There is a big market for the learning and teaching of Business English in many parts of the world today.
In your opinion, is there a real need to actually ‘teach’ and ‘learn’ the English used in the corporate world? What is there to teach and how learnable is it?
Filed under: discussion | Tagged: Business English, learning, teaching |
The Language of Business and Commerce: A Course Blog 
I am of the opinion that Business English should be taught at the university because it is really useful to know something about the general vocabulary of the most-used business language in the world. People who study English and do not want to become a teacher should be or become familiar with this kind of LSP. By the way: a course or a whole module cannot be so bad if it offers the possibility to travel to Berlin.
I do also think that it is very important to teach and learn Business English. I totally agree with what Terje has already said; the vocabulary used in the language of Business is certainly one of its most important constituents.
Furthermore, it is necessary to learn about the style and special phrases which have to be employed e.g. in Business letters, Email correspondence and contracts. To my mind this is an important factor to be learned as a correct style is expected by any Business partner and as it is the requirement for any successful Business relationship.
In my humble opinion, business English is just so useful (no irony) because, say, I am going to do an internship in England, I will be already very well equipped; same goes for translation: you never know when someone is giong to ask you to do her a favour and to translate, either orally or written, a text or some kind of contract, and :there you go, you genius that can talk in the corporate language! And plus, employees care a lot about CVs and motivation letters, so when they see how you write, and if you write well and use very high-level and business Engl. vocabulary s/he will be quite impressed already!
So, to me Business English can’t be anything else than a good experience, a needful skill that I will never regret having learnt! 🙂
As we all know, English is the language that is most widely understood and spoken today. Thus it is obvious that, if people from all over the world come together (e.g. in a meeting on business matters), English will be the means of communication in terms of language. There is no denying that communication will be easier and even more precise if everybody is fully capable of speaking English. I am especially thinking of any technical terms used in order to refer to special concepts or objects. It is evident that agreement upon those terms improve communication. Lots of such technical terms are needed for Business English which should be focused on when it comes to teaching. So, I definitely feel that there is a necessity for teaching and learning Business English, which is learnable to a degree that one wants to learn it.
In my opinion teaching Business English is very important for those people who have to deal with it in their everyday life. They should be able to understand what is written in special newspaper articles and the words used to express something special. This leads to a good basis of communication between people in the business sector.Everybody who wants to do a job in this field has to be totally sure about what he says or reads.
For students, I think a rough knowledge would be enough to understand the underlying issues and terms in texts. They are not dealing with Business English everyday.
What should be taught about ESP and LSP is what it is, what makes it special, why it is important in business, differences…
From my point of view there is definitely a need to teach and learn Business English.
Due to the globalisation of the economy including the participating companies almost every negotiation is held in Business English style.
Most of the requested terms in those Business negotiations (oral or written) are used for a broad range of private and public sectors.
After having finished the studies or an apprenticeship it is important to possess the knowlegde of general terms in Business English in order to be prepared for the profession taken up afterwards.
The more specific terms of Business English which will then be learned during the practical education are based on the fundamentals one acquired before.
Indepent of the level of formation, also non-studied employees often need Business English, for instance if they have to lead conversations with foreign clients by phone or in Business letters.
Finally one can say, that Business English should be taught as early as possible to prepare people for their future working life, no matter in which direction it will be moving.
To spark interest in Business English, teachers have to teach it vividly and interestingly, as I will hopefully do in my classes in the future.
I think that there is a need for us to learn the English used in the corporate world. Some of us still have not decided what they eventually want to do when they leave college. Maybe with the help of courses like this we are actually able to widen our horizons and are able to decide what we really want to do when we finally do get our BA-Degree. On the other hand, these courses are only able to give a rather short introduction into those various fields of study. When you eventually do decide to leave and go to work for a major company you will have to study for yourself again, with all the new vocabulary that I used specifically in that company or in those types of companies. But I think that it is vital that we, as college students, also learn different kinds of English other than learn just about literature or linguistics.
I do agree with everything that has been said, but I would like to point out that Business English should not only be taught in universities, but in schools as well. It is essential today that the kids not only know that there is a difference between school and Business English, but learn the basics of the latter, so that they can apply it when necessary. Most German enterprises have branch offices or suppliers abroad and as far as I know from my working friends, the common language they use to communicate is Business English. Furthermore, if anyone wants to work in an English speaking or Scandinavian country, he/she has a better chance to get acceptet for the job if the application shows the existing language skills (like Janina mentioned).
So, yes, there is a need to teach and learn Business English and there is actually a need to teach it an early age.
The way I see it these courses are, in deed, MADE to give rather short insights into the field of studying ESP. It is then up to one’s own to decide whether to go into further detail in near future or to get down to other areas in the course of his/her studies.
Nevertheless, I am convinced that learning as well as teaching every kind of business English is inevitable since we live in an industrialized, modern, and fast moving world. Anyone might be put on the spot someday and then has to communicate properly, i.e. ‘businesslike’. So why not learning some useful phrases as early as possible – younger brains have more capacity than older ones! 😉
I totally agree with Sina’s opinion. Todays society is aboslutly globalized but at the same time the various sectors of work are highly specialised. It is vital that members of these globalized and specialised companies know the ESP they need. Today it is unrealistic that a law student does not learn Legal English.
I am also of the opinion that the teaching of ESP is not just needed on the academic level because there are many professions like merchants or Hotelmanagers where ESP must be learnt in order to be able to do the work.
As said before ESP and specially Business English helps everyone to communiate and interact in an English dominated society. I argue that parts of Business English should actually to be taught in school because as a preparation for the pupils’ future it is necessary to know how to write a CV and an application or to know the vocabulary of banking for instance. So ESP has become part of nearly every persons life and should be taught on every level of education on a more or less sophisticated standard.
In my opinion, it is essential to be able to recognize and understand ESP (and especially Business English) in our globalized world. Even if we are not aware of the fact, we are confronted with Business language every day of our life. We hear/see it on TV, read it in newspapers and sometimes even use it without knowing. And this is especially true for English.
As for me, I do not see my future in teaching. Rather, I’d like to work in the economic business and therefore it will be necessary for me to be able to understand the people I’ll have to work and deal with. Sure, I know something already, but how can I know that I’ll later be able to use it in the proper context? Perhaps I got something wrong on TV or wherever… And this is where learning and teaching Business English comes in. Everyone knows that you cannot become a doctor without being able to operate, so why become a manager if you do not know what is required in a meeting?
I totally agree with what my fellow-students have mentioned before.
For us as English students, who intend starting a business career either in Germany or abroad, it is absolutely essential to learn ESP, in this case Business English.
Although we are just given a little insight into specialized language, we know that, compared to Standard English, there is much more to it than just specific vocabulary and different sentence constructions. It is the entrance into the business world, the foundation on which business professionals all over the world interact and communicate with each other. The language helps us to understand and to cope with the different situations we will have to face in our future place of employment as well as in our daily life.
To cut a long story short, ESP should not only be taught in universites, but also high school students should already be given the opportunity to get in touch with ESP. In a globalising and highly specialised world, it is very important to prepare for the requirements the global labour market has in store. The sooner, the better! In terms of these requirements ESP defenitely is a plus!
I am of the opinion, that there should be more business english teaching. I experienced(i guess like everybody) that you learn a lot of theoretical things in school and a whole bunch of vocabulary but you don´t know how to use it!When you come to an english speaking country for the first time you are lost!Theoretically you are perfectly prepared but practically your are not prepared at all. Pupils need to learn more about usefull things and need to communicate more in school. I think tha it is also important that every adult has to do a “Business English Class” from time to time in oder to refresh what he or she learned in school.I think this is important because in many situations at work you have to cooperate and communicate with foreign persons and the best way is English -i guess….
Apart from that I think that companies that work on an international basis have to provide English classes for their employees!
Terje wrote: ” People who study English and do not want to become a teacher should be or become familiar with this kind of LSP”.
I absolutely agree with him. It is very important to learn Business English (vocabulary, how to correspond with other business colleagues, how to write a CV or an application e-mail etc.) especially for those who think of working at a company after graduation, as far as they want a successful career and a successful business relationship.
If we consider that the technology develops from day to day, we can´t say learning and teaching BE is rubbish.
In my opinion it isn’t only important if you do not want become a teacher. A teacher should be able to teach students how to write an e-mail, an application or an CV. According to globalization it is very important to communicate with each other. The companies communicate through e-mails with each other. Another point is that many German companies move to other countries and expand their market so their employees have to communicate in English because it is the business language of the world and if employees want to work abroad they have to apply in English. Students are the employees of tomorrow therefore they have to learn how to write an email or application. So teacher have to be also familiar with ESP to teach their students who will work at companies one day!!!!!
In my opinion it is not only about the vocab, but also about the ways CV’s or emails are written. Ever tried to appeal for a job via email and starting your mail with the words ” Hey dude – what’s up!” ? Don’t hope so! Although this is an exaggerated example, it shows the need to learn Business English to be able to use the right expressions and the right way to paraphrase certain ordinary things so that they sound more profound and appropriate for current situations. So, the way to learn this, is to attend an English Business Class.
Of course I think that business English, at least in its basics, should be teached at schools and at university, because English is getting more and more important also in the German business world.
But in my opinion, there is not that much need of learning vocabulary by hard, because if you are in an English speaking environment, i.e. in an English speaking company, I think you learn the important terms quite fast and automatically, that’s at least what I think.
But to get started, writing CV’s and other application stuff should be taught before.
And that you shouldn’t be informal in a business situation is obvious, I guess.
As my fellow students have mentioned before Business English is important for everyday life. My opinion is that Business English should be taught at university but it isn’t necessary to teach it in school. At university the educational level is much higher than in school, so I think Business English would be understood at university. Even though if you do not want to become a business person I think it is important to gain a well rounded English education.
Furthermore it is important for students who do not want to become a teacher to learn Business English to prepare oneself for the future in a company. Additionally, it will be well received by the boss of a company if you can write down additional skills like the knowledge of Business English on your CV.
I think it is quite useful to study Business English because after all we don’t know where we will end up in our later life and even if we don’t get the job of a manager or stuff like that it can be of use in many different aspects of our lives, for example when it comes to understand a job contract or when we ourselves get in the situation of composing one ourselves.
I heard that the Asian market becomes more and more important. Of course English is the language of Business if foreigners work together with locals but it is likely that the importance of languages will shift in future. English might loose its priority and might be overtaken by Asian languages. Germans or any other foreigners in Asia will have an easier and better career if the are able to communicate in the native language.
I believe that it is very important to learn Business English nowadays. You are confronted with Business English anytime and everywhere, in your job, in the media etc., in case you want to be capable with your colleagues, you need to know Business English. Even if you are studying teacher studies, you need might take some extra courses in Business English, for you never know what English skills are required at the secondary school, you will be teaching at.
Of course, it would be nonsense to teach it in primary school, but it would be efficient to offer Business English courses for the A-levels on German secondary schools, so that students who have participated in any of these courses benefit on the job market.
My opinion about this topic is that Business English gets more and more important in the world and its market.So it is very very useful having the chance to leran it e.g. in school or at university.It would be helpful in your further studies and perhaps in your job.
To the question “what is there to teach” I can say that first of all you have to learn the vocabulary.Of course not every single word but the terms which are used most in the Business World.
Further more you should also learn how to write correspondance mails and letters and what we shouldn’t forget is that it is also important to speak BE.
Perhaps you could play a situation in school or at university where you have to talk about a company and it sdevelopment.
So you would have a dialog between an employee and a chief or a conversation between several company members.
What I want to say is that it is also useful to make some practical experience and not only learn the theories.