Taiwanese Parental Perceptions toward English Learn- ing in Bilingual Kindergarten

In Taiwan, the average age of learning English is declining year by year; most parents seek relevant channels to expose their children to English learning as early as possible despite a ban from the government. The pur-pose of this study was to investigate Taiwanese parents ’ opinions and rea-sons for sending their children to learn English in Chinese-English bilingual kindergartens. Eleven parents who enrolled their children in bilingual kindergartens were selected to participate in the semi-standardized inter-view procedure. The finding indicates that most parents disagree that learn-ing English in bilingual kindergartens would improve their children’s Eng-lish communicative competence; meanwhile, those parents think that chil-dren’s confidence is not thereby increased under the English immersion kindergartens. The results of this study can be broadly applicable to various groups, such as governmental authorities, school administrators, and EFL teachers to create a more complete English learning environment for kindergarten children