Фев 3 2013
Teaching business English in Ukraine (solution)
Solution
Due to the very nature of the working environment and personal needs of employees, it should be noted that calendar-thematic and credit-module systems can be interwoven in order to achieve better outcomes. In this case the calendar-thematic planning is viewed as a vehicle and the credit-module system is viewed as a tool box on the vehicle. Depending on the employees’ needs a tool box is filled with content that fully meets their requirements. Thus, for example, students specializing in finance or audit can be offered the following set:
1) Market Leader 3d (intermediate, upper-intermediate)
2) Accounting and Finance
The calendar-thematic planning is centred on the contents of a course-book. This might be:
http://www.market-leader.net/flash/pdfs/Int3rdEd_contents.pdf
The general business course is complemented with a suitable one of Market Leader series.
It usually takes 2 academic hours to cover the material of each book spread, two spread altogether at one lesson.
In order to alleviate the process of students’ adaptation it is recommended to pay attention to these pieces of advice:
1) we can single out 3 stages – preliminary, main, examination:
- Preliminary stage comprises: on-line grammar testing and oral interview. During the interview students are being explained to peculiarities of the chosen business course and expected outcomes; however, the main task of the interview is to check students’ speaking and listening skills according to intermediate, upper-intermediate levels (with the help of a grammar list checker). The possibility to participate in the program is perceived as an incentive by the employees. The employees can be opted out of the program if they do not want to do an in-house English course.
- The modules course itself is realized with no fixed dates. At the end of a working week the employees receive e-mail invitations for classes next week. They might accept or decline invitations depending on their workload. If there are less than 50% students left, the lesson is postponed till the quorum is made up.
- There are two obligatory benchmarks within one semester: mid-course test and final test. At the end of a semester students are supposed to take an exam.
- Employees of pre-intermediate, elementary level are offered to do a general English course.
2) The curriculum and course-books are chosen depending on the strength of a group and concrete aims that are put forward by the management board of the company. These factors are to be discussed after the interview and on-line testing. As for teaching business English we can advise using either Intelligent Business or Market Leader 3d edition. They provide substantial knowledge of the subject and have quite a lot of additional materials for students’ benefit.
3) Lingvo tutor (versions 12, x3, x5) – the best tool for teaching new vocabulary of a unit with the help of customised dictionaries.
4) It is indispensable to bring the atmosphere of a real case study that students encounter with at work.
We believe that our research adds value to teaching business English in Ukraine and helps successfully solve the present issues.
Marlet Leader Upper-int 3 case study pt1_1 from Emma Torjussen .
