Business English

Basic considerations
About the content
Bhatia (2002) says any professional expertise contains three aspects: disciplinary knowledge, professional practice and discursive competence. So we might say BE includes business knowledge, business practice and business discourse.
From three perspectives to look at BE
Working Definition
To combine three perspectives of BE, we can obtain the working definition of BE: BE involves the teaching of the system of strategic communication in the social and economic domain of international business in which participants, adopting/ adapting business conventions and procedures, make selective use of lexico-grammatical resources of English as well as visual and audio semiotic resources to achieve their communicative goals via writing/ speaking and multimodality (Zhang, 2007: 406).
Basic considerations
About the teaching/ learning
How to teach? Corpus, DDL, CALL, WBL; How to learn? Corpus, DDL, CALL, WBL; How to mediate between teaching & learning and leaning & doing? qualified teachers to know what it is and how to do it; business-oriented students to know what they are and what they will be;
Suggestions
cover. All books are not worth reading from cover to cover. believing? Seeing is believing? believing; Doing is believing; too. Thinking is believing too. class. We could not depend on any single book in the class. We’d better learn BE not only inside the books but outside the books and between the two our important. critical thinking/ learning is most important.
Some Viewpoints of BE
商务英语是个模糊概念……商务英语的内容也随着商务 涵义的变化而变化……商务英语是一个动态的概念。 （左飚，1999） 所谓“商务英语”就其语言本质而言就是在商务-经贸 领域内经常使用的反映这一领域专业活动内容的英语词 汇、句型、文本等有机的总和。（史陆天，1999） 商务英语是英语的一种社会功能变体，是ESP的一种。 （黄伟新，2000） 国际商务英语，作为一个独立的专业和学科，在中国高 校已经是个不容质疑的事实之一。（林添湖，2004）
Business English: Theories & Practices
Liu Yunfeng Foreign Languages Dept, AUTS 2009
Some Viewpoints of BE
…it is possible to distinguish ESP courses by the general nature of the learners’ specialism. Three large categories are usually identified here: EST (English for Science and Technology), EBE (for Business and Economics) and ESS (for Social Science). (Hutchison & Waters, 1987) …it is not a dialect defined by place at all but by activity, occupation, subject matter or situation. For this we might coin the term ergolect --- work language. (Pickett, 1989) Business English must be seen in the overall context of ESP, as it shares the important elements of need analysis, syllabus design and material selection. (Ellis & Johnson, 1994)
About the teaching/ learning
How to teach? How to learn? How to mediate between teaching and learning?
Basic considerations
About the content Knowledge: Business Knowledge establishment of business relation, quotation, counter-offer, sales conformation, terms of payment, production, packing, inspection & quarantine, insurance, customs declaration, shipment, bank negotiation, lodging a claim, arbitration, settlement, after-sale service, management, overseas investment, joint venture, etc. Practice: Business Practice to narrow the gap between what is learned on campus and what is used in society by field work, holiday part-time job, and class TBL (task-based learning). Discourse: Business Discourse language/ linguistic styles and features in business correspondence, business document, business theory, intercultural business communication so on and so forth.
From three perspectives to look at BE
3. Discipline & Major
商务英语学科是英语学科和商务学科之间形 成的交叉学科。 普通英语和商务英语都是教学活动的标签。 普通英语教学是发展学生的语言系统知识和 运用能力，是人文教育的一个组成部分。 商务英语受明确的教学目的的驱使，目的是 培养学生获得商务专业技术，成为商务世界 的内行人，不仅仅是英语语言的教与学（张 佐成，2008：25）。
From three perspectives to look at BE
1. ESP
ESP must be seen as an approach not as a product. ESP is not a particular kind of language or methodology, nor does it material...... consist of a particular type of teaching material...... ESP, then, is an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learners 'reasons for learning. 1987) learning. (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) Therefore, from the perspective of ESP, BE is a teaching approach which largely attaches much importance to need. learner’s need analysis and how to satisfy learner’s need. Unfortunately it seldom pins down the language system in context. the business context.
Hale Waihona Puke From three perspectives to look at BE
2. Social Function
BE is the use of English language in international activities. business activities. Therefore, from the perspective of Social Function, BE is a product when people use English to carry activity. out business activity. (BargieleBE, also, is a professional speech (Bargiele1999) Chiapini & Nicherson, 1999).