(By Professor Heng-Tsung Danny Huang, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures)
The English-Medium-Instruction Preparation Program (EMIPP) constitutes a Freshman English course that aims to foster both general English proficiency and the English skills necessitated by EMI courses. Developed based on the needs analyses performed with EMI faculty members and students, the EMIPP intends to cultivate advanced reading and listening skills, integrated speaking skills, integrated writing skills, and EMI learning confidence and motivation. Additionally, it offers training on the specific English skills entailed by the day-to-day EMI learning, including, but not limited to, summarizing, asking clarification questions, presenting and taking questions, leading discussion, etc. Moreover, the EMIPP incorporates simulated EMI activities for which students spend approximately 20 minutes each week discussing the materials of two content courses selected from Coursera, i.e., Positive Psychology and Introduction to Negotiation. Launched in this current academic year (2023/2024), six sections of EMIPP are being offered to five different colleges at NTU and informal assessment conducted at the end of the fall semester revealed a significant increase in English learning self-confidence, a notable decrease in English learning anxiety, and overwhelmingly favorable student responses. Formal assessment of its impact on English skills has been scheduled to take place at the end of the spring semester.
