The Ministry of Education has been assiduous in the implementation of the Program of Bilingual Education for Students in College or the BEST Program with the aim of developing Taiwan into a bilingual nation by 2030, and National Taiwan Normal University was selected to be one of the priority universities to offer bilingual education. In order to make it a top bilingual university in the world, NTNU has been encouraging the use of English as the medium of instruction or EMI. Furthermore, NTNU established the Center for Academic Literacy or CAL in academic year 2021 to prepare students for EMI courses by enhancing their skills in academic English writing and speaking.
Writing centers or centers for academic writing, as part of the student learning support program, have been around for years in Western countries. Some of the top-notch universities in Taiwan have also set up a similar institute and started offering consultations on English writing and study skills in recent years.
Dr. Posen Liao, Director of the CAL said, “We have invested significant amount of manpower and resources in this Center to provide students with our quality services and help them enhance their academic English proficiency although the CAL was established a little later than other universities.” Dr. Liao added that the CAL’s one-on-one writing tutoring service has surpassed similar services in other universities in Taiwan by offering more tutoring sessions, shorter booking window, simpler booking process, more tutors with various specializations.
Furthermore, the graduate students who were recruited to be the tutors have a diverse cultural background with living experience in the US, Australia, the Netherlands, and Vietnam. All of the tutors possess not only advanced skills in English writing and speaking but also cross-disciplinary knowledge and academic publications, in areas ranging from education, computer science, business management and international relations to comparative literature, linguistics, psychology, medicine, sports science and music. Thus, the tutors can offer tutoring in different specializations and become partners to work with their peers to develop better academic skills.
The CAL has started the one-on-one academic English writing online tutoring from December 20, and the tutors will work with their peers to resolve difficulties in writing English papers, reports, or compositions. In the days to come, the CAL will offer more services, such as in-person tutoring in academic writing and oral
communication, academic English workshops, and credit courses. The CAL will also provide a self-learning space for students to read academic writing books and use academic English online resources and materials.
The CAL has already launched both its website (https://www.cal.ntnu.edu.tw/) and Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/ntnucal). Students are all welcome to visit the website to book a writing tutoring session, draw on the learning resources, and learn about the latest activities. The CAL hopes the students can take the initiative to engage in the activities to enhance their academic writing and speaking skills and finally become skilled young talents with international mobility.
