Since the last decade， realizing the pressure from both official and unofficial sectors to encourage immediate education reform， Taiwan educators have been initiating various curricular and instructional innovations. Especially， those private schools that received no financial support from the government have made more attempts on innovation to improve their academic performance in order to attract more students. The aim of the paper is to describe the innovative measures employed by a private junior high school in northern Taiwan.From school year 1998， the school adopted several reform policies such as class size reduction， ability grouping， differentiated teaching， communicative approach and hiring native speakers as teachers in order to enhance the performance of English teaching and learning. Those policies were conceived to rebuild school reputation and to resume the confidence of the parents in order to recruit more students who otherwise， would be assigned to public schools， without paying higher tuition and fees. One of the authors worked as a member of the board of trustees in the school and was asked to participate in the process of the restructuring of English curriculum and instruction. In the meantime， Taiwan National Science Council granted a research project on school innovation for the other two authors. The team entered the school site to collect data by using classroom observations， interviews， and document analysis from May 1999 to May 2000. This paper briefly reports the result of the research project.This paper is divided into four parts. First， we introduced the background of the curricular and instructional innovation in the school. Second， we described the school characteristics， research methods， and the procedures of the data collection is described. Third， we reported the findings by analyzing the motivation of the innovation， new measures employed， operation of the implementation， and problems and difficulties. Fourth， we explained the implications of the project for other Taiwan schools that would launch a similar innovative program we are explained.
近若干年來，臺灣地區的各級學校，在政府和民間要求教育改革的急切呼籲之下，紛紛進行各種課程與教學的改革。經費上自給自足的私立學校，在生存的壓力之下，尤思推陳出新，力圖以課程的革新與教學的改進提升辦學的績效。本文即係以臺灣北部一所私立中學的國中部為個案研究的對象，分析與歸納其在英語課程與教學革新上所作的努力及成果。該校自1998年初起，即在國中部的英語課程之中，推動小班制教學、能力分階編班、溝通式英語教學設計，以及聘請外籍教師等革新的作法，試圖藉此凸顯其課程與教學的改革之決心，增進其學生學習的效果，以重建其學校的聲譽，俾便增進更多家長的認同，吸引更多學生就讀該校。作者之一係以該校兼任董事之身分參與此項革新工作，適逢另二位作者正接受行政院國家科學委員會之補助，進行以課程革新為主題之專題研究，乃共同合作，自1999年5月至2000年5月，以一年之時間，進入學校現場，以觀察、訪談及文件分析等方式從事資料蒐集。本文即為此一研究的部分結果。本文分為四個部分。其一，研究緣起：以臺灣地區國民中學英課程實施現況的分析為基礎，敘述本研究的動機與目的。其二，研究方法：就本研究所採取的質性研究方法，以及所運用的文獻分析、觀察、深入訪談、及文件分析等研究技術，加以扼要的說明。其三，研究發現：自實施課程革新的背景、革新課程設計的作法、課程與教學的實施，以及實施的問題等四項，說明本研究的重要發現。其四，研究啟示：則就課程與教學革新的推動與實施等方面，歸納可供個案學校及臺灣地區國民中學進行英語課程與教學革新之參考。
