Becoming is a useful notion for researching ESP learning as ESP is typically viewed as an instructional approach to meeting learner needs by identifying such needs, for example, in terms of language, ...genres and discourses and explicitly teaching to these needs. What transformation ESP learners experience through ESP learning is highly relevant to the field. Zhang (2013) illustrates this theme by reporting the learning of business genres by Business English Major students at a Chinese university and responses to these students’ business writing by experienced international business practitioners. In this commentary, I offer a critical review of my own earlier work by revisiting the key findings in the original article and their value in light of developments in the field and suggesting several issues for further research.
•This commentary on my 2013 article critiques its value and suggests further research.•Business English education empowers students with portable skills and knowledge.•Business genre knowledge is describable in terms of four essential dimensions.•Students’ learning of business genre knowledge requires careful scaffolding.•Expanding business genre knowledge contributes to research-informed ESP pedagogy.
This article reports a mixed-methods study that investigates academic success in English Medium Instruction (EMI) at a Chinese state university. Questionnaire, exam score (n = 100), and ...semi-structured interview data (n = 29) was collected from second-year undergraduate students majoring in Business Management. Content-related language proficiency, perceived success, and motivation were explored as possible significant predictors of academic success in EMI. Business English proficiency was a statistically significant predictor, highlighting that students with a lower level of proficiency need supplementary linguistic support in order to fully succeed in their EMI studies. Language learning motivation did not predict academic success, echoing previous findings (Rose, H., S. Curle, I. Aizawa, and G. Thompson. 2019. "What drives success in English medium taught courses?" The interplay between language proficiency, academic skills, and motivation. Studies in Higher Education 0 (0): 1-13. doi:10.1080/03075079.2019.1590690). Perceived success in EMI did predict actual success in EMI, highlighting the need to enhance students' perceptions of their own ability to succeed in EMI. Qualitative data revealed that students' perceptions of success in EMI centred around content knowledge acquisition, improved English proficiency, knowledge application and transformation, and forming new modes of thinking. Practical implications for pedagogy are discussed.
Language Management Wilmot, Natalie Victoria
2022, 2022-07-28, Letnik:
6
eBook
This book draws on case studies of language management within British organisations to examine the decisions they make about language diversity in their professional communications in order to be ...successful in a multilingual world.It explores the practices that the organisations use to manage language diversity in interorganisational relationships, and why certain practices occur in some situations and not others.The book highlights how organisations rely on individual employees to perform a variety of language tasks and the implications of this; the effect of English as a global lingua franca; and the translation challenges which organisations face.The book demonstrates that practices to manage language diversity are often a result of the resources organisations have at given moments in time, rather than being part of a deliberate language management strategy.
This volume presents a range of views about language, learning, and teaching in English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Its purpose is to go beyond individual cases and practices to examine the ...approaches and ideas on which they are based. The aim is for readers to adopt an analytical stance toward the field and to identify current perspectives in ESP and the ideas driving them.
Ideas and Options in English for Specific Purposes does not promote any one approach, but rather identifies and illustrates those in evidence today. The main emphasis is on the links between theory and ESP teaching and research. Ideas from linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, SLA, and social theories are described. Links are then made between these ideas and ESP course designs, instructional materials, and research projects. Thus the book moves back and forth between descriptions of theories, teaching practice, and research.
Part I introduces the book's approach to description of ESP and the framework used to investigate it. Part II examines ideas of language, learning, and teaching in ESP. Recognizing that ESP is taught in many different countries and contexts, the author draws on a wide range of examples of teaching practice and research from around the world and from different branches of ESP, including English for Academic Purposes, English for Professional Purposes, and English for Vocational Purposes. From Chapter 3 onward, each chapter includes Questions for Discussion and Projects, to encourage readers to research and analyze the practices of ESP in their own contexts and to consider the ideas they draw on in their own teaching.
This text is geared toward graduate-level TESOL education courses.
Contents: Preface. Part I: Preliminaries. Introduction. Approach. Issues in ESP Course Design. Part II: Ideas and Options. Section A: Language. Language Systems. Language Uses. Combining Language Descriptions. Section B: Learning. Conditions for Learning. Processes of Learning. Section C: Teaching. Methodologies. Objectives in Teaching ESP. Part III: General. Synthesis.
Abstract
With the continuous deepening of the application of big data technology, the education field is also paying attention to the impact of big data. “Internet +” education has become a hot topic ...in the current education field. This article relies on the big data Hadoop cloud platform technology through integration lines Online and offline resources and a variety of teaching techniques and methods are used to analyze the business English teaching model, and use the mixed teaching model to promote the development from extensive to standardization, aiming to enhance the richness, interaction and effectiveness of business English teaching.
The study reported in Gimenez's (2014) article investigated multi-communication (MC) practices at four multinationals based in London, UK. Following previous studies, the article defined MC as “the ...act of holding multiple conversations at the same time” (Gimenez, 2014: 2), expanding the coverage of the term ‘conversation’ to include not only face-to-face but also electronically mediated communication (e.g., talk over the telephone, email, instant messaging IM). The study also expanded on previous research by examining the underpinning role of digital media in workplace interactions, and revealed a set of interactional skills, such as ‘thematic threading’, ‘presence allocation’, ‘media packaging’ and ‘audience profiling’, needed to communicate effectively in the contemporary workplace. It also revealed a preference for efficiency rather than effectiveness, highlighting that efficiency “has become a more relevant feature of business communication in today's highly technicalised workplaces” (p. 3). Based on its findings, the article suggested applications for the business English (BE) class, featuring a number of technology-enhanced tasks that aim at helping students to feel prepared for the communication demands of the contemporary workplace.
•Provides a critical review on Gimenez (2014).•Highlights the significance of the paper.•Reviews its influence on the field.•Indicates future directions for research.
This commentary on "Just wanna give you guys a bit of an update": Insider perspectives on business presentations in Hong Kong (2013) explores the significance of the paper written by Stephen Evans, ...its influence on the study of business English, and its main contributions to business communication and presentations, including a number of highlights for future research projects.
•This is a researcher's commentary on Evans (2013).•It tries to highlight research interest in business English oral interactions.•The research on business presentations has multiple aspects to be studied.
Evans (2013) analyzed the nature and frequency of Hong Kong professionals' workplace presentations as well as the challenges they faced when delivering these presentations. This commentary analyzes ...the pedagogical significance of Evans’ (2013) findings, recommends relevant classroom activities, and suggests directions for future research. Specifically, the commentary offers pedagogical activities to address each main challenge Evans (2013) identified from a robust needs analysis: “engaging the interest of the audience through the selection of relevant content, handling questions spontaneously and authoritatively, communicating in a natural spoken style, and integrating clearly designed slides into the flow of a presentation” (p. 205). As an initial step to narrowing the research-pedagogy gap which exists in business English, the commentary underscores the importance of a robust needs analysis which triangulates quantitative and qualitative data from multiple sources to identify learner needs. To address these needs, practitioners can implement research-informed activities using authentic materials. Since some of the challenges identified by Evans (2013) have been discussed in other studies about oral presentations and are likely shared by learners in other contexts, it is hoped that the pedagogical activities targeting these challenges offer practitioners new ways to help learners hone the skills needed to excel at workplace presentations.
•Evans' (2013) findings have pedagogical significance for workplace presentations.•Suggested research-informed activities address workplace presentation challenges.•A robust needs analysis with data triangulated from multiple sources is recommended.•More research is needed on presentation discourse to inform materials design.
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