Teaching English to Teaching English to business students:
business students:
The syllabus, materials, methods, and assessments
Prof. M. Maniruzzaman, Ph. D.
Prof. M. Maniruzzaman, Ph. D.
Email ID: [email protected]
Cellphone: (+88) 01711 337 559
Introduction Introduction
Business students currently unavoidably need to be capable of effectively communicating in English.
Business English has recently received
increasing importance due to globalization, outsourcing, e-banking, e-commerce, e-
business, e-marketing, cross-cultural business negotiations and so forth.
The students graduating from business disciplines, schools, colleges, economic
Introduction (cont.) Introduction (cont.)
A good command of Business English is, next to managerial skills, a necessity in the 21st
century.
Hence, teaching Business English is as crucial as challenging; and
The teachers and/or trainers concerned play an important role in helping business students
achieve the learning outcomes stated in the syllabus and/or curriculum of Business English.
Today’s presentation- Today’s presentation-
examines and addresses four rudimentary issues relating to teaching English to
business students, especially the Bengali speaking ones::
1. The curriculum and/or syllabus 2. The teaching/learning materials
3. The instructional methods, techniques, or strategies
4. The assessment instruments
The curriculum and/or syllabus The curriculum and/or syllabus
The syllabus addresses the questions:
What does the teacher teach when he/she teaches English to business students?,
What do business students learn when they learn English?, and
What learning outcomes do business students achieve after the completion of the course?
The curriculum and/or syllabus The curriculum and/or syllabus
(cont.) (cont.)
Teaching business English differs from teaching general English since the former is a register having technical linguistic and extralinguistic elements which the latter usually lack.
Ellis and Johnson (2003): Business English is
different from other varieties of English since it is often a blend of specific content concerned with particular job areas or industries, and
general content related to general ability to
communicate especially in the business setting.
The curriculum and/or syllabus The curriculum and/or syllabus
(cont.) (cont.)
Hyland (2009): Business English incorporates
developing communicative skills based on general English practice, and the relevant socio-
professional dimensions of communication determined by specific business contexts.
Brieger (1997): teaching Business English connects three aspects to achieve the learning outcomes-
a. teaching meaning running a training program,
b. English meaning knowledge of a language and culture, and
c. business meaning having knowledge of the subject- matter.
The curriculum and/or syllabus The curriculum and/or syllabus
(cont.) (cont.)
Mihaescu (2013): the Business English syllabus should be defined in relation to-
business performance skills: presentations, meetings, socializing, negotiating, specific documents’ reading or writing, and
the language in the syllabus: grammatical or lexical items, stress and intonation patterns, and organizational characteristics, such as signaling a new topic or turn-taking in
interactive situations.
The curriculum and/or syllabus The curriculum and/or syllabus
(cont.) (cont.)
Thus, the curriculum and/or syllabus for a Business English course should first state clear, observable and measurable learning outcomes, e.g.:
After the completion of the course (C), the BBA first semester students (A) will use 300
business words for communication (B) with full appropriateness (D).
- (Maryland Faculty Online, 2001)
The curriculum and/or syllabus The curriculum and/or syllabus
(cont.) (cont.)
and then embody the following based on learner needs assessment:
General communicative English: the basic skills including basic grammar, vocabulary, and
pronunciation
Business English as a register: business
vocabulary, expressions, terms, and genres
Cultures: local, target, and global
Business contexts: local, and international
The teaching/learning materials The teaching/learning materials
What materials do the teacher and business student use to achieve the learning
outcomes?
Printed materials: books, newspapers, magazines, photocopies, realia …
Virtual materials: soft copies (word, pdf…), PPT slides, online materials,
Recorded materials: audio, audio-video clips, you- tubes …
Ready-made materials: collected from market …
Teacher-made materials: handouts, PPT slides …
Learner-made materials: written assignments …
The teaching/learning materials The teaching/learning materials
(cont.) (cont.)
Materials should be as authentic as they can be.
Rogers & Medley (1988, p. 467): consider them as “appropriate” and “quality” in terms of
goals, objectives, learner needs and interest and “natural” referring to real life and
meaningful communication.
The teaching/learning materials The teaching/learning materials
(cont.) (cont.)
Advantages of using authentic materials:
provide exposure to real language, to a reality level of Business English.
drawn from periodicals are always up-to-date and constantly being updated.
relate more closely to learner needs and provide them with a source of up-to-date relevant
materials for learning Business English.
have a positive effect on learner motivation.
provide authentic cultural information.
offer a more creative approach to teaching.
The instructional methods, The instructional methods,
techniques or strategies techniques or strategies
The instructional methods answer the question:
How does the teacher teach English to business students?
Instruction refers to activities, methods, or
techniques reinforcing the learning objectives of a curriculum, course, module or lesson and preparing students for assessments measuring learning outcomes (Burger, 2008).
The instructional methods, The instructional methods,
techniques or strategies (cont.) techniques or strategies (cont.)
They are basically descriptions of the activities
oriented to specific learning outcomes and the flow of information between teachers and students
(Kizlik, 2012).
Instructional methods perform three essential roles:
motivating students and helping them focus attention,
organizing information for understanding and remembering, and
monitoring and assessing learning.
The instructional methods, The instructional methods,
techniques or strategies (cont.) techniques or strategies (cont.)
Ellis & Johnson (2003): the ideal instructional activities should-
balance language skills and business knowledge
combine language skills and intercultural communication skills
provide both classroom teaching and autonomous learning
enhance professional and humanistic understanding
teach both theories and practicum
employ traditional methods and modern IT approaches
use learner-centered and teacher-guided approaches, and
The instructional methods, The instructional methods,
techniques or strategies (cont.) techniques or strategies (cont.)
Since business operations particularly involve
interpersonal communication, the CLTA proves more beneficial than others.
Communicative activities including role-plays,
simulations, projects, and case studies are the most important Business English task-based learning
techniques (Wang, 2011).
Besides, business students should have an opportunity to develop their business communication skills:
meeting, presentation and negotiation, as well as management, team work, decision-making, problem-
solving, critical thinking, and organizational skills (Yan &
Zhai, 2012).
The instructional methods, The instructional methods,
techniques or strategies (cont.) techniques or strategies (cont.)
Guan, Ma, and Han (2012) propose a new teaching method for Business English teachers based on
computer networks or a multimedia environment.
The method is a combination of graphics, images, vibrant colors, realistic sounds, dynamic images, and text.
By using this method, students feel stimulated to be more interested in learning, to pay more
attention to their coursework, and to improve their English language proficiency needed for
communication in the business context.
The assessment instruments The assessment instruments
The assessment instruments respond to the question:
How are the learning outcomes assessed?
That is, assessment functions as a component of evaluation, and is constituted of varied ways exploited for collecting information about
learners and their ability and achievement.
The assessment instruments The assessment instruments
(cont.) (cont.)
Brown and Abeywickrama (2010) identify assessment as an ongoing process, consider it as an umbrella
term embodying a plethora of methodological
techniques: testing, surveying, observing and the like used for ascertaining learners’ performance.
Coombe et al. (2007) contrast traditional assessment (TA) with alternative assessment (AA).
TA commonly including pencil-and-paper tests is a measure in a teacher-dominated classroom for
determining what students know about the target language, e.g. multiple-choice tests, true/false tests,
The assessment instruments The assessment instruments
(cont.) (cont.)
AA is based on: knowledge having multiple meanings, learning being an active process, both process and
product being valued, developing real-world problem-
solving skills, assessment facilitating learning, integrating cognitive, affective and conative abilities, assessment
being subjective and value-laden, sharing power and control, and learning being a collaborative process (Brown & Hudson, 1998).
In a learner-centered class, AA exploits activities
disclosing what students can perform with the target language, e.g. open-ended questions, exhibits,
demonstrations, hands-on execution of experiments, computer simulations, portfolios, journals, and projects.
The assessment instruments The assessment instruments
(cont.) (cont.)
The selection of the right type of assessment depends on two paramount factors:
consonance of the assessment purpose with the decisions being made, and
the agreement of the assessment type with the curriculum, course, module or lesson objectives or learning points.
However, assessment should be for learning, not of learning.
Hence, AA is preferred to TA.
Conclusion Conclusion
Learner needs assessment
The demand of the business context
Local, target language, global cultures
The syllabus with learning outcomes clearly stated
The materials being authentic
Appropriate instructional techniques promoting cooperation and collaboration, and self-learning
Assessment enhancing learning, preferably formative
References References
Brieger, N. (1997). Teaching Business English handbook.
York: York Associates.
Brown, H. D., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment principles and classroom practices. White Plains, N.Y.: Pearson Education.
Brown, J. D. & Hudson, T. (1998). The alternatives in
language assessment. TESOL Quarterly, 32(4): 653–675.
Burger, M. (2008). The alignment of teaching, learning and assessment in English home language grade 10 in District 9, Johannesburg (Dissertation). University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa.
References (cont.) References (cont.)
Coombe, C., Folse, K., & Hubley, N. (2007). A practical guide to assessing English-language learners. Michigan Teacher Training series. Ann Arbor, Michigan: The University of Michigan Press.
Ellis, M. and Johnson, C. (2003) Teaching Business English.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Guan, W., Ma, R., & Han, Q. (2012). A study on Business English teaching under multimedia environment. Proceedings of 2012 International conference on artificial intelligence and soft
computing: Lecture notes in information technology, 12.
Hyland, K. (2009). English for professional academic purposes:
Writing for scholarly publications. In: Belcher, D. (ed.) Teaching language purposefully: English for specific purposes in theory and Practice. New York: Cambridge University Press, 83-105.
References (cont.) References (cont.)
Kizlik, B. (2012). Instructional methods information. Robert Kizlik & Associates. Boca Raton, Florida, Amazon.com
Maryland Faculty Online. (2001). The ABCD model for writing objectives. Retrieved October 27, 2012, from
http://www.mdfaconline.org/mdfaconline/Presentations/A BCDmodel.doc
Mihaescu, (2013). Current issues in teaching Business English to university students. Knowledge Horizons, 5 (1).
Rogers, C. V. and Medley, F. W. (1988). Language with a
purpose: Using authentic materials in the foreign language classroom. Foreign Language Annals.
References (cont.) References (cont.)
Wang, W. (2011). Teaching Business English in China:
Views on the case-based teaching in intercultural business communication. The Asian ESP Journal, 7(1).
Yan, X., & Zhai, L. (2012). The application of
communicative approach in Business English teaching.
The Asian ESP Journal, 9(2).
