Under the 2021 International Students Cooperation and Exchange Program of the Education Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government, Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages cultivated international students to serve as bilingual teaching assistants. The students visited 18 elementary and junior high schools in Kaohsiung to help with bilingual teaching and using English as a medium to carry out cross-cultural communication and exchanges with schoolchildren, effectively facilitating the promotion of the 2030 Bilingual Nation Policy.
To demonstrate the outcomes it had achieved over the past few months, the Wenzao team selected Yung-Ching Elementary School, one of the schools with the program, to hold an outcome presentation and Christmas celebration activity. During the presentation, the team played video clips featuring a variety of bilingual teaching activities carried out in the 18 schools over the past few months, including English teaching, reading of picture books, and outdoor activities. At the end of the presentation, the participating schoolchildren said “Thank you!” in various languages, deeply moving the teachers on the scene. Students from Da Zou Junior High School and Kuang Hua Elementary School recited English readers and sang English songs to demonstrate their solid achievements in learning.
The team also invited international students from Kenya to play saxophone to accompany the singing and dancing of a duo consisting of a Peruvian and a Nicaraguan student, immersing the schoolchildren in an exotic Christmas atmosphere. Teachers and students from elementary and junior high schools with the program expressed their expectation to participate in more activities like this in the future, as they found themselves enjoying cultures from different countries and feeling comfortable speaking English. With more than 4,100 students benefitting from the program, Deputy Director-General of the Education Bureau of Kaohsiung City Government expressed her appreciation to international students with Wenzao for their efforts and contributions to the promotion of bilingual teaching and learning programs.
500 schoolchildren sing Christmas carols together
English recitation performed by students from Da Zou Junior High School and the Jordanian student Jassar
