Over 40 students of the 2C class in the sophomore year of the Department of International Trade will go abroad to study for one year. They are the first students in this department that have had all lectures in English in the past two years. It is a pilot project aiming to enhance students’ English ability, which in turn would provide them the motivation for going abroad. After nearly two years, some of them are ready, as they have already received a place at the universities on the Junior Abroad Program, either through TKU or individual channel.

The universities they are going to include Curtin University of Technology in Australia; Washington State University, Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Winona State University in the US; and University of Warsaw in Poland. For the acceptance, those students needed to acquire a TOFEL score as high as 530 to 550 points. A few of them have even exceeded this requirement.

Their good performance in English can put down to the training they get in their English-only lectures. Not only teachers lecture in English, students also do all their assignments and presentations in English. They even communicate among themselves mostly in English with occasional Chinese here and there. In such an environment, they have become much more confident in their command of English comparing with others who are not in this pilot project.

Lei Ya-ting, who applied for Washington State University without going through TKU, indicated that for her the important criteria for a university abroad were a decent ranking and an affordable tuition. She had looked through the entire sister universities of TKU and written to some for them for details before she decided on WSU. As she does not want to graduate from that university, all she needs to provide is her TOFEL score, report cards and a study plan. No interview is required.

Wu Wei-ming, who applied for the University of Warsaw, Poland, through TKU, believed that he was accepted due to his extra-curriculum activity in TKU Chorus Club and his experience as the class speaker rather than his TOFEL performance. Although he still sees his English as his weakness, he admits that he has learned a great deal from the English-only course design, especially his reading ability. Liu Shi-pei, who is going to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, agrees with him that English lectures have benefited him tremendously even though he had great difficulty in following the courses initially. After some adjustment from his as well as the teachers’ side, he now finds everything much easier. (Ying-hsueh Hu)