Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elise Ao Ieong U said on Friday that the government will continue to strengthen the application of English in different fields, striving to cultivate English-language talents to help Macau become a world tourism and leisure centre while also promoting the appropriate diversification of Macau’s economy through the English language
Ao Ieong made the remarks when replying to an oral interpellation by lawmaker Wang Sai Man during a plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle.
In his interpellation, Wang asked about strengthening Macau’s “internationalisation” strategy, namely whether the government was considering to promote English in different areas, such as the tourism and business sectors. He also asked about the government’s plans to cultivate English-language talents in Macau.
Ao Ieong noted that in non-tertiary education, the government has promoted schools to enhance students’ English-language skills through curriculum reform, adding that in the “2021/2022 Academic Year”, all formal education schools offered English courses or related educational activities, while 15 of the schools used English as their language of instruction, with a total of 13,400 students, accounting for around 15 percent of the students in formal education. Due to the development needs of civil society, more schools with an international curriculum and English as one of the teaching languages will be launched in the future, Ao Ieong added.
Moreover, Ao Ieong said, the Education Fund launched the “Interschool Teaching and Research Pilot Plan” in the academic year 2021/2022 to promote interschool teaching and research activities, such as the subject of English in secondary schools, adding that the government has continued to optimise the curriculum, teaching and activities through its School Development Plan while organising different activities, such as launching programmes to study English abroad, summer activities in English and exchange visits overseas for Macau tertiary education students, so that students can practise and improve their English skills through a variety of ways of learning the language.
According to Ao Ieong, in terms of tertiary education, at present, nearly 40 percent of students from Macau, i.e., more than 10,000 students are pursuing their studies in English-speaking countries or regions or in local higher education institutions that have English as their main teaching language, or are attending higher education courses that include teaching in English in Macau or elsewhere, thereby acquiring different levels of academic qualification. Ao Ieong said that more than 1,000 students completed their secondary school education in the 2020/2021 academic year, or 30 percent of the total number of secondary school students.
Ao Ieong also said that in order to continue to cultivate local English-language talents, the public University of Macau (UM), Macao Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and the University of Saint Joseph (USJ) use English as their main language of instruction and continue to cultivate talents with good English ability in various professional fields.
Meanwhile, several lawmakers raised concerns about the lack of using English in areas such as road signs and cultural heritage site names.
Ao Ieong said that in many countries and regions where English is not an official language, road signs may not include English, adding that pinyin could basically solve the problem.
However, Ao Ieong underlined that the signing for Macau’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites comprises Chinese, English, Portuguese and Japanese.
Ao Ieong also pointed out that Chinese and Portuguese are Macau’s official languages.
Even without official status, English has been Macau’s lingua franca for decades.
Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elise Ao Ieong U addresses Friday’s plenary session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. Photo courtesy of TDM
