What is BUSINESS ENGLISH? A BRANCH OF ESP
...r technical vocabulary in advance, therefore teachers can learn alongside the client. Ø Business English has it’s own set of exams (BEC Cambridge University) Ø Teachers need to have the fundamentals of BUSINESS very clear: These are: 1. Management theory 2. News about actual current practice 3. Knowledge of formats (email, reports etc) 4. Preferences / practices within specific industries 5. Corporate culture 1. Management theory Different types of Business, positions in companies, USPs (unique selling points), Products and Services. 2. News about actual current practice Building professional relationships, Functions, Terminology 3. Knowledge of formats (email, reports etc) Lexical choice BrE or AmE?, Indicators, Functions (meetings, presentations etc) Acronyms ,Collocations 4. Preferences / practices within specific industries Downsizing vs. re-engineering, Formal vs informal presentations 5. Corporate culture What are the taboo questions in...? Time Management, Stress Management Students’ analysis As in any English course, it is very important to star with the students’ needs analysis, or SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threatens). Many problems in L2 classes are a result of teachers not paying attention to learners' interests and ignoring students as a source of essential information. With the spread of CLT, much emphasis in second language methodology has been paid to the learner-oriented teaching. Students' analysis can give two kinds of information. The first reflects learners' "possession" - their current level in their L2, motivation, methods of learning they have experienced, etc. The second represents what learners want to achieve. These two kinds of information correspond to two levels of knowledge presented in S. Krashen's Input Hypothesis , also known as i + 1 Hypothesis. According to the study, i represents students' current level of L2 competence, and + 1 is a level of ESP proficiency beyond their present level. Similar to S. Krashen's theory is L. Vygotsky's concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in which there are two main stages of an individual's development. The first stage is what a child or learner can do by himself. The second stage is his potential, what he can accomplish with the help of another, more competent person. The distance between two stages is called the ZPD. The person to help the learner to achieve his/her potential is the teacher/trainer. Of course, this information should not be overused and learners’ needs analysis should be considered as a tool to provide attractive lessons which will motivate them but not as the only means of teaching, since it will not probably cover all the needed objectives of the course. However, it is very useful since if the learner is also aware of his needs and why he wants to learn Business English he will be motivated and enjoy the process of learning and of acquiring knowledge. It is of great importance indeed for students to have pleasure and success in learning. 2) formulation of goals and objectives Formulating goals and objectives for a Business English course allows the teacher to create a clear picture of what the course is going to be about. Clear understanding of goals and objectives will help teachers to be sure what material to teach, and when and how it should be taught. D. Nunan gives a clear description of how one should state objectives. Depending on what is desired, objectives may sound like the following: · Students will learn that ... · Students will be aware of ... · Students will develop ... It is also important to state realistic and achievable goals and objectives. In Business English TEACHERS have to understand BUSINESS LANGUAGE read and build personal glossaries And be able to understand the CONCEPTS OF GOOD BUSINESS PRACTICE learnt from reading / clients / network in order to Adapt their teaching methods to the NEEDS of the clients (learners/company) And help them to DEFINE the language they use. BE brings together 3 areas: ðteaching : the pedagogic skills involved in running training programmes ð English: knowledge of language, understanding ð Business: familiarity with the key issues facing specific learners or learner groups For those reasons classroom activities should be planned in a way that the students do have a real natural purpose. It is better to present the language in a context to a purpose other than the English language itself. “Language is best taught when it is being used to transmit messages, not when it is explicitly taught for conscious learning”...