An analysis of student competence-based grouping of English classes in institutions of higher education in Taiwan

English is the international language today. Seventy-five percent of the world's mail, faxes, and information on the Internet and in computer databases along with half of the business activities in Europe are processed in English. National English proficiency is now an index of competitiveness in Asia. However, students in Taiwan showed poor English proficiency in recent years. The problem of Taiwanese people poor English proficiency would make Taiwan's local industries unable to compete internationally, weaken the competitiveness of Taiwan's institutions of higher education, and make Taiwan invisible on the international stage. Therefore, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan recommended institutions of higher education to implement competence-based grouping English classes in order to improve students' English literacy.; The research question was: what was the difference in English proficiency, if any, between competence-based and normally assigned classrooms in institutions of higher education?; The data of this research was collected from five randomly selected general universities and two randomly selected vocational colleges where competence-based freshman English classes had already been implemented. This research analyzed the freshman English final examination' scores of students who were taught in normal grouping freshman English classrooms and of students who were taught in competence-based freshman English classrooms.; This research found no experimentally important or consistent mean difference in final examination scores between the freshmen who were taught in normal grouping and in competence-based grouping freshman English classrooms. An analysis of means by semester showed that students' freshman English final scores actually decreased slightly in their freshman years in schools between the two semesters. The analysis of average freshman English final examination scores by regions showed that students who were taught in competence-based grouping freshman English classrooms outscored their normal grouping counterparts in northern Taiwan, but underscored in other regions in Taiwan.