand new curriculum to teach children to read, speak, and write Taiwanese (also known as – Romanized Taiwanese). The new set of books and accompanying CD, “Let’s Learn POJ” – POJ curriculum for kids, was published by Taiwan Ethnic Languages Committee.
What’s remarkable about this new curriculum? For starters, it has been used in trial runs before a decision was ever made about whether or not it would be published. It was only after the curriculum received many accolades from experienced educators, it was confirmed that it would be published to promote Taiwanese.
According to PCTGAO, as young children growing up in Taiwan, people would learn Taiwanese naturally by speaking it at home and hearing it from their surrounding environment. But times have changed with the popularization of Mandarin in Taiwan. Now, Taiwanese must be officially taught for people to learn it, but for young children, an extra class called “mother language” is often an extra burden or homework they must deal with.
The sad state and slide of Taiwanese language across Taiwan prompted PCT to design this curriculum and incorporate many children’s games to make it both entertaining and informative.
According to PCT Taiwan Ethnic Languages Committee Chairwoman Kuo Yan-po, the earlier children learn their mother language, the easier it will be for them to become fluent Taiwanese listeners, readers, speakers, and writers.
Taiwanese Romanization Association director Chen Feng-hui, also one of the curriculum’s editors, reported that it took 3 years to write the curriculum. Its greatest strength is that it contains 101 word games that will surely entertain young children and teenagers. At the same time, the curriculum is also very suitable for adults and can produce the same effective results.
This curriculum comes with 3 books and 1 CD and will be unveiled later this month at an introductory seminar. Anyone interested in promoting or teaching Taiwanese can register for the seminar by contacting the PCTGAO at (02) 2362-5282 ext. 266.
