INTERNATIONAL:  Taiwanese students interacted with peers and faculty from schools in five US states including New York and New Jersey

STAFF WRITER, WITH CNA
Sunday, Jun 22, 2008, Page 2

An interactive video conference project aimed at sharpening Taipei students’ English-speaking skills has proved that students can make great strides in English through cultural exchanges with their US counterparts, according to the schools involved in the project.

With the assistance of the non-profit Institute for Information Industry, students from six schools in Taipei City have taken part in the project, dubbed the Global Multicultural Heritage Project (GMHP).

It was initiated by private US companies to enable students and teachers to create online media that showcased their own cultures and to apply communication skills with students and teachers around the Chinese-speaking world.

Students from the six schools — Taipei Municipal Yongchun Senior High School, Zhongzheng Senior High School, Dazhi High School, Dong Men Elementary School, Shuanglian Elementary School and Yucheng Elementary School — took part in the project on a trial basis.

INTERACTION

The students interacted with their peers and faculty from elementary and senior high schools in five US states, including New York, New Jersey and Ohio, through video conferences to practice speaking English, the schools said.

The significant progress made through the video conferences by some Shuanglian Elementary School students who had poor English skills showed that motivation and autonomous learning are keys to success in learning English, school teacher Huang Chao-chin (黃朝琴) said.

During the interactive video conferencing, “the kids discovered that Americans are human beings too who, like Taiwanese students, get nervous and like to eat,” Huang said.

English teacher Liu Chiu-jung (劉秋榮) added that replacing paper-based tests with interactive projects have helped students at Zhongzheng Senior High School substantially improve their English skills.

Zhongzheng Senior High School students chatted with students from Pascack Valley High in New Jersey during a video conference on June 12, and the students were all satisfied with the interactive activity, English teacher Li Yi-ming said.

TIES

Li said that authorities at his school hoped they could establish long-term cooperative ties with the US school in order to offer courses for students at both schools to gain a better understanding of each other’s local culture.

Yucheng Elementary School principal Lan Hui-mei (藍惠美) said the school’s students are slated to take part in a video conference in September during which they will introduce Taiwanese-style lion dancing to their US counterparts.

The GMHP was introduced by the Taipei-based Institute for Information Industry into Taiwan to help expand Taiwanese students’ global perspectives and, in return, allow students in thee US to gain familiarity with Taiwanese culture.

Established in 1979, the institute is a non-governmental organization, jointly sponsored by the Taiwan government and prominent private enterprises, for the purpose of strengthening the development of the information industry in Taiwan.

CORRECTION

In an article by Richard Bush entitled “The balancing act across the Strait” (June 19, page 8), the words “or annexation” were mistakenly added to the following sentence: “Clearly, the goal is not unification [or annexation]: Ma has made clear that is not on the agenda during the period of his administration.” Taipei Times apologizes for the error, which was made without Dr Bush’s knowledge or permission.