13.教育——发展的关键

　　It is a priority of Chilean Education Policy to enhance 21st century skills. We have established two priorities: English as a foreign language and the use of technology, computers and internet to advance teaching and learning. Chile shares with the rest of the APEC community the view that these are basic tools to develop our human resources and to expand participation in the global economy.

　　加强21世纪技能培训室智利教育政策的当务之急。我们确立了两项重要任务：将英语作为一门外语，运用技术、电脑网络等来促进教与学。智利和其他APEC成员一致认为，这些是我们发展人力资源，扩展在全球经济立足之地的必备工具。

　　Our country has recently began to implement a long term plan to improve significantly the teaching and learning of English. We are setting standards and we want to measure the achievement of these standards. At the end of this year we will give a diagnostic test to a representative sample of eight and twelve grade students at the end of primary and secondary school respectively. For the first time we will know where our students are at regarding their level of English.

　　智利已经展开一项长期计划来更大的提高英语的教与学。我们正在制定标准，并且要衡量一下这些标准所能取得的成效。今年年底，我们将会对一些典型试点做抽样测试，分别包括八年级的小学生和十二年级的初中生。这将是我们首次定位我们学生的英语水平。

　　We are also developing programs to support the professional development of our teachers; we have distributed English textbooks to all students from subsidized schools from grades 5 to 12 where teaching a foreign language is compulsory; and also developing programs to attract volunteers to come to Chile to help our teachers and motivate our students to learn English.

　　我们同时也在开发一些项目来支持我们老师专业技能的提高；我们给津贴学校五到十二年级的学生分发了英语教科书，他们的英语是必修科目；我们同时也开发项目来吸引志愿者来智利帮助老师并且促进学生来学习英语。

　　Motivation to learn English in a country where still very few people speak the language is a significant challenge. We need to further explore how to boost motivation among our students; perhaps by using innovative technology, audiovisuals, interactive software, educational chatting rooms or other means that could raise interest of young people. This seminar will give us some ideas on this subject.

　　在一个很少人说英语的国家来激励人们来讲英语是一个很大的挑战。我们需要进一步探索如何来增强学生学习英语的兴趣；或许应用创新科技，视听教具，互动软件，教学聊天室以及其他方法来提高年轻人学习英语的兴趣。这次会议将会在这方面给我们一些建议。