Fostering learning and collaboration through computer-supported collaborative inquiry among Chinese tertiary business English students

This study investigates the communication and learning needs of Master of Business Administration (MBA) business English students and their perceptions of effective curriculum design. The research instruments are two-stage surveys of 99 MBA students from a public university in China. The results of the study show that English is not extensively used in the workplaces of MBA business English students, and that the majority of them use Chinese. Most English usage occurs in foreign businesses. The most difficult skills for MBA business English learners are found to be oral communication and listening comprehension. However, there are still very strong needs for further improvement in English communication. For the MBA business English courses, oral communication activities, especially with expatriate teachers, are particularly needed. The MBA business English courses should connect with real-world practice and be relevant to job and business needs. This study has significant implications for MBA business English curriculum reform in both Chinese and international contexts.

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Business English students learning to write for international business: What do international business practitioners have to say about their texts?

English for Specific Purposes ◽

10.1016/j.esp.2013.01.002 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 32 (3) ◽

pp. 144-156 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Zuocheng Zhang

Keyword(s):

International Business ◽

Business English ◽

Business Practitioners ◽

English Students

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A PROPOSAL FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS ENGLISH TEACHERS IN SERBIA – OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH

Journal of Teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes ◽

10.22190/jtesap2103389v ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 389

Author(s):

Mirna Vidaković

Keyword(s):

Professional Development ◽

Traditional Approach ◽

English Teachers ◽

Business English ◽

Self Directed Learning ◽

Professional Needs ◽

Proposed Model ◽

Professional Development Of Teachers ◽

Directed Learning ◽

Learning And Collaboration

This paper gives an overview of the empirical research conducted in the doctoral thesis entitled “A New Model of Professional Development of Business English Teachers in Serbia: Theoretical, Methodological and Practical Aspects”. Having noticed that professional needs of Business English teachers in Serbia were not sufficiently recognized, the research aimed to analyse the current situation regarding Business English teaching and professional development of teachers so as to gain data necessary for creating a proposal of a model of development that would fully respond to teachers’ pedagogical demands. The sample included 85 teachers and 349 students of Business English. Data collected through questionnaires and interview were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results were largely consistent with contemporary research in the fields of LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) and professional development of teachers. A few points which reflected a traditional approach to education concerned students’ perception of teachers’ roles and field competencies, and teachers’ expectations with regard to obtaining ready-made pedagogical solutions. The proposed model advocates a bottom-up and reflective approach to professional development, encourages both self-directed learning and collaboration, and offers content that suits teachers’ diverse experience and working contexts.

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Collex-Biz

ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics ◽

10.1075/itl.155.04bla ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 155 ◽

pp. 77-93

Author(s):

Kristin Blanpain ◽

Liesbet Heyvaert ◽

An Laffut

Keyword(s):

First Year ◽

Business English ◽

Web Based ◽

News Reports ◽

Course Materials ◽

Business News ◽

Learning Platform ◽

Exercise Design ◽

English Students ◽

Selection Of

This paper reports on the development of Collex-Biz, a corpus-driven web-based learning platform for general economic English. The design of this platform was informed by a number of research-based principles, particularly frequency and collocation, which are insufficiently incorporated in existing Business English course materials. Following Sinclair & Renouf (1988) and Nelson (2000), we first developed a ‘lexical syllabus’ for first-year Business English students on the basis of frequency data from a self-compiled 6 million word corpus of business news reports. A didactically inspired selection of the most useful single words and collocations was then thematically classified. On the basis of concordances, finally, exercises were created in which lexical items were maximally contextualised and systematically recycled. In this article, we discuss the criteria that guided our selection of items and elaborate on the principles behind the exercise design.

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