The Center for EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) at Tamkang University has once again organized an EMI training program, co-hosted with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and submitted jointly to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. This year’s program was conducted in collaboration with National Taipei University (NTPU), with 12 faculty members from various colleges at Tamkang voluntarily registering for the training.

Continuing the model used previously, the training was led by a doctoral-level English language specialist dispatched through the U.S. State Department’s English Language Specialist Program. The instructor, Joseph Siegel, currently teaches in the Department of English at Stockholm University in Sweden. His areas of expertise include language teaching, linguistics, instructional techniques, and classroom practice.

EMI Section Chief Kai-Su Wu noted that last year’s training was well received by participating faculty, which led to this year’s renewed application. The training content focused on integrating task-based and collaborative learning strategies, techniques for teaching students with varying levels of English proficiency, and the design and implementation of student-centered learning strategies in EMI contexts, such as problem-based learning, flipped classrooms, and case studies.

The training was divided into three levels—beginner, intermediate, and advanced—running from March through May, with each level consisting of 9 hours. Faculty were free to choose which levels to attend. Among the 12 participants, five faculty members enrolled in all three levels. One of them, Prof. Chia-Chi Sun from the Department of International Business, participated fully for the second year in a row. In a post-training interview, Prof. Sun shared that after researching the instructor, he learned that Siegel was born in the U.S., had taught in Japan, and was currently active in teacher training in Sweden—factors that convinced him to begin with the beginner-level course. While he initially aimed to attend only the advanced sessions, thinking they would be more relevant for EMI seed faculty training, he found the beginner and intermediate courses equally engaging. Siegel brought theoretical models into practical classroom contexts and incorporated case studies from the U.S., Japan, and Sweden, providing rich insights. Prof. Sun particularly valued the opportunity to interact with faculty from NTPU and Shih Hsin University during the online sessions and appreciated the constructive feedback from the instructor. “With a different instructor and different peers, your takeaways are bound to be different,” he said, encouraging more faculty to participate and not to limit themselves.

In addition to Prof. Sun, the other faculty members who completed all three training levels include Associate Prof. Pei-Ling Hsu (Department of Japanese), Assistant Prof. Chiung-Fang Chang (Graduate Institute of Educational Psychology and Counseling), Associate Prof. Tzu-Shan Chang (Department of English), and Teaching Assistant Wan-Jhen Wu (Department of Spanish). Those who completed the full training program will receive a joint certificate of completion issued by Tamkang University and AIT.

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