Філологічні науки/1 Методика викладання мови

Ст. викладач Бартіш Г. В.

ЛІБС УБС НБУ

TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH

Deriving from its very definition, the answer to this question is: either adults working or preparing to work in a business environment, be it a large multinational, a small private company or a state company or Business English students studying the language either because they need to do their jobs more efficiently or due to the fact they study it in school. Teaching Business English implies highly specific goals and objectives which demand a tight control of the course plan and careful selection of materials and activities. Thus teachers have to be aware of what their real goals are, who they have to communicate with in English, what about and why. If teachers manage to find out precisely what they need to do and in what contexts, then they can adapt lessons accordingly.

As stated above, there is a clear distinction among the learners of Business English: students, or the so-called pre-experience learners and the job experienced learners .

The former category will have two types of needs: the need to read bibliography in English and the need to attend English lectures in order to get some qualifications and they have to improve some of their skills: reading, speaking etc. the latter category of learners has a clear set of different needs, that is to improve some of their skills, or they may change their job and need some other skills. Anyway, the striking difference refers to the fact that job experienced learners do not have time for homework, they do not want or need knowledge about the language, they need a practical use of the language.

In spite of the growing need for learning English and of the expanding practices of Business English teaching, the process of teaching and learning Business English communication skills is not satisfactory and confronted with many challenges. To get the deeper understanding of the issue, it is necessary to investigate into the perceptions and practices of Business English teaching.

Teaching Business English in a college or university in Romania could be challenging as Romania itself is a country where business was hardly a topic twenty years ago then we are language teachers not business experts, and the whole process is performed with students who do not have a general idea about other cultures and civilizations. Thus we become “the designers of a new trend in this Romanian fashionable culture”, that is doing business. It does not only refer to teach words, phrases, concepts that can be found in dictionaries or specialized books; it is more like a complex educational process of discussing up-to-date topics, and for the moment, it seems that Business English is only a concept (as, by the way, we teach Business English to Romanian students, but we use mostly materials printed abroad). Some teachers – we belong to this category - may find themselves teaching with locally designed materials and course books. These materials are sometimes “in-house productions”, adapted to the level of students and providing the daily lessons needed to teach .

Nevertheless, there are times when the teacher feels the need to diversify and enliven the teaching atmosphere. To get beyond the limitations imposed by the curricula, teachers often use authentic materials incorporating them into lesson plans.

Most Business English books have been on the market for several years and though they may still contain a lot of useful language input and practice, some aspects of their content now appear outdated. The teacher may decide to omit some exercises if they deal with outmoded practice or present old-fashioned ideas or, especially, old-fashioned language.

Advantages of using authentic materials:

1. Authentic materials provide exposure to real language, to a reality level of Business English.

2. Authentic materials drawn from periodicals are always up-to-date and constantly being updated.

3. Authentic materials relate more closely to learners ' needs and provide them with a source of up-to-date relevant materials for learning Business English.

4. Authentic materials have a positive effect on learner motivation.

5. Authentic materials provide authentic cultural information.

6. Authentic materials offer a more creative approach to teaching.

Disadvantages of using authentic materials:

Alongside with the unquestionable advantages of using authentic materials which bring the real world into the classroom, these texts often contain difficult language, unneeded vocabulary items and complex language structures, which causes a burden for the teacher in lower-level classes. Other voices argue that authentic materials may be too culturally biased and too many structures are mixed, causing lower levels have a hard time decoding the texts. The solution might be for teachers to be thoughtful enough to decide when and how to introduce authentic materials taking into account especially the students' level of English. So, like any area of language teaching, teaching business English has its own set of pros and cons. In as simple a way as possible, we have outlined them as follows:

Pros:

- get to learn new things about the business world and develop new skills as a teacher;

- students usually have a specific purpose for learning English and it is easier to cater to;

- a huge bank of business related authentic materials to choose from;

- get to meet a wide range of professionals and learn about the work of different countries and cultures.

Cons:

- May not be familiar with some of the more specialist vocabulary you may have to teach;

- Hard to meet all students specific needs

- Some business course books can be a bit dry and ironically, can take time to learn how to bring Business English to life

- -you may be younger than many of the students and can take time to establish credibility.