Tainan City Government is forging ahead with all-English teaching and has set up a transnational teaching practice programme in conjunction with the teacher training center of the education department of Malaysia’s Sarawak State, with 40 student teachers and their mentors distributed among Tainan’s elementary schools. The program not only gives schoolchildren an opportunity to experience foreign culture and converse in English with the student teachers; it also enhances English mentors’ teaching skills and provides the schools’ teachers and administors with an international atmosphere on campus.
By consulting with schools, Tainan City Government’s Bureau of Education has found homestay families for the exchange teachers and students. In view of Tainan’s conservative culture, the bureau was initially worried that parents would be rather unwilling to take part. Unexpectedly, however, families enthusiastically leaped at the opportunity, even drawing up menus with local specialty dishes and preparing the accommodation to welcome their special guests from afar.
The education bureau points out that English is an official language of Malaysia and that all the visiting trainee teachers are fluent in English, while their all-English teaching methods are highly creative. Through the exchange programme, the visiting trainees and Tainan’s English teachers can develop their professional skills together in the schools, while stimulating elementary school students’ enthusiasm for conversing in English and making Tainan’s English teaching more lively and diverse.
Photo: Huang Wen-huang, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者黃文鍠
(Liberty Times, translated by Edward Jones)
台南市政府為精進全英語教學,與馬來西亞砂勞越州教育局師資培訓中心進行英語實習教師跨國培訓計畫。四十名實習生及指導教師,分散到市區國小,除了讓學童有機會接觸異國文化,擁有以英語與實習教師對話的機會,藉此精進英語指導教師的教學力,並提供學校教師和行政人員校園國際化的氛圍。
為接待交流師生, 台南市政府教育局透過學校協調,尋找接待家庭。原本擔心台南地區風氣保守,家長參加意願不高,不料消息傳出,家長都踴躍爭取,甚至還準備好地方特色菜單及住宿環境,準備迎接遠來嘉賓。
教育局表示,英語是馬來西亞官方語言,來訪的實習老師個個英語流利、全英語教學創意十足,透過交流活動,在校園內與本市英語教師共同專業成長,更將激發小學生使用英語溝通的熱情,使台南市的英語教育更加活絡多元。
(自由時報記者黃文鍠)
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