TAIPEI, TAIWAN - An increasing number of Taiwanese senior high school students are learning a second foreign language aside from English, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE) yesterday.

Citing the latest statistics, the MOE pointed out that 30,272 of the more than 400,000 senior high school students around the country are taking a class in a second foreign language during the first semester of the 2009 academic year.

The number of students taking a second foreign language marks a growth of 5 per cent compared with the previous semester, the MOE said in a statement.

The most popular languages for the students to study as a second foreign language are Japanese, Spanish, German and French, according to the MOE statement.

To encourage the students to seek advanced studies in a second foreign language, they will have the chance to take advanced language courses in universities as a preparatory course before graduating from high school so long as they gain four credit points, or complete 72 hours of the basic course at their senior high school and pass proficiency tests, the MOE said.

According to MOE statistics, there are eight universities, including National Taiwan University and National Chengchi University, which offer the preparatory language courses in Japanese, German, French and Spanish for senior high school students.

Taiwan did not include a second foreign language in its senior high school curriculum framework until 2004.

MOE officials said that to help local students sharpen their international competitive edge, the ministry will expand the number of foreign language courses offered in the future and open courses in a wider variety of languages.