Developing Materials for Business English: Learning by Doing

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Developing Materials for Business English
Learning by Doing

• By Azra Ahmed and Faiza Saleem
• Aga Khan University
• Centre of English Language
• Karachi, Pakistan

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BE Courses taught at AKUCEL

• BE courses at AKUCEL are designed for
  professionals interested in working on basic
  business communication skills.
• The course components are based on 36-hour input
• Each component is of 6 hours (e.g., letters,
  presentation skills, business grammar, etc)
• Only on Saturdays
• Consultancy services for
• Corporate sector are need-based

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Profile of Learners

• Middle to low management from Corporate sector
• Professionals from schools, colleges, small
  organizations
• Individuals interested in self actualization,
  continuous education
• Most often from challenged socio economic
  backgrounds
• Primary or secondary education not in English
• Lack confidence communicating in English

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Presentation focus areas

• Web based
• WebQuests Memos, Presentation skills
• Trivia quiz Information gathering
• Weblogs Reading, Writing, Communication skills

• Paper based
• Content format of professional letters
• Tone Style of formal letters

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WebQuest for Business English

• A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format
  in which some or all of the information that
  learners interact with comes from resources on
  the internet.
• The model was developed by Bernie Dodge (1995).

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Why have WebQuests for BE

• Easy way to incorporate the internet into the
  language class
• No specialist technical knowledge is needed
  either to produce or use them
• Most often group activities lend to
  communication and sharing of knowledge
• Cooperative learning stimulate conversation
• Linguistic tool
• Real world outlook
• Lend themselves to SDL

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Types of WebQuests
Short Term WebQuests Dimension 2 The
instructional goal is knowledge acquisition and
integration. Learners deal with significant
amounts of new information and make sense of
it. Time - one to three class periods.
Longer Term WebQuest Dimension 3 The
instructional goal is extending and refining
knowledge. Learners analyze a body of
knowledge, transform it in some way,
demonstrate an understanding of the material by
creating something that others can respond to,
on-line or off. Time - between one week and a
month in a classroom setting.
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Short term WQ - Memos

• Webquest Memowriting.pdf

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Long term WQ Presentation skills

• Harassment at the workplace.pdf

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Trivia Quiz Information gathering
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Weblog for Business EnglishReading / Writing /
Interpersonal Skills

• http//bizenglish.edublogs.org/page/2/

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Paper-based material for Letters

• Types of letters
• Inquiry
• Adjustment
• Out of stock
• Information
• Complaint
• Request

• Organization
• Tone and style
• Grammar
• Format

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Our expectations from the materials

• Materials will
• help develop critical thinking
• encourage cooperative learning
• enable authentic assessment
• optimize scaffolding of information
• support integration of technology

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Students comments

• Besides, being knowledge enhancing, the search
  improved our thinking capabilities..
• ..webquest was really challenging....
• ...This student and teacher relationship is
  unforgettable. The assignment I can say was a
  review of our course of self-directed learning..
• I am feeling very happy after solving this
  webquest. Work on this project was a nice
  experience for me

• What aspects of this course were most beneficial?
• The Business letter writing exercise.
• Formatting of the letter will be more beneficial.
• Letter writing and exercises
• It is diffinetly help for our office work.
• The topic are good practical and would help us in
  our routine communications.

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