Language Centres at a Crossroads

Inspiration for the study has been provided by the concern shared by several Business English teachers at the University of Economics in Katowice, Poland, who have observed a variety of comprehension problems faced by pre-experience (particularly first year) students, as well as – not infrequently – their low motivation to engage in the reading tasks offered in popular Business English course books. As the Business English classroom is very often the first place where students at an early stage of their business education hear about specific business issues, it seems extremely important to provide them with materials that satisfy not only high pedagogical standards, but also the students' subjective needs and expectations related to the materials' value, relevance and usefulness.

Theoretically grounded in research on English for Specific Purposes (Dudley-Evans and St. John 1998; Paltridge and Starfield 2013), Content-Based Instruction (Stryker and Leaver 1997), and reading comprehension in ESP pedagogy (Hirleva 2013; Grabe and Stoller 2013), the paper seeks to investigate how the type of business content found in the reading materials offered by a popular Business English course book, as well as the degree of the content's relevance and usefulness, are perceived by pre-service students learning Business English as part of their university curriculum.

Twelve groups of first year undergraduate students at the University of Economics in Katowice, with no prior experience of learning either Business English or the principles of business, were asked to compare pairs of texts related to three business topics: international marketing, management styles, and stock market investment. One of the texts in each pair was selected from the Student Book of the third edition of Pearson's "Market Leader" (upper-intermediate level), and the other, on the same topic, extracted from online repositories of business-related articles.

The results of the student survey indicate that first year students, while appreciating the course book 'real-life examples' of successful companies, express strong preference for the Internet-based texts which provide them with the opportunity to acquire 'basic knowledge' related to specific business issues. The findings also appear to confirm the rationale behind integrating the two approaches: LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) and CBI (Content-Based Instruction) in the tertiary education context.

W wystąpieniu przedstawię wyniki badania mającego na celu przeanalizowanie opinii studentów na temat stopnia użyteczności i trafności doboru materiałów rozwijających sprawność czytania oferowanych w popularnych podręcznikach do nauki Business English. W badaniu wzięło udział 12 grup studentów pierwszego roku studiów licencjackich na Uniwersytecie Ekonomicznym w Katowicach, przy czym studenci ci nie posiadali doświadczenia zawodowego ani wiedzy teoretycznej w zakresie nauk ekonomicznych, nie uczyli się także wcześniej języka angielskiego dla celów biznesowych. Studenci poszczególnych grup zostali poproszeni o porównanie par tekstów dotyczących tematyki biznesowej: marketing międzynarodowy, style zarządzania, inwestowanie na giełdzie papierów wartościowych. Pierwszy z tekstów w każdej parze pochodził z popularnego podręcznika do nauki Business English, natomiast drugi tekst (na ten sam temat) został wyselekcjonowany z internetowego repozytorium artykułów i materiałów edukacyjnych o tematyce biznesowej. Badanie wykazało, że studenci pierwszego roku pozytywnie odbierają teksty z podręcznika, wyżej jednak oceniają – pod względem przydatności dla osób na wczesnym etapie kształcenia uniwersyteckiego – teksty pozyskane z Internetu, wskazując na możliwość zdobycia na zajęciach języka specjalistycznego 'podstawowej wiedzy' na temat jednej z dziedzin biznesu. Wynik ten wydaje się potwierdzać zasadność zintegrowania założeń LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) i CBI (Content-Based Instruction) na tym etapie kształcenia uniwersyteckiego.

References:

• Dudley-Evans, T., St John, M. J. 1998. Developments in ESP. A Multi-disciplinary Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Grabe, W., Stoller, F.L.. 2013. Teaching and Researching: Reading (2nd edition). London and New York: Routledge.
• Hirleva, A. 2013. ESP and Reading. In B. Paltridge and S. Starfield (eds), The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. 77-94.
• Paltridge, B., Starfield, S. (eds.). 2013. Introduction. The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. 1-4.
• Stryker, S.B. , Leaver, B. L. (eds), 1997. Content-Based Instruction in Foreign Language Education: Models and Methods. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

Jolanta Łącka-Badura (Ph.D.) is a linguist and Business English lecturer, head of the Foreign Language Center at the University of Economics in Katowice, Poland. She also holds two postgraduate diplomas: in Management and European Integration. Her research interests include business communication, teaching English for Business Purposes, discourse analysis, the language of persuasion and evaluation.