Foreword
English Ability and National Competitiveness Seminar
On January 6, 2010, the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission held an “English Ability and National Competitiveness” conference at the NCCU Center for Public & Business Administration Education. The opening remarks were given by Minister without Portfolio Ovid J. L. Tzeng and RDEC Deputy Minister Kuo-Yen Wei. Scholars and experts such as Dr. Si-Gin Kao, Dr. Clara Yu, Dr. Edward H. Chow, and Dr. Yue-Shan Chang were invited to speak. During discussions many suggestions were raised for improving the soft power of English ability in Taiwan.
Minister without Portfolio Ovid J. L. Tzeng said that Taiwan will face more and more fierce international competition in the future, and so he hoped this conference could help form a broad consensus and provide suggestions for future policies for improving English ability in Taiwan. RDEC Deputy Minister Kuo-Yen Wei said that the RDEC will coordinate government departments and local governments over the next three years to promote the “Development Plan for Improving National English Ability” using the five strategies of “Cultivating Professional English Talents,” “Building English Immersion Study Environments,” “Using English Ability to Improve City Competitiveness,” “Using English to Advance International Service Quality,” and “Strengthening Integrated Support of Internationalization Promotion Mechanisms,” in the hope that improved English ability will serve as a resource to support Taiwan in international competition.
In the conference’s morning session, Commonwealth Publishing founder and University of Wisconsin, Department of Economics, Honorary Professor Dr. Si-Gin Kao and Monterey Institute of International Studies President Dr. Clara Yu gave speeches entitled “Getting on the International Track,” and “Crazy English, Joyous Learning, Soulful Rewards,” respectively. Dr. Clara Yu looked at global trends and pointed out that future professional talents will need to be bilingual in Chinese and English. She said that since Taiwan already has an advantage in Chinese language studies, improving national English ability will allow Taiwan to play a leading role as a bilingual bridge in the solving of international problems.
In the afternoon session, NCCU professor Dr. Edward H. Chow and NSYSU professor Dr. Yue-Shan Chang gave speeches on the issues of “Business English Ability and National Competitiveness” and “General English Ability and National Competitiveness: Starting from the Grassroots .”
Dr. Edward H. Chow said that since almost all of Taiwan’s major businesses are international corporations, English ability is something that definitely cannot be overlooked. On a national level, he agreed with Dr. Clara Yu’s perspective that English will still be the main language for international communication in the future, so improving English ability is an important issue for both business and the nation. For a different perspective, NSYSU professor Dr. Yue-Shan Chang summarized the current plans for improving national English ability and their implementation results. He reviewed the current situation in Taiwan in which the length of time spent studying English is too short and the overall English service coverage rate is insufficient, in addition to the problem of an incomplete assessment system. He made policy suggestions in the hope that the government could effectively integrate educational resources and nongovernmental strengths to improve national English ability in a sustainable operations format.
Experts and scholars such as Dr. Joanna Lei of the Hope Agent Development Association, NTU Vice-President Ming-Je Tang, 1111 Job Bank COO Ryan Wu, and Benjamin Wang, president of Chun Shin Limited, the ETS Representative in Taiwan, also joined the discussion. There were a total of about 160 participants from related central government agencies and local government agencies responsible for English language policies and internationalization promotion, as well as from non-governmental organizations working in international affairs. Enthusiastic discussions were held between the invited guests and the conference attendees, with many good suggestions being made for improving national English ability, thus providing a good reference for future policy implementation.
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