To cultivate the young and talented: Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology
organized the 2015 National English Vocabulary Spelling Bee Competition for Vocational High Schools

Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology organized the 2015 National English Vocabulary Spelling Bee Competition for Vocational High Schools. Enthusiastic participation came from a total of 153 students from 37 comprehensive vocational high schools all over the island. The competition was sponsored by the Ministry of Education with its Teaching Excellence program. The Applied English Department of STUST has hosted the competition for three consecutive years. The main purpose is to enhance English Vocabulary and reading skills of vocational high school students through competitions and thus strengthen their international competitiveness. To make the competition better in evaluation, the department split the participants into English major group and non-English major group. Propositional content of the competition were derived from the common English words announced by the Ministry of Education as for the grades 3 to 5 and grades 3 to 4. The questions were divided into three types: Chinese to English, English Spelling, and English to Chinese; 100 questions are for each type, given by Penghu Bay English online quiz system and San Min Bookstore via computer quiz system.

【Victor Shen, Chairman of Applied English Department, STUST, and the first-place winner of non-English Group】

Participants in the competition were graded according to their performance scores into merit prizes: 3 first prizes, 5 second prizes, and 10 third prizes, with a total of 18 winners awarded certificates of merit and prize money—NT$ 3,500 for each first prize winner, NT$ 2,500 for each second prize winner, and NT$ 1,000 for each third prize winner. Victor Shen, Chairman of the Applied English Department, encouraged all the participants at the awards ceremony and expected them to upgrade their cognitive ability of English vocabulary as well as their motivation to learn English, in addition to the development of their English reading proficiency.

【Victor Shen, Chairman of Applied English Department, STUST, and the first-place winner of English Group】