Business Communication Needs of English Major Undergraduates and Curriculum Development in a Chinese University
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Business Communication Needs of English Major Undergraduates and Curriculum Development in a Chinese University Qing Xie1
De La Salle University 2016
Abstract This article reports an investigative study of business communication needs of English major undergraduates and their perceptions of effective business English curriculum in a Chinese university. Surveys in two stages were administered in 2015 during the Business English Communication course delivery process to 138 English major undergraduates in a public university located in the east of China. The results include stronger English speaking needs, diverse English writing genres, wide native and non-native English speaker contacts, and difficulties in comprehending original English communication. The participants valued business knowledge introductions, company cases, and authentic material input. They also perceived practice-oriented approaches such as presentations and role play as important parts of effective business English curriculum. The results help to further adapt the business English curriculum based on the recent national benchmark and bring better business communicative competence development outcomes, which have theoretical, practical, and policy implications for both China and the world. Keywords Business communication needs Business English curriculum English major undergraduates Chinese University
Introduction While Feng (2012) highlighted the growing trend of English use in the social and cultural contexts in Greater China region, including mainland China’s educational institutions, the effectiveness of English language teaching in the Chinese context is still an issue under discussion. For example, Yang (2006) indicated that the effectiveness of China’s college English language teaching was constrained by shortage of English use context, lack of sufficient comprehensible input, and instructional time in class. Even the college English graduates in China may not have adequate English communicative competence to cope with the challenges of the globalized workplace. Nevertheless, the overall aim of China’s college and university English teaching and assessment has been to develop communicative competence to meet the social needs, also stated in the College English Test development committee report (Jin and Yang 2006). This article is to address the issues of English language teaching in China’s university context by investigating the business English communication needs of English major undergraduates to see whether this thorough understanding can feed into the actual curriculum development to ultimately bring better communicative competence development outcomes.
Theoretical Framework & Qing Xie [email protected] 1
School of Foreign Studies, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu Avenue, Wuxi 214122, Jiangsu, China
Understanding English Teaching and Learning in China’s Universities Previous studies have discussed English teaching and learning in China’s university context. Wette and
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Q. Xie
Barkhuizen (2
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