Business English - Elliot Smith

Key Issues and Implications

Prestige of Standard English - learners want/expect grammar

Knowledge/skills gap in learners’ area of expertise – abandon ‘teacher as knower’

idea (Willis, 1990)

Scarcity of time – ‘high surrender value’ (Corder, 1973)

Stakeholder expectations – measurable evidence of learner progress

Needs Analysis

Investigating, analysing, and fulfilling learner needs especially vital for BE

(Donna, 2000)

Aim of NA – discover the ‘training gap’ (Frendo, 2005)

Graves (2000) ‘Process of Needs Assessment’ - Questionnaire

Needs Analysis – Results

The learners: - 18 – 20 years old

- 3 male, 1 female
- 3 Arabic speakers, 1 Greek
- ’Pre-experienced’ (Frendo, 2005)

Priorities: - reading, vocabulary, formal writing skills

- communication and organizational skills
Diagnostic Assessment

Reading – 10 Q’s PET/BEC Preliminary (Mid A2-Lower B2)

Writing – Formal letter task

Speaking – Informal interview in pairs (recorded)

Principles of Course Design

‘Backwards design’ (Richards, 2013):

- Diagnosis of needs
- Formulation of aims and objectives
- Selection of content
- Organisation of content
- Selection/Organisation of learning experiences
- What to evaluate and how (Taba, 1962)

Course Aims

To help learners read more effectively

To expand the learners’ repertoire of professional language

To make learners aware of when and how to write formal texts

To improve knowledge of formal business and academic discourse features and

text structures
Course Plan

10 weeks

One 2 hour lesson per week

3 week cycle (writing/reading/speaking)‘spacing effect’ (Krang, 2016)

Self-contained lessons, modular approach

Course Content and Teaching Approach

Formal writing skills (week 1/4/7) – text-based, product approach, lexical chunks

Reading skills (week2/5/8) – company emails, business articles, reading

strategies, business/professional vocabulary

Speaking skills (week 3/6/9) – preparing, structuring, and delivering presentations

Grammar and phonology taught reactively (‘focus on form’)

Assessment

Initial, formative, and summative assessments (Schellekens, 2007)

Continuous assessment:
+ Accurate, detailed, reliable final evaluation (Hughes, 2003)
- Time-consuming and stressful for teacher

Weekly homework tasks – formative assessment, 50% of summative assessment

Week 10 test – 50% of summative assessment
Course Evaluation

Data collected from stakeholders to judge achievement of course aims and what
could be improved (Hedge, 2000)

Evaluation for accountability: - summative assessment

- course evaluation sessions (week 10)

Evaluation for development: - peer or video observation

- online learner questionnaire(week 5/10)

Selected Bibliography

Corder, P. (1973). Introducing Applied Linguistics.

Donna, S. (2000). Teach Business English.
Frendo, E. (2005). How To Teach Business English.
Graves, K. (2000). Designing Language Courses
Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom
Kang, S. H. K. (2016). Spaced Repetition Promotes Efficient and
Effective Learning
Richards, J. (2001). Curriculum Development in Language Teaching.
Schellekens, P. (2007). The Oxford ESOL Handbook
Willis, J.D. (1990). The Lexical Syllabus.