Efforts and Concerns for Indigenous Language Education in Taiwan

Taiwan has over 16 tribes of Indigenous peoples, consisting of 42 local dialects from 3 major Austronesia language systems. Indigenous peoples in Taiwan have for centuries been assimilated into the surrounding Chinese Han culture. Following the international Indigenous people’s rights movements in the 1980s, Indigenous peoples in Taiwan started a cultural and social movement, which resulted in the legislation of the Indigenous Peoples’ Basic Law. The Basic Law leveraged room for negotiations to enact concrete efforts for Indigenous cultural revitalization. Language education is one of the most urgent priorities of this revitalization. The central government initiated a nationwide effort to preserve Indigenous languages. Two terms of the Six-Year Indigenous Language Revitalization Project have already been implemented by the government, which has laid the foundation for expanding Indigenous language education, including training Indigenous language teachers and developing an Indigenous Language Proficiency Certification. Many local governments are also involved in providing language learning opportunities for Indigenous children and youth, such as establishing Indigenous immersion kindergartens and incorporating Indigenous language curricula in elementary schools. Resources for online learning have also been designed, providing opportunities for learning Indigenous languages using computer and mobile technology. These top-down projects give rise to an increase of grassroots actions and awareness to preserve Indigenous languages has been intensified. This chapter provides an overview on works relevant to Indigenous language education in Taiwan and the challenges this project faces. Recommendations are given at the end to provide direction for future efforts on Indigenous language revitalization in Taiwan.