Department Of International Trade has practiced the system of teaching their freshmen exclusively in English for one year. Continuing the method used in previous year, the enrollment for this English-only class is through application, with maximally 60 students. The enrollment for the new school year rises from 41 to 54. Chair Prof. Lin Jyh-horng remarks that such an increase in enrollment indicates the public recognition of the new system.

After a year of efforts the freshmen in this class have make distinctive progress. Chair Lin indicates “Next semester, the practice of this system will be more thorough. The remaining courses taught in Chinese (five core courses) will be reduced year by year. In the near future, the teaching language will be 100% in English.”

Recollecting the bitterness of being drilled in English is sweet. “Because we used to discuss what we learn with classmates after class, now we can understand most of the lesson” Wu Wei-ming remarked. “In the beginning, we use the most simple method—translating what we can’t understand word by word, sentence by sentence into Chinese” Chen Liang-yu added.

If this system is successful, the next step is to recommend students to join the “Four Plus One” Project—after four years of TKU study students attend abroad study for another one year to get a master degree. This is believed to highlight the “globalization-orientated” characteristic of TKU.

According to the plan, this English-only class is scheduled to go abroad in their junior year. For this reason, most of them are preparing for the upcoming TOEFL test in August. There are twenty students go to supplementary school to drill for the test—targeting at minimally 550 score. In addition to the two sister schools, Winona State U, USA and Curtin University of Technology, Australia, students can apply for better school if they can get a better TOEFL score. Nevertheless, one student remarked that “I applied for this class with the ambition to enter Harvard, but I find I am not so good, and the two sister schools will be good enough for me”.

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