On October 30th, from 10a.m. till noon, NTU’s public forum held a symposium to discuss “Where is Taiwan’s opportunity in the wake of a global craze for Chinese?”

Presided Over by Vice President Dr. Bao Tsung-ho, this symposium invited several acknowledged scholars in the field of Chinese teaching to discuss topics such as “Chinese language teaching in Taiwan:How to build a global leading brand?” and “Language, literature, and culture: Installing a Full-Fledged Chinese proficiency testing service (Dr. Ho Ji-peng chaired this panel discussion).

Taiwan abounds with Chinese language teaching institutions that have long histories and meritorious results. In addition, the official Mandarin dialect and traditional Chinese characters are universally used in Taiwan, where the refined cultural tradition of China is well-preserved. These advantages, coupled with Taiwan’s free learning environment make Taiwan an ideal candidate to vie for a leading position in Global Chinese language teaching.

The key to establishing a leading position has to do not so much with the expansion of quantity as with the assurance of quality. NTU’s Chinese Proficiency Testing Project aims to develop a testing mechanism that has its own branding and standard, and come up with exam topics-at the elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels in reading comprehension, composition, and listening comprehension that are geared towards foreign nationals with different backgrounds and different needs.

NTU’s testing concept is to blend “language, literature, and culture” into the exam topics at intermediate and advanced levels, with a view toward expounding the rich contents and unique estheticism of Chinese literature and culture.

The “Ideal New Type Chinese Proficiency Test” that is being mapped out at NTU can be applied to overseas Chinese students, foreign students, exchange students, and even transplanted to sister schools abroad. Furthermore, it can be expected to blossom into a Chinese Proficiency Testing system adopted worldwide, and be conducive to the depth and refinement of Chinese language teaching.