The Taiwan Higher Education Union on Monday accused Ming Chuan University (MCU) of sacrificing its students’ right to education by altering the English-language instruction for first-year students.
The university, which has long emphasized the value that it places on English-language education, in the 2019-2020 academic year changed its English program for first-year students to a combination of self-learning through online videos and weekly lab sessions, during which students would take online tests, the union said.
The change has deprived more than 3,000 students of in-person instruction and of interaction with their teachers, the union added.
Photo courtesy of THE Union via CNA
The online program drew much criticism from students online, the union said, adding that it undermined students' to education, as well as quality of education.
Clifton Hoyt, assistant professor at the MCU English Language Center (ELC) and president of the union’s MCU branch, said that the best way for the center to improve the English program would be to drastically reduce class sizes so that in-person contact can take priority.
“Replacing that kind of face-to-face interaction is going exactly in the wrong direction,” he added.
About 84.7 percent of the 287 MCU students who participated in a survey conducted by the union from Nov. 14 to Dec. 5 last year said they disagreed that the online English program could help enhance their English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills.
About 81.5 percent of respondents agreed that it would be more accurate to call the online English program an “online testing system,” rather than an “online course,” the union said.
The results also showed that about 89.9 percent of respondents supported a “change to a digital course where teachers instruct students with technology support,” while the other 10.1 percent of respondents preferred to “keep the current test-based online program.”
The university said that years of experience have shown the center that students in traditional instruction can overlook English oral practice.
The use of customized, online teaching materials can make up for shortcomings in traditional instruction and provide students with the opportunity to learn repeatedly without being limited by time or space, it said, adding that face-to-face instruction was taking place at the center, alongside the online courses.
Additional reporting by CNA
This story has been amended since it was first published.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A legislator yesterday called for authorities to investigate the sale of Chinese-made, Internet-connected karaoke machines containing “propaganda songs.” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was approached by a person who had discovered Chinese patriotic songs such as My Motherland (我的祖國) — which is commonly referred to as China’s “second national anthem” — in Chinese-made karaoke devices sold in Taiwan. The machines are popular, as they can connect to the Internet, providing access to thousands of songs, she said. One retailer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the machines first entered the local market about three years ago, starting with
RSS