COLLEGE OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE

Introduction

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Dean: Sung, Mei-hwa

Brief History

The College of Foreign Languages and Literatures had undergone a long history of growth before it was established in 1992. It began as an English program, the sole and seminal program of this university back at its inception as Tamkang Junior English College in 1950. The English program was changed into the Department of Western Languages and Literatures in 1958 and expanded over a span of seventeen years to comprise four sections: English, Spanish, French, and German, which were later made into departments in 1975. In 1985, the Department of Oriental Languages was renamed the Japanese Department and became the fifth department of the College in 1992, when it was founded. A year later, the Russian Department was set up. The college has since retained its current structure of six departments.

Motto and Goals

The motto of the College---"Innovative Thinking in and for an Age of Digital Learning"--- tries to consolidate the spirit shared by the faculty and students of the college in order to thrive in a rapidly changing era of information technology.

In keeping with the triple-objective of the University---globalization, information-oriented education, and future-oriented education---the College provides students with a dynamic environment for learning foreign languages and literatures with an international faculty. This environment is enlivened by academic and multicultural activities, the presence of international students within the College, lecture series by visiting scholars from abroad, regular international conferences, and an increasing degree of digitalization incorporated into our curriculum and teaching methods.

• The College offers Junior Year Abroad programs, which enable our students to study and experience life at our sister universities overseas with the hope that they become better equipped persons and learners at the end of the program year.
• The College also works with the College of International Studies to offer interdisciplinary courses to our undergraduates, focusing on area studies, international politics, international relations, and economics.

The ultimate objective of the College is to prepare our students both professionally and in personal qualities for challenges that come with an increasingly globalized and digitalized age. We envision a future for our students and help them create their own futures with knowledge and skills acquired in our programs.

Future Development

A three-fold scenario for our future development is as follows:

1. Curriculum Renovation
   It includes, first, better cooperation with other colleges of the University to deviseinterdisciplinary programs instructed in Chinese as well as in English. Second, a team composed of faculty from the six departments has been engaged in developing and promoting an e-learning website, MULTI, for the six foreign languages we teach. Third, another significant renovation in our curriculum, the Multi-Language Translation and Interpretation Program, has been scheduled to open in the 2009-2010 academic year. It will draw upon faculty of our college and professionals from outside the University to staff this 14-credit program. The goal is to train students in the skills of translation and interpretation to meet the demand of a viable market for talents in this field.
2. Enhancement of Our Research-oriented Identity
   The College has long enjoyed a fine reputation for teaching foreign languages effectively. It is one of the few foreign language colleges in the country that have a full-bodied structure in regard to the number of foreign languages taught. Currently, the College has four graduate programs: English, French, Japanese, and Spanish (the English program offers a two-track program in English and TESOL). The College publishes three scholarly journals: Tamkang Review (since 1967), Tamkang Studies of Foreign Languages and Literatures (since 1998), and Tamakang Japanese Journal (since 1991).
3. Further Expansion of our Junior Year Abroad Programs
   The College's Junior Year Abroad Program was launched in 1993 with the initial efforts of the Japanese Department to send students to study for one semester at Reitaku University of Japan. In the following years, Spanish, German, French, English, and finally Russian majors went to our sister universities for a one-year study. The number of students participating in the programs has totaled over 1500 since 1993. Our receiving sister universities include Brandon University (Canada), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Winona State University (U.S.A.), Universidad de Navarra (Spain), Université de Franche-Comté (France), University of Bonn (Germany), Reitaku University, Josai University, Josai International University, Tachibana Women's University (Japan), and Saint-Petersburg State University (Russia). We are trying to further promote these programs and increase the number of students by highlighting the features of the programs and by providing students with incentives, so that more will be interested in joining these programs.

Common Elective Courses

To encourage student mobility on campus, exposing them to fields outside of their own, we offer elective courses to non-foreign-language majors. The following is a sampling of course titles:

• Simultaneous Interpretation (English-Chinese)
• World Literature in Chinese Translation
• Social Linguistics
• Contemporary French Culture and Society
• Introduction to Japanese Politics and Economy
• Intercultural Issues
• Introduction to Spanish-Portuguese Classical Music
• Socio-Political Issues of Contemporary America
• Japanese Literary Classics in Chinese Translation
• Digital Teaching Platform: Its Role in Innovating Foreign Language Teaching
• Introduction to Environmental Literature

These course offerings vary from year to year to increase diversity and encourage faculty participation in this sector of our curriculum.

Course Descriptions

A0175 Japanese II (2/2) This course aims to stimulate students' interest in learning the Japanese language. In addition to reading and explanation of textbooks, students are encouraged to practice and communicate in Japanese in class.

A0303 English Vocabulary & Idioms (0/2) A well-developed vocabulary gives one a clear advantage in the academic world as well as in the business environment. The purpose of this course is to improve students' own vocabularies and master new words. There is tremendous personal satisfaction in owning a rich treasury of words.

A0332 The Current Situation and Problems of Globalization (0/2) Globalization makes the world more interdependent. Goods, services, capital and people have tended to be re-regulated. This course aims to explore situations and problems of globalization. The followings are the main topics: (1) Definition and meaning of globalization (2) Genesis and content of economical globalization (3) Genesis and content of political globalization (4) Genesis and content of cultural globalization (5) Problems of environment (6) Problems of the rich and the poor

A0333 Contemporary American Social & Political Issues (0/2) An examination & evaluation of contemporary social and political issues in American Society.

Al528 Basic Oral Interpretation (English to Chinese) (3/3) This course is designed to acquaint students with basic notions and skills of oral interpretation. It emphasizes "sight translation" and "consecutive interpretation." "Simultaneous interpretation" will be added in due course.

A1849 World Masterpieces in Chinese Translation (0/2) This course introduces some literary masterpieces of the world to students in the College of Foreign Languages and Literatures, in order to meet the requirements in their own respective fields. This course is also appropriate for students in other colleges of Tamkang University.

A2141 Sociolinguistics General Linguistics (2/0) The construction of the object and Saussure's concept: from Saussure's system to structuralism ; from systematic and formal study of languages to the study of the activity of production of language ; the taking into account of the speaking subject and the social reality. Introduction to sociolinguistics: putting in perspective or the operation and dynamics of the languages (languages, dialects, varieties), in communities and socially differentiated situations.
This course examines the diversity of linguistic forms and the uses as well as the social functions and the symbolic value and/or identity of these uses. It acts as a presentation of various types of contacts, in the world, between the languages uses in the countries concerned. It tackles the problems of policies (national language, language second, official language, foreign language), of function (vehicular language, vernacular language), and of form (mixture of language). It also considers the locally retained applications for the management of languages in contact (language planning and educational choices).

F0042 Appreciation of Aesthetics and Art (2/2) This course intends to give students a basic knowledge about Western Art, in order to enhance students' capacity to appreciate artistic works.

F0077 Theory and Practice of International Relations (0/3) This course examines major theories in international politics, from grand theories to functional theories, introduces the basics of each theory in international politics with focus on interdisciplinary utilities and also explains the application of various theories based on the instructor's own experience in diplomatic practice.

F0079 French Contemporary Society and Art (0/3) This course tries to introduce the French way of life, behavior, languages, thought, the influence of immigration, and the concept of regions and as an entity with their originality and existence as the country's frontiers vanished in the Union.

F0127 Selected Reading in Ecology (2/0) This course helps students acquire a basic knowledge of nature writing as a genre, its relation to ecology and its relevance to the solution of the ecological crisis. It intends to raise students' ecological consciousness and to sharpen students' skill of reading through increasing their vocabulary power and sense of sentence structure.

F0129 Introduction to Trade Policy (0/3) This course is concerned with policy measures on foreign trade by individual countries, and relevant topics on trade negotiations between countries or in multilateral trade organizations, an introductory overview designed to help students understand trends in current international economy.

F0148 The Historical Background of Current Events (0/2) This course aims to provide overviews on major developments in the world since the end of the Cold War in an inter-disciplinary perspective. It also traces some of those developments back to decades before 1989 for developments in the Islamic world.

F0176 Introduction to Politics and Economy of Japan (0/3) To acquaint students with the basics of Japanese Polictics and Econom. Student will take notes and watch documentary films .

F0209 Introduction to Iberian Classical Music (2/2) This course aims to understand and listen to the most talent Spanish composers and their music of 18th-20th centuries, such as Fernando Sor, Pablo Sarasate, Issac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Turina, Federico Mompou and Joaquin Rodriguez...etc, including instrumental, chamber, orchestral and vocal music. Through this class, it will give students from different departments more cultural and humanistic elements besides their specialty.

F0210 The Interaction Between the Internet and the Language Training (2/0) This course tells students how to utilize search engines to find useful information and this we make a classification of websites.

F0253 International Issues (2/0) This course examines intercultural communication from the linguistic, anthropological, psychological and philosophical perspectives. It enables learners to develop a wider repertoire of knowledge and skills to interpret the worldviews and communication patterns of members of other cultures.

F0254 Museums in the World (2/0) The principal goal of this course is to introduce the most famous museums around the world. Students will be led to a better understanding of the museums' characteristics, history, architectures and collections, etc.

F0255 French Musical Comedy (0/2) It is designed to help non-French major students better understand French culture by introducing French musicals to them, so that they can have comparisons with the counterpart English musicals which many students are already familiar with.

F0334 Japanese Literary Works in Chinese Translation (2/0) The aim of this course is to give students an understanding of deep structure of Japanese culture by reading famous Japanese literary works from ancient period, like Tale Genji, to modern days, like works by Murakami Haruki.

F0335 Chinese-European Comparative Culture (0/2) This course encompassing a series of lectures focues on Chinese and European comparative cultures from human science to society study and technological sciences.

F0336 Second Language Learning (0/2) The aim of this course is to enable students to analyze and understand the process of learning a second language. Through some discussions of current theories and learning models, hopefully, students can gain insights and become more successful language learners.

F0337 Innovative Digital Foreign Language Learning Platform (2/0) Tamkang is the first university in Taiwan to adopt the concept of "Digitalized Campus Teaching-Learning Support Platform", offering professors and students a digital ambiance to strive for their objectives.
Hence, since the 2003 academic year, the education and learning process at Tamsui campus, where multimedia and Internet resources already applied by many foreign language tutors, have been enhanced into a web based knowledge workshop, developing at this stage an IBM online environment.
This course is set at an introductory level, and aims to provide basic tools and functions, guiding students to go through this innovative learning web platform, in order to take the most of its advantages in their language building.
The syllabus contains showcases and requires collaborative reports in classroom as well as on-line assignments. Students of foreign languages do not need specific software skills to meet requirement of the syllabus, although a good computer knowledge will be a plus.

T2172 Crucial Events in American Culture (0/2) This is an undergraduate introductory course designed to familiarize students with crucially significant events in American culture.