National English Reading Contest and Plan to Incorporate Information Into Senior High and Vocational School: English teaching achieve remarkable results

In order to incorporate information into English teaching and improve learning results in accordance to the Executive Yuan's Challenge 2008-E Generation Talent Cultivation Plan, the MOE has chosen six regular senior high schools and six senior vocational schools to become the demonstration schools for Incorporating Information into English Teaching. The mode of incorporating information into English teaching and thematic multimedia English teaching materials has been developed according to regional characteristics and humanistic backgrounds in an effort to shoulder the mission of instructing, promoting, and incorporating ICT into English digital learning.

Sponsored by the MOE, the Plan to Incorporate Information into English Teaching of Senior High and Vocational Schools has produced remarkable results. The results were displayed on June 8 in the MOE auditorium, showing the digital teaching methods of various schools. At the event, the awards ceremony for the Sixth National English Reading Contest was held. Distinguished guests, including Guo Yao-huang, director of the MOE computer center, handed out the awards to commend the nation's 30 most outstanding students.

Students participating in the competition remarked, "It really isn't difficult to finish reading an English novel. Some people become addicted to it." While reading, learning English is no longer treated as homework. Instead, the books become stories of laughter and tears, family bonding, and love. Through the IWiLL system's discussion groups, teachers and students discuss the stories and the personalities of characters. Sometimes they even rewrite the endings of the stories.

Xue, a student of Taipei Municipal Zhongshan Girls High School who participated in the event, indicates: "Reading a great deal cultivates one's subconscious, instinctive acumen for grammar." Lin, a student of Stella Matutina Girls' High School, adds: "From each book's respective discussion zone, one can better understand the content of the book through discussions with others, obtain extended information and allow oneself to nurture the capacity of accepting different opinions."

The National English Reading Contest is sponsored by the MOE and hosted by Tamkang University 's IWiLL group. Since it was first held in 2002, a total of 15,630 students have participated. The Sixth National English Reading Contest, which concluded the other day, attracted senior high and vocational school students across the nation. A total of 32 schools and 8,154 students participated in the contest. Fifty-six of the participants won awards in six categories. For more details, please visit the IWiLL English learning website at http://cube.iwillnow.org/IWiLL/.