Abstract

College of Fashion and Textiles, Fu Jen Catholic University - 2021~2022 Annual Performance and Highlights of “The Program on Bilingual Education for Students in College, BEST”

The college of Fashion and Textiles in Fu Jen Catholic University is the first and only of its kind in Taiwan. Our mission is to educate our students with professional knowledge and skills, a global view, and sense of humanity and social commitment. 

Our college is also one of the few Arts and Humanities colleges which have obtained the “The Program on Bilingual Education for Students in College, BEST” grant from the Ministry of Education. We expect that with this grant we can assist our students to elevate their English proficiency level which will enhance their global mobility, increase their competitiveness as they develop careers on world stage, and contribute to the overall expansion of interdisciplinary communication. 

The areas in our college where we have implemented our specific EMI education strategies include: 1. Administration, 2. Teachers, 3. Teaching materials, 4. Students, 5. Expanding the influence of international education, 6. Expanding the breadth of EMI education nationally. The following are the highlights of our performance in the BEST program for the 1st year, 21/22 corresponding to the KPIs of the EMI provision:

1. Institutional strategy and management: 
   1. The International Bilingual Office (IBO) in our college was founded and established its operational mechanism with a coherent approach in relation to the university-level Bilingual Education Center (BEC) to promote the BEST program and bilingual education. 
   2. A space dedicated solely to our college’s bilingual project has been created in Fashion and Textiles Hall＃2 in effort to grow a bilingual environment. We have purchased audio-visual equipment and some other bilingual materials for the bilingual events which are hosted in this space. 
   3. A reward system for seed teachers has been established in our college to promote the BEST program and EMI education. We have recruited five seed teachers and have encouraged them to develop an EMI education pedagogy and teaching materials. 
   4. One native speaking assistant professor has been hired to promote the BEST program and improve the English functionality for both teachers and students, also to help teachers speed up their publication of academic papers.  
2. Teachers and Teaching: 
   1. Planned and opened new EMI courses on professional subjects relevant to Textiles and Clothing in order to refine the learning map for our students, to improve their English ability in relation to professional skills, and to enhance their competitiveness internationally.  
   2. Continued promotion of EMI enhancement plans for our EMI teachers, encouraging them to develop multimedia teaching materials and improve EMI teaching pedagogies. To this end, five of our EMI teachers have shared their EMI teaching experiences in a panel discussion at the “2022 Conference on Teaching Practice in Foreign Languages and Literatures” hosted by the College of Foreign Languages in our university. 
   3. Nineteen new EMI courses were offered during the 21/22 school year (16 in-person and three online); we will continue to gradually add new EMI courses in the future. 
   4. Among the observed EMI courses, all fully met the working definition that 70% of class communication takes place in English. A student satisfaction survey of EMI learning was also conducted, and found a satisfaction rate of 90.6% among 289 students in 15 EMI classes. 
   5. Eleven EMI teachers were invited to take the “Cambridge Certificate in EMI Skills” online course and three of them obtained the course certificate.
   6. With the editing assistance of our native speaking teacher on academic articles from three of our EMI teachers, three papers were accepted for publication.
3. Students and Learning: 
   1. Assessed students’ input language proficiency (listening & reading) with the Oxford Placement Test (OPT), and output language proficiency (speaking & writing) with the assistance of General English teachers from the Holistic Education Center in our university which showed that 49.35% of our 2021 Sophomore students met the “CEFR B2 level and above” requirement. 
   2. There were 104 students from our EMI courses (Print Design/Portfolio Design/Fashion Retailing) who gave their final presentation in English and showed a good learning outcome. 
   3. Held English Corner activities during both semesters of the 21/22 school year. We surveyed the 234 participating students, and received positive feedback and a 90% satisfaction rate. 
   4. Assisted many outstanding students from our college who participated the MOE Scholarship Program for Overseas Study in Arts and Design (SPOSAD) prepare their English documents (such as portfolios, personal statements, study plans) and one of them was successfully admitted to the Royal College of Art. 
   5. English writing and editing workshops were offered to help many students on their documents and portfolios to obtain a higher rate of admission to international competitions. 
4. Information to students and the public: A dedicated website for the BEST program has been established to promote EMI education and communicate to our students and to the public. We have also created an online space called “eCloud@FT” which aims to offer self-learning textiles/fashion design/fashion resources to students. The contents of eCloud@FT include: 
   1. Resources from the CTCCC (Chinese Textiles and Clothing Culture Center): Two bilingual audio-visual clips of Chinese textiles and clothing were made and published on our website through our social media platforms. Additional audio-visual series will continue to be published in the future. 
   2. e Textile Science: Two bilingual articles about Textile Sciences were published. 
   3. eFT Talk: Our college hosted an online bilingual international conference on sustainability called “2021 Orange Beneficence” and an audio-visual clip from this conference of three scholars discussing the topic of sustainability and beneficence in the fashion industry was later published online. 
   4. Fashion Glossary: Three volumes of bilingual entries plus pictures of fashion terminology were published online. 
5. Quality Assurance:
   1. Continuously promoted different kinds of quality assurance and inspection mechanisms to be regularly implemented that could ensure the quality of EMI course delivery.  
   2. Provided a reward mechanism for both teachers and students for their efforts to enhance their English proficiency, and as incentive for students to obtaining more credits from EMI courses. There were 50 students who applied for the reward for the 21/22 school year. 
   3. Conducted a qualitative survey among students in three EMI courses and among the 234 English Corner participants to review how EMI classes and activities were received and to understand student needs so that improvements may be made in the planning of activities in the future.    
6. Resource sharing and cross-institutional cooperation:
   1. Connected Taiwan’s higher education fashion-related institutions; formed a community of allied colleges/universities to share EMI resources.
7. Other initiatives: 
   1. Continuously increased EMI course offerings both in-person and online. Made preparations for co-teaching collaborations. Successfully invited three international scholars to co-teach with our teachers, increasing our EMI course and workshop offerings for the 22/23 school year. 
   2. Participated in international conferences to keep up with trends in our academic and professional fields worldwide. We have also done some international expansion for cross-institution cooperation in the future to bring more learning resources to our teachers and students.  
   3. Highlights of the unique learning outcomes related to our Fashion and Textiles background – two bilingual audio-visual clips promoting Textiles and Clothing Culture were created to carry out the following:
      • Revive our collection of Asian and Chinese clothing. 
      • Team up talents (who are also the stakeholders) in our BEST program (professors, teaching assistants, students, project assistants, alumni in related fields, professionals in related industries) to refashion clothes and produce related audio-visual materials. 
      • Make two high-quality bilingual videos on refashioning Chinese clothing culture which were presented in English at a conference on Innovation in Taiwan Textiles on 05/28/2022, demonstrating the abilities of both teachers and students to connect clothing and textile knowledge with EMI learning. 
      • Integrate with social media platforms to reach targeted audiences.    
      • Continue planning and producing audio-visual materials, publications and exhibitions of these series.  

Moving forward, we will continue to expand on the distinctiveness of Fu Jen University’s College of Clothing and Textiles, remain dedicated to the professionalism and culture of the College’s teachers and students, and deepen students’ ability to learn while strengthening their professional skills and global mobility.