推廣華語文能力測驗 因應世界各地華語學習之熱潮，教育部自90年起開始籌劃華語文能力測驗，並自92年正式對外開辦初等、中等及高等考試。為建立一套具信度、效度之臺灣華語文測驗品牌，提升我國在全球華語教學市場地位，94年委託國立臺灣師範大學成立「華語測驗中心」，以承接華語文能力測驗的研發與推廣工作，使其成為國家級測驗，並於99年正式定名華測為「Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language」(簡稱TOCFL)。因應資訊時代的需要，亦推出華測電腦化適性測驗(TOCFL CAT)，並開發「華語文能力測驗快篩系統」，以供大學及廠商及時評量外籍生與員工華語能力。107年於32國324個考點辦理海外施測，國內外考生共計5萬7,966人次，累積考生人數已逾30萬人次。
The Selection of Chinese Teaching Staff to Teach in Foreign Schools
To promote quality Chinese language teaching and the Taiwanese culture of our nation, the Ministry of Education has selected outstanding Chinese language teaching staff to teach in foreign schools, so as to enhance the influence that our nation has in the field of Chinese teaching. Since 1985, the Teacher Output of Chinese Teaching Abroad Project has been carried out. The Regulations of Selecting Chinese Teaching Staff to Teach Abroad were announced and revised in 2011 and in 2012 respectively. In 2015, the Ministry of Education actively built up the fundamental base of Chinese language teacher cultivation, and cooperated with Chinese language educational institutions in all universities of our nation and private Chinese teaching organizations, to jointly promote together the new recommendation and selection system of Chinese language teachers, and actively develop the requirement for Chinese teachers in foreign schools. These measures were enacted to organize the establishment of Chinese language teaching cultivation courses in accordance with the requirements of foreign schools, enhance the popularity of our nation’s Chinese language teachers overseas, and expand the benefits of teaching abroad. In 2018, there were 218 Chinese teaching teachers and 122 Chinese language teaching assistants provided with subsidies to teach in foreign schools, while 6 colleges and universities were offered subsidies to actively develop demand of Chinese language teaching teachers for meeting the requirements of foreign schools. From 2011 to 2018, a total of 968 Chinese language teachers were selected and sent to 23 countries to teach, as well as 596 Chinese language teaching assistants sent to 10 countries.
In addition, on October 5, 2018, in accordance with the New Southbound policy, the Ministry of Education issued the Promotional Implementation Project of Chinese Language Teachers Go to Teach in Indian Schools; and furthermore, on November 1, 2018, issued the Global Chinese Language AI Project. The Ministry of Education provided related subsidies for the aforementioned two projects hoping to encourage schools of our nation to cooperate with foreign universities to develop the positions of Chinese language teaching staff members.
The MOE Qualification Test of Chinese Teaching Ability to Foreigners
On June 13, 2006, to enhance the teaching ability of Chinese language teaching staff to foreigners, and upgrade their professional positions, the Ministry of Education declared the Operation Regulations of the MOE Qualification Test of Chinese Teaching Ability to Foreigners. In addition, in November 2006, the first Qualification Test of Chinese Teaching Ability to Foreigners was carried out, and thus established the national qualification system. This test is held every July. In 2018, 1,837 people took this test. Up to 2018, a total of 4,428 people had obtained this qualification.
The Promotion of the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language
Since 2001, in response to the trends for learning the Chinese language in places around the world, the Ministry of Education has organized the Chinese Proficiency Test. In 2003, this test was offered to foreigners to participate in, with three levels of language ability: Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. In 2005, to establish a Taiwan Chinese language test brand with reliability and validity, and to enhance our nation’s position in the Chinese language teaching market, National Taiwan Normal University was consigned to establish the Chinese Language Testing Center CLTC. This committee aimed at undertaking the research and promotional work of the Chinese language test, so as to develop it into a national test. In 2010, the test was officially named “Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (abbreviated as TOCFL).” In accordance with the requirements of the information age, the TOCFL Computerized Adaptive Test (TOCFL CAT) was also released. The TOCFL- Speedy Screening System was developed as well, in order to provide universities and firms with a method for opportunely evaluating the Chinese abilities of foreign students and employees. In 2018, the TOCFL was carried out in 324 locations in 32 countries, with in a total of 57,966 examinees in our nation and abroad. More than 300,000 examinees have been tested with TOCFL.
The Establishment of the Ministry of Education Huayu Enrichment Scholarship
On December 28, 2006, the Ministry of Education established and announced the Ministry of Education Huayu Enrichment Scholarship (HES) International Student Directions, which provided a scholarship of NTD 25,000 for a month; every prizewinner can receive a different amount of scholarships (that is to say, a different total number of months from 2 months to 12 months.) Every prizewinner could choose to go and study the Chinese language in registered Chinese language teaching institutions attached to universities of our nation. In 2018, 851 prizewinners from 52 countries were approved to come to Taiwan to study the Chinese language. From 2012 to 2018, it was calculated that 4,903 prizewinners from 55 countries around the world were offered these scholarships. In addition to cultivating talented individuals in becoming familiar with the language of our nation, and to attracting foreigners to come to Taiwan to learn the Chinese language and culture, this scholarship also shapes diplomatic envoys of MIT (Made in Taiwan).
The Promotion of Learning Chinese Language in Taiwan
The Ministry of Education encourages Chinese language teachers and students from international mainstream schools to come to Taiwan to learn the Chinese language. With a combination of Chinese language courses, teaching materials, and methodology designed by Chinese language departments in all universities which meet the appropriate requirements, culture courses and visiting agendas are arranged in order to undertake global promotion. Related strategies and their effectiveness are as follows:
I. The Ministry of Education provides subsidies to Chinese language teacher groups around the world to come to Taiwan to study the Chinese language teaching methodology, and also to students and staff members related to the education field to come to study the Chinese language in Taiwan in groups. In 2018, 95 foreign Chinese language teachers grouped up to participate in workshops in Taiwan, and 31 foreign students took part in the Chinese language workshops in Taiwan. From 2012 to 2018, 1,789 Chinese language teachers around the world have been provided with subsidies to join in the Chinese language workshops; as also have 2,677 foreign students.
II. Through international cooperation, outstanding elites from all nations are encouraged to come to study the Chinese language in Taiwan.
i. The Ministry of Education signed the Memorandum of Understanding with the American Council for International Education, and together they promoted 3-Year Taiwan Intensive Summer Language Program (TISLP) (2017-2018) , which selects students from the United States of America to come and study the Chinese language in Taiwan (9 students in 2016, 29 students in 2017, and 54 students in 2018). In 2016, the Ministry of Education cooperated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the United States Department of State, for the first time, to implement the Critical Language Scholarship Program (abbreviated as CLS), which selected students from top international universities, such as Ivy League schools to come to study the Chinese language in Taiwan (in National Cheng Kung University). Since 2016, 66 students have been to Taiwan (20 students in 2016, 23 students in 2017, and 23 students in 2018).
ii. The Ministry of Education and the Taiwan-United States Sister Relations Alliance (TUSA) have devoted themselves to promoting friendly relationships between the people of United States and Taiwan, and cooperated to establish the Ambassador Summer Scholarship Program. This program provided 55 scholarships. Prizewinners were expected to become the seed of spreading the friendly relationship between the United States of America and Taiwan, and to stimulate all exchanges between the two nations after their studies of Chinese language.
iii. The Continuous Promotion of “Mandarin On-the-Go in Taiwan” and the Development of Living Mandarin Teaching Materials.
1. “Mandarin On-the-Go in Taiwan”: In 2017, the Ministry of Education initiated the project of “Mandarin On-the-Go in Taiwan”, which combined learning Chinese with visiting sightseeing features of Taiwan. The quintessential 4-theme courses of “Mandarin On-The-Go Tours” were designed to introduce participants to 4 different areas of Taiwan (North, Central, South, and East). It was expected that, through the combination of feature tours and Mandarin learning elements, foreigners could thus gain a deeper understanding regarding specific cultures and customs of local counties and towns when they traveled to Taiwan. Started in August 2017, this project has attracted 160 people to register as participants.
2. The development of digital mobile teaching materials for “HUAYU 101”: To satisfy the needs of foreigners who stay in Taiwan for the short term, the Ministry of Education has consigned schools to develop digital teaching materials, in order to assist foreigners in learning focal grammar, and key vocabulary in the short-term; and to help foreigners to present a self-introduction, ask for directions, order food, arrange accommodation, ask for help, and seek medical advice. Foreigners can thus be assisted in becoming more familiar with Taiwanese society via learning Mandarin.
The Exploration of Overseas Chinese Learning Marketing
When the Ministry of Education explored the needs and demands for overseas Mandarin language learning marketing, two operational directives were adopted: 1. from teams to MOE, which means teams can apply and propose their projects for marketing exploration, and 2. from MOE to teams, in which the MOE invites teams to explore marketing with the potential for development values. Through the active development of overseas Mandarin learning requirement marketing, the following purposes were expected to be achieved: to enhance the visibility of our nation in international Mandarin language marketing, to establish the quality Mandarin language teaching brand of our nation, and to expand the population of those learning Mandarin. From 2014 to 2018, there were 48 teams in 18 countries developing Mandarin language education marketing. The development measures included: development of Mandarin teaching locations and teaching materials, and implementation of teacher cultivation in local places and Mandarin language workshops.
The Promotion of the 8-Year Chinese Language Project
In 2014, to promote the Mandarin Industrial Project, the Ministry of Education researched and proposed the “The 8-Year Project of Toward Becoming a Mandarin Education Industry Exporting Country (2013-2020)”, which was reported to the Executive Yuan for future reference. In addition, two supportive regulations of subsidies were set up and revised: 1. the MOE Provision of Subsidies Regulations for Promoting Mandarin Education Industry Development and 2. the MOE Mandarin Education Institutions Performance Management and Reward Regulations, so as to encourage related units to establish strategy teams to actively explore the requirements of overseas Mandarin requirement marketing, to strengthening the connection between upstream, midstream and downstream operations of the Mandarin education industry, to establish a performance and reward system, and to enhance the teaching environments of Mandarin centers and the motivation of overseas recruitment.
In 2014, in response to the requirements of Mandarin language from all sectors, the Ministry of Education continuously revised the 8-Year Project, which in December 16, 2016, was approved and recorded for future reference by the Executive Yuan. The revision of this time enhanced 6 principal core elements:
1. System and environments
2. Institutions and organizations
3. Talented individual cultivation
4. Teaching resources
5. Research development
6. International cooperation
The following action programs were also enhanced:
1. The Action Program on the Mandarin Human Resources of Teacher Establishment and Related System of Talent Individual Cultivation.
2. The Action Program on Research and Innovation of Mandarin Language Teaching Material and Methodology Promotion (including the research, development and promotion of digital teaching materials).
3. The Action Program on the Internationalization of Mandarin Language Education.
The 8-Year Project was designated as one cycle of the higher education industry. In addition, in 2016, the Office of Global Mandarin Education was established, and functioned as the service window of Mandarin education to our nation and to foreign countries, which integrated the resources and outcomes of Mandarin education in our nation and in foreign countries. It was expected to enhance the visibility of the Mandarin education of our nation in the international world, and to expand the recruitment of foreign students to study Mandarin in Taiwan.
The future operational focus is as follows:
1. Making good use of language corpora.
2. The Outcomes of standardized mandarin.
3. The completion of the recommendation and dispatch system.
4. Fortifying the Mandarin digital teaching material development.
5. Deeply rooting the profession of Mandarin education.
6. Strengthening the connection with the New Southbound Policy, including
a. The increase of cultural courses of new southbound countries in the process of Mandarin teacher cultivation.
b. The promotion of Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language (TOCFL) in new southbound countries as a priority.
c. The provision of subsidies to colleges and universities in developing customized teaching materials for new southbound countries.
d. The increase in approval numbers of the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship for new southbound countries.
