The number of preparatory second foreign language classes offered by universities to high school students this year rose 83 percent compared with last year, statistics from the Ministry of Education showed yesterday.
Students are required to take English as a first second language. Data from the Department of Secondary Education showed that 14 universities, including National Taiwan University, National Chengchi University, National Taitung University and I-Shou University, had applied to provide 33 classes — the majority of them, 20, in Japanese — this year. Also included were three German, five Spanish and five French classes.
The ministry launched the preparatory classes in the 2008 academic year to offer distinguished high school students a taste of college foreign-language classes and to help them “connect with non-English-speaking countries.”
Students who pass the courses may use the credits after they enter university, or have bonus points when they apply for university.
The number of universities offering the classes rose 55 percent, from the previous year, the department said. Ministry data also showed that 248 of the students taking the classes in the last academic year had passed language proficiency tests as of last month. That was about 3.8 times the number of students who passed language proficiency tests in 2008.
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