Department of Applied English

Introduction

In order to go with the national policy of internationalized trade, the Division of Applied Foreign Language was established in 1994 to cultivate professionals in foreign languages and business. Five years later, in 1999, the Department of Applied English was established. Since then, the curriculum has included the courses of language learning and business application in addition to the course of learning English instruction skills. At the same time, the College of Business was formed, and the department became part of it. By means of inter-department collaboration of resources, education in international trade, international finance, computer applications for business, the students』 field of knowledge has been broadened. Particular focus has been on the cultivation of professionalism in international trade and finance. In 2005, the College of Humanities was formed, and the department joined it. Since then, the curriculum has been revised to further develop professionals in English instruction, editing, and translation as well as professionals in international trade.

Organization

The department head holds the department affairs meeting twice at least each semester, and the department consists of different committees and panels as follows:

Faculty Evaluation Panel, Teaching and Curriculum Planning Committee, Facilities and Equipment Planning Committee, Student Counseling Planning Committee, Industrial Outreach Cooperation and Education Extension Committee, Research Development Planning Committee, General Education English Committee, Four-year Bachelor Degree Direct Entrance Screening Panel, Four-year Bachelor Degree Referral Entrance Screening Panel, and Continuing Education Entrance Evaluation Panel.

Characteristics

The department is student-oriented, tailoring to the need of the society and modern time and cultivating professionals.

1. Students are majoring in English, taking Japanese or French as a second foreign language, and developing various skills in foreign languages.
2. Students are learning the knowledge on business and international trade, matching with their ability of using foreign languages to cultivate professional aids in international trade.
3. Students are also learning the application of computer information, matching their ability of using foreign languages to cultivate professionals dealing with internationalized information.
4. The curriculums are tailored to the needs of the individuals and the society.

Areas of Concentration

In order to improve students' abilities in English language, commerce, and information technology, the first priority is to use advanced language teaching methodology to create the most effective learning environment for implementing a very practical English as a foreign language curriculum with listening, speaking, reading, and writing as a base. Furthermore, by means of inter-department collaboration of resources, education in international trade, international finance, computer applications for business, the students』 field of knowledge will be broadened.

Research fields

The department has centered on two research fields: Language Instruction Materials Design and Language Instruction Curriculum Design. There are seven areas of focus: (1) the design of language instruction materials; (2) the design of language instruction activities; (3) the development of multimedia interaction for language instruction materials; (4) the theoretical study on curriculum design for language instruction; (5) the design of multimedia interaction language instruction; (6) the curriculum design of language instruction for business communication; and (7) the analysis of curriculum demands.