Bei-Chen Hsu, Yu-Si Liu, and Pei-Rong You, senior students of the Department of Applied English, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, recently participated in the 2019 English Speech Contests for Taiwan High School and University Students. The contest, jointly organized by American Institute in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Branch Office, was held in the Hall of Performing Arts of the National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung. They won first prize and two excellence awards.

【Bei-Chen Hsu (left) from the Department of Applied English, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won the 2019 English Speech Contests for Taiwan High School and University Students, with his advisor Prof. Yiao-Si Shih (right) of the Department of Applied English (right) in the contest】

This national competition is entering its seventh year this year. The theme of the speech is "U.S. and Taiwan: Our Future Environment." The entries of Bei-Chen Hsu, Yu-Si Liu, and Pei-Rong You of the Department of Applied English, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, were favored by the judges. They were selected from more than 50 contestants in national colleges and universities before they qualified for the final 15. On the day of the final, the judges included were Matthew O'Connor, Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Branch; Peter McSharry, Chief Officer of the cultural news team, and many other English scholars and experts from various colleges and universities in Taiwan, EU, the US, and Australian. In addition, this year, Joann Doll, Education Supervisor of the US State Department was invited to participate in the final review. The judging panel was strong and professional.

【Pei-Rong You (left) from the Department of Applied English, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won 7th place and an excellence award in the 2019 English Speech Contests for Taiwan High School and University Students. The award was presented by Matthew O’Connor (right), Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Branch】

The final was divided into two parts: a five-minute English speech and a three- minute ad hoc question and answer. In the afternoon of the competition day, the results of the competition were announced after three hours of fighting. Among them, Pei-Rong You won 7th place in the country with her speech "Working Holiday between Taiwan and the USA." Yu-Si Liu won 6th place with her speech "The Language Environment between Taiwan and the United States." This year's national championship was awarded to Bei-Chen Hsu, who won the entitle with his speech "How Clean Energies Can Save Our Planet."

【Yu-Shi Liu (left) from the Department of Applied English, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, won 6th place and an excellence award in the 2019 English Speech Contests for Taiwan High School and University Students. The award was presented by Matthew O’Connor (right), Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Branch】

Thanks to the great attention and sponsorship of the American Institute of Taiwan in Kaohsiung, the 2019 English Speech Contests for Taiwan High School and University Students has become a first-class competition for English speech in colleges in Taiwan. This year, Bei-Chen Hsu, Yu-Si Liu, and Pei-Rong You, under the guidance of Prof. Yao-Si Shih of the Department of Applied English, finally won this honor after his preparation for half a year. All the teachers and students from the Department of Applied English at the school congratulated the three winning students and shared the glory.

As C. J. Yang, Chair of the Department of Applied English, Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, said, the department is committed to providing a stage for students to show their competence, and holding in-house competitions every year, such as freshman reader-theater competitions, freshman six-minute briefings, junior impromptu speeches and graduation briefing competitions. These are all for enhancing solid training for students' English expression skills and for encouraging students to challenge themselves. In recent years, students have repeatedly brought back good news in English-related events. This time, the three contestants defeated most of the contestants, among whom there were many outstanding national universities. This is enough to show the strength and teaching effectiveness of students in the Department of Applied English.