History
The Language Center, a division of the College of Liberal Arts, is
located next to the Hung-Tao Hall. Its establishment was approved by the
Ministry of Education in August 1978. The purpose of its establishment
is to provide various software and hardware facilities for language
teaching and learning. The Center's Self-Learning Section, a multimedia
environment, is particularly intended for students to cultivate their
interest and capacities in foreign languages.
The
921 Earthquake and Wan Nian Hall
The 921 earthquake in 1999, the worst ever attacking Taiwan in the last
two centuries, brought about a severe damage to the old Language Center.
Official investigations confirmed that the damage was irreparable. A
reconstruction was then recommended by an evaluating committee appointed
by the University. The reconstruction, which includes works such as
planning, financing, contracting, designing, and equipment purchasing,
took more than 4 years to accomplish. The budget of the reconstruction
was approximately 110 million NT dollars. Executive Yuan's "Post-921
Reconstruction Commission" subsidized 8.4 million of the budget. The
NCHU's Academic Affairs Fund financed 51.6 million. The remaining 50
million was footed by the outstanding alumnus, Mr. Wan Nian Lin. The old
Language Center is a 2-floor building of 19,368 square feet. A
comparatively larger one, the new Center is composed of five stories and
a basement, the area of which totals 88,848 square feet. Indebted to the
generous donation of Mr. Lin, the new building was named after him and
called "Wan Nian Hall," which means "a build that will last for 10
thousand years" in Chinese.
Equipment and Facilities
The Language Center currently has 8 professional language drill labs, a
simultaneous oral interpretation lab, a TOEFL iBT site, 3 multi-media
classrooms, a software library (also a self-learning room for students),
3 conference rooms, different in size. The language drill labs possess
full compatibility with instructors?interactive teaching methods. Each
language drill lab is installed with a LCD projector, an
Internet-accessible computer, a DVD-ROM, a VCR, a teaching material
prompter, and wireless microphones. This multimedia space enables
teachers to make use of materials derived from both analog and digital
platforms. Most important of all, this environment empowers teachers to
use technology to facilitate and enhance students?creativity and their
desire to become lifelong language learners.
The Software Library provides students a self-learning environment. Its
voluminous collection of teaching materials is also available for
teachers to use. Currently, the hardware equipment of the library
includes 16 TV sets, 6 VCRs, 10 DVD-ROMs, 3 tape recorders, and 4
computers.
The title collection includes:
Pictures: The Classrooms
and the Self-Learning Center
Future Development
For the time being, the Language Center has classrooms for miscellaneous
professional usage. In addition to supporting the academic requirement
of foreign language teaching on campus, the Language Center will
maintain and also develop the following services:
1. The Center takes charge of various language capacity examinations,
aiming to become the representative language training and test center in
central Taiwan. For decades, the Center has been entrusted by LTTC to
hold TOEFL in central Taiwan. Since 2000, the NCHU Language Center has
been administering GEPT’s speaking comprehension test in Taichung on
behalf of LTTC.
2. The Center’s Extensive Education Section cooperates with the
Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures in providing the public
with various foreign language courses. The Center also plans to
cooperate with enterprises to open miscellaneous foreign language
classes to help advance their workers?foreign language abilities and
strengthen their competence in international competition.
3. The Center’s simultaneous oral interpretation lab is set up to train
professional translators and interpreters, who have been enjoying a high
demand from international conferences and businesses.
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