National Taiwan University

This course strengthens Chinese listening, writing, and speaking skills and focuses on strengthening oral and expressive skills The course is designed for exchange students and visiting students only. The Chinese course is offered for those students who are taking Chinese course Intermediate I, II & III from NTU Center for International Education. The course aims to enable students to learn Chinese with joy through games and group activities. Except for improving students' listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, the course could help students further understand Taiwanese culture and language.

This course focuses on the neural basis of language. It addresses how the brain works to process speaking, reading, and understanding of language in human beings. It emphasizes how neuro-imaging data are used to form the theories of language. It presents empirical evidence of conventional psycholinguistic studies and recent imaging findings. The aim of this course is to provide an integrative overview of how the components of the language system combine together. Students are required to take part weekly article presentations.

The course introduces field study and geological surveying methods. The teaching material is lecture based and includes the concept of field geological surveying and the Heng-Chun Peninsula, which the class embarks on a four-day trip to Southern Taiwan to examine the rock and land formations of the area. Field practice is held during the semester, and performance during the field observation is the main determinant for performance assessment. Students who cannot participate in the field trip should not enroll in the course.

The course discusses the economic analysis of leisure consumption decisions and the economic issues in the leisure industry. It applies the concepts and tools of microeconomics to analyze how a consumer make time allocation decisions on the choice among leisure, consumption, school and work, and how a leisure business manages its supply, demand, investment, and market interactions. The second part of the course covers the macroeconomic issues of leisure, including the impacts of leisure industry on nation’s production, income, employment, economic development and international finance and trade. The course uses case studies and examples to provide understanding of the economic issues in Taiwan's global leisure markets, and how to apply economics to the operations and management in the leisure industry. Text: John Tribe, THE ECONOMICS OF RECREATION, LEISURE & TOURISM. Assessment: final exam (30%), homework, in-class presentation and/or a written report (60%), participation (10%).

The course consists of lectures, activities, and field trips regarding the environmental, historical, and sociocultural facets of Taiwan. The field trips supplement the lecture content. The course explores how Taiwan's past has shaped its modern state, and the subtle ways Taiwan incorporates foreign culture with its local culture. Course topics include: agricultural history and transformation; Taiwanese fold custom, ecology and nature, the national palace museum. Field trips locations include Jinguashi and Gold Museum, Taipei Guest House and National Taiwan Museum, and Longshan Temple and Huaxi District. Cultural activities include traditional craft, calligraphy, and Chinese mask. This course requires UCEAP students to complete an additional independent research paper on a topic of their choice.

Our increasingly globalized world presents us with advantages and disadvantages, with both opportunities and challenges, and therefore also with paradoxes. The annually updated, UN-sponsored Millennium Project identifies 15 challenges our world faces: climate change; insufficient clean water; population growth; authoritarian regimes; lack of global foresight; sharing the benefits and reducing the threats of new information and communications technologies; the widening gap between rich and poor; new and reemerging diseases; educational deficiencies; ethnic conflicts, terrorism, and the threat of weapons of mass destruction; the unequal status of women; transnational crime networks; growing energy demands; the need for accelerated scientific and technological breakthroughs; and incorporating ethics into global decisions. This course navigate all these challenges through the lenses of geography, politics, and trade. This course only introduces theoretical perspectives on how these challenges can be analyzed and addressed, but also contextualize them in real-world cases. The ultimate goal is to make students able to think independently and formulate their own views on critical world affairs.

Students basically learn by doing, trying out different techniques and approaches for teaching children English, devising their own lesson plans, and presenting these in class. Topics include total physical response, songs, stories, cross-curricular activities, classroom language and textbooks. Theoretical issues are arrived at via the consideration of practical considerations. Activity-based rather than language-based teaching is encouraged. This course aims to explore the characteristics of children, and their needs in the classroom. Students develop basic techniques for teaching children, and practice these techniques in class. Students also develop ideas and materials for teaching children and examine the differences between language-based and activity-based courses.

Because Taiwan is not a major producer of coffee, coffee in Taiwan is not a major cash crop. The consumption of coffee is increasing and this course focuses on various areas of the coffee industry and the culture of coffee in Taiwan. Topics include a profile of coffee; coffee plant taxonomy; reproductive ecology and environment for coffee growth; reproductive physiology of of coffee; propagation techniques; cultivation and management techniques; harvest and yield management; pest and disease prevention; quality improvement and breeding; green coffee bean appearance; coffee roasting and modulation; coffee liquors; and coffee and health. Assessment: midterm and final exams.

This course imparts the relevant knowledge of basic marine science, but also analyzes the marine environment in Taiwan from the perspectives of sea power, resources, ecological environment, climate change and environmental protection, etc., so as to enhance students' understanding of the ocean around Taiwan. The course enhances students' critical thinking and discussion skills on global environmental changes, the occurrence and prevention of natural disasters, and environmental protection.

This course explores Taiwan's relationship with the United States. It also examines the scope of the Department of the Communist Party of China since the normalization of relations with the United States in 1978 from the final stages of negotiations to the end Chen's presidency in 2008. The two countries have safely survived relations, including arms sales, strategic dialogue and military exchanges. Due to the United States’ status as a global power, the "Taiwan Relations Act" (and its concerns with major issues of democracy, economic development, national defense, foreign relations, and developing relations with mainland China) is of great importance to continued relations. This course examines several major events over a 30-year period from the points of view of Taipei, Washington, and Beijing. During this period, the teachers have actually participated in various events, and can offer personal observation and reflections to students. Students select topics from the China, the United States and the Communist point of view to write a paper (less than 1,500 Chinese characters) on the day before class to upload to the CEIBA website for downloading the class to read.