With more emphasis on the communicative and pragmatic function of Business English learning, the author discusses a case study of a Business English course based on projects conducted by the students in their communit...With more emphasis on the communicative and pragmatic function of Business English learning, the author discusses a case study of a Business English course based on projects conducted by the students in their community This curriculum aims at students experiencing and implementing their knowledge of Business and English in the real business environments, engaging community in the process, and avoiding isolation and separation of business English teaching and learning from communities. The research lays more importance on the students' experiencing and participating process by providing them with a series of guidelines as reference and assessment, but meanwhile the students have their freedom of choices and decision-making in many aspects. Integrative skills are practiced including linguistic skills, business-related skills, communicative skills, and technology-related skills. Specifically, the students are required to conduct a mini market research in their community. The topic of the research is negotiated, classified, and grouped in the entire class until each individual student belongs to a group. The project procedure and requirements are given to the students on weekly basis, including field of research, questionnaire, data collection and analysis, report, and the final group presentation. Based on their experience from the research, the students write down their reflections. Based on the observation of the instructor and students' feedback, the research found that students' expectations and teacher's roles varied in a number of aspects. A variety of knowledge and skills have been practiced. Problems have also been found in each step of the project.展开更多
文摘With more emphasis on the communicative and pragmatic function of Business English learning, the author discusses a case study of a Business English course based on projects conducted by the students in their community This curriculum aims at students experiencing and implementing their knowledge of Business and English in the real business environments, engaging community in the process, and avoiding isolation and separation of business English teaching and learning from communities. The research lays more importance on the students' experiencing and participating process by providing them with a series of guidelines as reference and assessment, but meanwhile the students have their freedom of choices and decision-making in many aspects. Integrative skills are practiced including linguistic skills, business-related skills, communicative skills, and technology-related skills. Specifically, the students are required to conduct a mini market research in their community. The topic of the research is negotiated, classified, and grouped in the entire class until each individual student belongs to a group. The project procedure and requirements are given to the students on weekly basis, including field of research, questionnaire, data collection and analysis, report, and the final group presentation. Based on their experience from the research, the students write down their reflections. Based on the observation of the instructor and students' feedback, the research found that students' expectations and teacher's roles varied in a number of aspects. A variety of knowledge and skills have been practiced. Problems have also been found in each step of the project.