New York Times: English as Langauge of Global Education

New York Times: English as Langauge of Global Education

上英文課教授老師用英文講是很自然的事，但是上一些非英語科的課程，聽的卻是英文，會不會有所阻礙呢？我聽過好像台灣某些大學有開設類似的課程，即老師上課使用英語來教學。在巴黎的大學裡，即便是普通課程也逐漸的以英語來教學，這樣的轉變，自然就有人覺得無法接受。為何轉用英語來上課呢？巴黎一所商業學校MBA課程主任Laurent Bibard解釋：

"It's the language for international teaching," he said. "English allows students to be able to come from anyplace in the world and for our students — the French ones — to go everywhere."

當然還有經費等一些因素，若以英語來上課不僅可吸引世界各地的學生，最主要的還可吸引來自英語系國家的學生。

"Revenue is very important, and in order to provide good services, we need to cover our expenses for the library and research journals. We need to cover all these things with a bigger number of students so it's quite important to attract international students."

以下的情況我很能體會。

But getting students to feel comfortable speaking English in the classroom is easier said than done. When younger French students at Essec start a required course in organizational analysis, the atmosphere is marked by long, uncomfortable silences, said Alan Jenkins, a management professor and academic director of the executive M.B.A. program.

"They are very good on written tasks, but there's a lot of reticence on oral communication and talking with the teacher," Dr. Jenkins said, adding that he used role-playing to encourage students to speak. He also refuses to speak in French. "I have to force myself to say, 'Can you give me that in English?'"

在韓國首爾的一所大學裡的部份課程也採全英語授課，當然開始時總會遭遇一些問題甚至質疑，但學生終究受益：

At the beginning, "teaching courses in English may have less efficiency or effectiveness in terms of knowledge transfer than those courses taught in Korean," said Anna Suh, program manager for the university's office of global affairs, who said that students eventually see the benefits. "Our aim for this kind of program is to prepare and equip our students to be global leaders in this new era of internationalization."

國際上的競爭無所不在，要與他國競爭，英語授課勢在必行。

"Internationally, the competition is everywhere," Dr. Bredillet said. "For a master's in management, I'm competing with George Washington University. I'm competing with some programs in Germany, Norway and the U.K. That's why we're delivering the curriculum in English."