Business English Course Syllabus
Business English Course is a tailored solution for those who can speak general English but whose skills need refining for use at work. The course will extend your vocabulary into areas relating to your job and develop your fluency and spontaneity so that you are able to establish and sustain business relationships with confidence. It covers numerous aspects of business interaction from meetings to reviews. It incorporates business procedure and business protocol and ensures that students can deal confidently with any situation that arises at work.
Aims of Business English Course
At the end of their course, students will be able to communicate effectively in English for Business
They will be able to:
- Listen to, read and view with understanding, accuracy and critical appreciation, a wide range of fiction and non-fiction texts from print, non-print and electronic sources.
- Speak, write and make presentations in internationally acceptable English* that is grammatical, fluent and appropriate for purpose, audience, context and culture. At higher levels of proficiency, pupils will speak and write for academic purposes and creative expression, using language that is inventive and imaginative.
- Think through, interpret and evaluate fiction and non-fiction texts from print and electronic sources to analyse how language is used to evoke responses and construct meaning; how information is presented; and how different modes of presentation create impact.
- Interact effectively with people from their own or different cultures.
Philosophy of Business English Underlying the Syllabus
The following insights into the nature of language have shaped this syllabus:
- Language is a system for making meaning.
- It is a means of communication and expression.
- Language use is determined by purpose, audience, context and culture.
- Language has a grammar and linguistic structures and patterns, which can be used to create various discourse forms or text types depending on the linguistic choices made.
Learners have to be taught how to make these linguistic choices to suit purpose, audience, context and culture.
Principles of Business English Learning and Teaching
The following principles are embodied in the syllabus. They form part of the framework and spirit in which this syllabus is to be implemented as an instructional programme in the classroom.
Learner Centeredness
The learner is at the centre of the learning process. Teaching approaches, lessons and curriculum materials are differentiated according to learners’ business needs and abilities.
Process Orientation
Language skills are process skills. Teaching and modelling the processes of reading, writing and oral communication are as important as testing the acquisition of these skills.
Integration
The integration of reading, writing and oral communication as well as the integration of language materials and areas of language use in a lesson or context contribute to meaningful learning.
Contextualization
Language skills, grammatical items and structures are taught and learnt in the context of language use. Contextualisation demonstrates how purpose, audience, context and culture determine the register or appropriateness of speech and writing in both formal and informal situations in business environment.
Spiral Progression
Language skills, grammatical items and structures, text types and other language components are taught and revised at increasing levels of difficulty and sophistication.
Interaction
Learners’ participation and interaction are important in language learning, and in fostering self confidence and social relationships among student from different cultural backgrounds and business. Such social relationships and interaction, within the context of learning English, will nurture in pupils a sense of their common ONE MALAYSIAN identity.
Main Features of the Syllabus
The syllabus is conceptualised as a single document for primary and secondary levels to maintain continuity in language teaching and allow for greater flexibility in catering to students business needs. It focuses on language use, learning outcomes, text types and grammar.
Language Use
Students need to know how to communicate fluently, appropriately and effectively in internationally acceptable Business English. They need to understand how the language system works and how language conventions can vary according to business purpose, audience, context and culture, and apply this knowledge in speech and writing in both formal and informal situations.
Language for Business Information
As speaker, writer, reader, listener and viewer, the learner will access, retrieve, evaluate, apply and present information derived from print, non-print and electronic sources like email communication.
Language for Business Literary Response and Expression
As speaker, writer, reader, listener and viewer, the learner will respond creatively and critically to literary texts, relate them to personal experience, culture and society, and use language creatively to express self and identity.
Language for Social Interaction
As speaker, writer, reader, listener and viewer, the learner will use English effectively, both in its spoken and written form, to establish and maintain positive interpersonal relationships, taking into account purpose, audience, context and culture.
Course outcomes for Business English
Situational:
Making a presentation, conducting a series of negotiations, using the telephone, socialising with clients with greater confidence, emailing in English, participating more actively in meetings.
Lexical:
Developing the specific terminology relating to your work or area of business.
Skills-based:
Training will focus on developing your key communication skills – speaking, listening, reading, writing.
Grammatical:
There may be areas of the language with which you have particular difficulty.
Pronunciation:
Work on pronunciation, stress and intonation to achieve greater authenticity in your use of spoken English.
