Taiwan’s recently implemented Curriculum Guidelines of 12-year Basic Ed-
ucation highlight interdisciplinary learning. For upper secondary education, this
means that courses should be designed around preplanned themes and exercises
to help develop learners’ basic knowledge in various aspects of life, allowing them
to make connections between subjects and develop critical thinking. College ed-
ucation should help students continue this interdisciplinary learning developed
throughout high school. When designing course curricula, instructors need to
create an environment to foster cooperative learning. In the meantime, project-ori-
ented learning serves as a scaffolding to enhance cultural and global understanding.
Foreign language courses, while cultivating communication skills, also provide a
perfect place for students to get in touch with foreign cultures. By adopting a ho-
listic approach, French language courses could become an integrated program in
which teachers apply thematic courses designed to address issues from multiple per-
spectives, while students develop key skills to improve academic performance. In
his book From Foreign Language Education to Education for Intercultural Citizenship,
Michael Byram points out that the goal of foreign language courses is not only to
help students develop language ability but also to allow them to understand the im-
portance of being able to adapt to the international community. As a French teacher
in a less prestigious university, the author found that traditional foreign language
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listening comprehension courses put too much emphasis on language learning progress; thus, learners’ different needs were often overlooked. This could create a divide among students, reducing students’ willingness to participate in class. There- fore, this project aims to adopt an interdisciplinary competence-based curriculum and a project-oriented learning method to conduct an Advanced French listening comprehension course. Hopefully, students will be motivated to participate in class, take the initiative and engage in issue-based inquiry to maximize their learning po- tential.
