I. Features of NTTU’s BEST Program

        As the center of higher education in Taitung, National Taitung University (NTTU) pursues the sustainable development of Taitung in tune with the Program on Bilingual Education for Students in College (BEST). For this purpose, NTTU adopts Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations as its core values, with a special accent put on “health”, “wisdom”, “aesthetic”, and “sustainability.”

        NTTU’s Office for Bilingual Education (OBE) was established as part of the Center for General Education (CGE) in the 2022 academic year. To organize bilingual teaching activities and EMI teacher enhancement workshops, CGE and OBE collaborated closely with administrative and educational centers such as Library and Information Center, Language Center, Center of International Affairs, and Chinese Language Teaching and Studying Center.

        4 EMI courses were offered by the Department of English and Department of Education for the sophomore and master levels. In addition to language and academic knowledge, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were integrated into the EMI courses as well. 

        NTTU’s BEST program aimed to cultivate the students’ interdisciplinary competences and develop the network of bilingual education. To attain these goals, faculty and students from both NTTU and partner schools were required to participate in international green university activities, while international conferences and teacher enhancement workshops for teachers from all teaching backgrounds were organized. The ultimate goal of NTTU’s BEST program is to formulate the league of bilingual education in Taitung.

II. Highlights

1. Growing Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

        NTTU’s BEST program set KPIs that grew annually. The following are KPIs for the 2023 academic year:

        (1) 16% of English classes taught entirely in English, (2) 4% of sophomore students and first-year master program students take one EMI course, (3) 10% of school faculty participate in a series of teacher enhancement workshops, and (4) 15% of International Green University/SDGs events conducted in English. All of the indicators above have been achieved.

    2.  English class:

        74 English classes (including Freshman English and Sophomore English) were offered in the 2022 and 2023 academic years respectively. In 2022, 10.8% of the English classes were entirely taught in English; the percentage grew to 16.2% in 2023. 

    3. EMI Courses

        NTTU’s BEST program provided subsidies for 4 EMI courses for the sophomore and master levels. In the 2022 academic year, 3.6% of sophomore and first-year master students took (and passed) an EMI course. The number grew to 4% in 2023.

    4. Teacher Enhancement Workshops:

        In the 2022 and 2023 academic years, OBE organized a complete series of teacher enhancement workshops (17 in total, including online and in-person workshops). What’s more, OBE encouraged English teachers and EMI teachers to form a teacher learning community, which held nine seminars in total. 

    5. School Support System

        Furthermore, to build up an EMI-friendly environment, OBE organized teacher enhancement workshops while simultaneously offering subsidies to teachers who teach entirely in English. 24 courses were included in the subsidy list in the 2022 and 2023 academic years. 

        To better enable students to engage in whole English learning environment, teaching assistants (TA) were assigned to courses offered entirely in English (including EMI and English language courses). English Presentation Workshops were also held by OBE to help foster students’ ability to give oral presentations in English. 

    6. Source Sharing and Intercollegiate Cooperation

        NTTU collaborated with partner school Far Eastern University (the Philippines) to co-host the “Online Workshop of International Green University Interdisciplinary Achievement Outcomes.” In the workshops of 2022 and 2023, ten groups of students gave English presentations. To make students better prepared for the workshops, they were asked to attend English speaking and writing seminars offered by native speaker teachers, who revised students’ drafts and improve their oral skills.

        In addition, NTTU encouraged its teaching faculty to have academic exchanges with other universities. In 2022, NTTU’s EMI teacher community visited National Pingtung University (NPTU), also a member of Southern Regional Resource Center for Bilingual Education, and shared their experiences on conducting the EMI courses with teachers from there. In 2023, the same community had academic exchanges with scholars from Soochow University (Taiwan), Kansai University (Japan), and the University of Central Lancashire (the U.K.). 

    7. Public Information

        In the 2022 academic year, the webpage of OBE was created as part of the website of Center for General Education. In the 2023 academic year, an independent website of OBE was created. Important announcements were issued on the OBE webpage and the NTTU school website.

    8. English Learning Activities and Contest

        A high proportion of the students in NTTU reached only CEFR A1 and A2 levels in English. Consequently, it was imperative that the students’ English abilities be improved as soon as possible. In addition to “Talk with Native Speakers” arranged by the Language Center, NTTU established an English Corner in Jingsin College. 66 English learning workshops were offered by the OBE in the English Corner. Also, the OBE organized two “Picture & One English Sentence Contests.” The contestants had to submit a photo taken by themselves and an English sentence crafted by themselves to describe the photo. 349 works were submitted in the 2022 and 2023 academic years. 

        To enhance students' interest in English learning, OBE held special events such as whale-watching and tribal exploration. In addition, OBE promoted NTTU and BEST program’s key concepts by adding a bilingual section in CGE's semiannual publication, Jingsin Anthology. This section is committed to introducing the core values of NTTU as a Green International University, emphasizing the values of “health”, “wisdom”, “aesthetic”, and “sustainability.” 

III. Self-Evaluation

        To ensure the success of all the aforementioned events, OBE set up a committee board and held 19 meetings, which were meant to examine and monitor the implementation of the program and course results. Advice as well as assistance was offered by the committee. All budgets of the BEST program were made, reviewed, and supervised by its committee board.