Business English how international is it

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Business English- how international is it?

• Oxford University Press

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What is Business English?

• The language required to communicate effectively
  in work-related situations.
• The structures, functions, words and expressions
  which occur the most often in professional
  interaction.

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Who needs it?

• engineers, nurses, referees, administrators,
  architects, actors, call-centre staff, software
  developers, technicians, accountants, importers,
  doctors, publishers, back-office staff, cabin
  crew, pilots, designers, police, journalists,
  buyers, military personnel, pharmacists, models,
  advertisers, meteorologists, students.

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Why?

• To get the job done
• To learn how to do the job
• To take an adult idea and transfer it

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Teaching Business English can be a tale of poor
attendance, mixed abilities, over-ambitious
objectives, magic methods and cowboy operators.
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It is also a context for genuine professional
development, an impressive range of teaching
materials, great achievement and a range of
fascinating teaching situations.
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With so many facets, what are the implications of
globalization for international publishers of
business English materials?
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• Key issues
• Competition
• Teacher profile
• Expectations of clients
• Reliability of courses
• Subject matter
• The changing nature of English

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• Competitors
• Other international publishers
• Local publishers
• Internet
• Tailor-made
• Photocopier
• No materials.

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• Teacher Profile
• More non-native
• Fewer native speaker, recently trained
• Native, industry-specific
• Off-shore
• Traveller/student

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• Client Expectations
• Return on investment
• Assessment
• Good attendance, progress, tracking.
• Consistency
• Language
• Objectives

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Speaking the same language

• Company School
• Student Teacher

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• Reliability
• Standardisation of courses
• Realistic, objective aims
• Guarantees of success
• Accreditation of suppliers

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• Subject matter
• Sources
• Interest level
• Expectations of users
• Authenticity
• Cross-cultural elements
• Generative

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Language

• Nose damaged. Nearest available stand please.
• Dead cat bounce so I sold late and bought on the
  up.
• Back ten!
• Mind the gap.
• Time-space compression
• First costs
• Ill leave on Saturday
• Very muscular body
• I work with spider food.
• He died in an earth attack.
• Thats well good..

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Issues

• Communicative competence
• Technical vocabulary
• Context
• Appropriacy
• English as Lingua Franca
• Authenticity
• Industry-specific
• Pronunciation
• Evolving language

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Course types

• Pre-work course
• In-work course
• Blended course
• Tailor-made course

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Some problems

• Time
• Motivation
• Age
• Interest
• Ability
• Materials
• Blended

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What are the benefits?

• Flexibility
• More practice
• Student interaction
• Variety
• Price

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In conclusion

• Need for International English v localised
  context
• Global product needs local support
• Totally different teacher/learner profiles
• International subjects
• One size does not fit all

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Thanks

• Robert.mclarty_at_oup.com

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1979 International House, Hastings 1982 Executive
Language Services, Paris 1985 ILC
Paris 1988 1991 1994 Business Basics 1997 OISE
Oxford 2000 2003 Oxford University
Press 2006 2009
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Needs analysis

• What do I need to do in English?
• Who with? Native? Non-native?
• How? Face-to-face,email, phone?
• How often? Regularly, whenever?
• How important? Internally, externally?
• How difficult? Which skills to prioritize?

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What is blended learning?

• A combination of learning media
• A measured mix of learning environments
• A way of offering a variety of approaches
• A way of optimizing live teaching.
• A way of giving practice the time it merits.