Necessary skills while teaching business English at non-specialized faculties in Azerbaijan (results of experiment)

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Azerbaijan university of languages

Necessary skills while teaching business English at non-specialized faculties in Azerbaijan (results of experiment)

senior lecturer, Dissertant, department of methods of teaching foreign languages

Baku

Abstract

The article deals with the problem of Teaching Business English at non-specialized faculties of Azerbaijan. Business English is one of the branches of ESP, and it is the mostly used area in the world nowadays. Some authors, such as, T. Hutchinson and À. Waters, D. Carver, P. Robinson, T. Dudley-Evans, J. Harmer, R. Mackay & A. Mountford and some other investigated ESP and its classification. In the 2nd part of the 19th century, Business English began to develop as an independent area of ESP and for learning it, learners should have General English knowledge. So, Azerbaijan State Economic University was chosen as a target place for the experiment. A two-part experiment, each of which continued for 5 weeks, was held at ASEU in 2 experimental and 2 control groups. The results of the experiment are described in the tables given below. The main focus here was on the checking skills, which are considered necessary in teaching Business English experiment at non-specialized faculties in Azerbaijan. In teachinh Business English teachers must be able to be full of information and to make decisions on the language and language learning. One of the main points is that teachers must also be aware of professional and business world. Besides, they must also be able to adapt to a special teaching envronmet and must also be eager to learn continuously. To be successful in their job, Business English teachers should pay attention mainly to the following three competences: 1. Linquistic competence. It reveals in the main elements i.e., in the use of vocabulary, gramamr, phonology and so on. 2. Discourse compotence. Language competence is connected with language elements and approaches the language from out of the context. However, discourse competence^ on the othe hand, is connected with the language which is being used, and it describes how people intercommunicate within a context. As a characteristic example of it, we can show negotiations, presentations, correspondence, meetings, etc. Discourse can be written and oral. 3. Intercultural competence. Culture has different kinds: national culture, organiztional culture, professioanl culture.

Keywords: business English; general English; teaching; experiment; non - specialized faculties.

Introduction

business english teacher professional

Problem statement. In modern times, English, is considered to be a business language. It is used for commercial purposes and is a communicative medium in business organizations to carry out several functions. Business English is a communicative competence that needs to be understood in the context of the workplace. English for Business focuses on the English language skills necessary to communicate in an increasingly global business environment. The range of different subject areas (accounting, commerce, finance, e-commerce, economics, HR, IT, insurance, law, manufacturing, marketing, production, property, the stock exchange, (international) trade, transport) included under the umbrella term Business English is wide. What is generally associated with a Business English are the skills that most people need to be able to do their jobs well: writing e-mails and reports, making presentations, doing negotiations, using the telephone, attending and participating actively in meetings or telephone conferences, receiving visitors, etc.

Analysis of recent research and publications. Recently, some articles and theses have been published in Azerbaijan, as well as abroad, in connection with the topic of the investigation. The experience of Post-Soviet, Western, local specialists in this direction has also been used to achieve some results.

Such understanding of the relevance of this work allowed to formulate the purpose of this study. The purpose of the study of the given matter is to find out the ways how to beneficially teach Business English at non-specialized faculties of Azerbaijan Universities.

In this regard, the main objectives of the study are as follows:

• to clarify the situation at some non-specialized faculties of Azerbaijan Universities in connection with teaching Business English.

• to carry out experiment to better know the necessary skills in teaching Business English.

• to choose or compile necessary books or textbooks to teach Business English at some non-specialized faculties of Azerbaijan Universities.

The theoretical backgrounds

Business English is considered to be a branch of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), which was classified differently. Some authors, such as, T. Hutchinson and A. Waters, D. Carver, P. Robinson, T. Dudley-Evans, M. John (1998), J. Harmer described this classification specifically. ESP is traditionally divided into two parts [1], [6], [7].

1. English for Academic Purposes;

2. English for Occupational Purposes.

We should note that the above mentioned classification belongs to Robinson [6].

In 1983, D. Carver defined 3 types of teaching English for Specific Purposes:

• English as a Restricted Language;

• English for Academic and Occupational Purposes.

English with Specific Topics.

T. Hutchinson and A. Waters created «The tree of English Language Teaching» («Tree of ELT»), which included ESP [7].

«Tree of ELT», was comparatively simplified later by R. Mackay & A. Mountford. They divided Teaching ESP into 3 parts: (R. Mackay &, A. Mountford [5].

1. English for Science and Technology (EST.

2. English for Business and Economics (EBE).

3. English for Social Studies (ESS).

T. Dudley-Evans and M. St John's investigations in this field are very popular in the world. According to them, ESP can be taught to those who are more or less familiar with English. Both of the authors determined the following definition of ESP:

«Teaching ESP is the language of comprehension of what is happening in the world» (T. Dudley-Evans & M. St John (1998) [1].

They, in the book «Developments in ESP», divide ESP into «English for Occupational Purposes» and «English for Academic Purposes».

We should note that nowadays «Business English» occupies a specific place among the fields of ESP.

In modern times, English, alongside with an international one, has already become a business language. In America, Germany, Korea, China, Brazil and other countries, English language is used for business purposes, and it caused the preparation of books relating to management. Guy and Mattock (1995) prepared «Offshore English» book for the nations living in Europe, which was of more practical character than English [4]. The role of English as an international language was that non-native speakers should understand the speech of native speakers more easily and explain something easily (Vincent Guy, John Mattock, Anne Knudsen (1995)). Pickett (1986) noted that Business English, being much closer to the language spoken by the general crowd, has more than one face (or form). The author has denoted two aspects of Business English: public talks and intra-or inter-company talks. Pickett gave it in the form of a diagram below [1].

• General English.

• Communication with public.

• Business English.

• Talks among Businesses.

• Specified language of Special Business (insurance, pharmacy, etc.).

People learn Business English for different purposes. For some people, it is a necessary part of their jobs, for others it is a stats and an investment which will bring financial award, for some other people, it is for special needs, and some others learn it as they have already begun a new job or a career. Though all these divergences, Evan Frendo divides Business English learner into the following groups [3].

Pre-experienced learners who have little information or quite no information. University students willing to build a business career or even secondary school pupils enter this group.

Job experienced learners are enough informed about business life and thier jobs, and thier aim of learning Business English is clear and concrete.

General business-experienced learners have definite information and job experience about Business life, and they learn it in order to change to a new job or they learn it for more specific purposes.

Learners who learn appropriate to organization hierarchy - are those who want to learn Business English depending on their position in the organization and on the demands put forward.

Learners who learn appropriate to national culture - are those who learn Business English to learn intercultural differences, traditions, values relating to education and overcome these difficulties.

Learners who learn appropriate to demantd - are those who learn Business English for the needs such as to join international project team or to answer to the telephone calls made to the company or to describe the product of the company to a new buyer.

Learners who learn appropriate to language level - are those who are grouped appropriate to different language levels, such as, beginner, intermediate, upper, etc.

Buiness English teaching environmet is divided into the following groups [3].

Educational institution is a place where the young get education at universities, colleges and schools. Here, in the final exams written and spoken assignmets are oblogatory. In such environmet, learners begin with exact expectations and feelings of class. They expect teachers to be experts in business life as they are in the language. Sometimes in such cases bigger classes can consist of the learners having different language level and abilities. These learners don't know exactly how to use Business English in the future, and from this point it is not qiute possible to focus on special target. The privilege of such kind of teaching environmet is that Business English language is taught not concretely but more widely. Learners have work experience and know exactly why they learn Business English. The teacher, at the same time, gets widely acquainted with the company and participate in the operations as an observer and organise the lessons appropriate to the needs of learners.

individual - (or one-to-one) environmet is organized appropriate to the needs of private learners, such as to prepare a specila project, presentations, correspondence, reports, etc.

Business English teachers can be less informed on the business sphere than the sphere where he knows more than students. Business English teacher must be able to be full of information and to make decisions on the language and language learning. They must also be aware of professional and business world. Besides, they must also be able to adapt to a special teaching envronmet and must also be eager to learn continuously. Business English teachers should pay attention mainly to the following three components:

• Linquistic competence. It reveals in the main elements i.e., in the use of vocabulary, gramamr, phonology and so on.

• Discourse compotence. Language competence is connected with language elements and approaches the language from out of the context. However, discourse competence^ on the othe hand, is connected with the language which is being used, and it describes how people intercommunicate within a context. As a characteristic example of it, we can show negotiations, presentations, correspondence, meetings, etc. Discourse can be written and oral.

• Intercultural competence. Culture has different kinds: national culture, organiztional culture, professioanl culture.

So, Business English is not only connected with language, but also with discours and culture, and they must be taught together [3].

Research results

The topic disscussed in the given article is new in Azrebaijan and needs investigating thouroughly. In this direction, some methods of investiagtion have been used in the article. They are: theoretical analysis, pedagogical observation, synchronic-descriptive, interview method, mathematical-statistical method, pedagogical experiment method. For the theoretical part of the experiment, we have used theoretical analysis method, however, the other mentioned methods are used in the experiment part of this work.

Realization of the experiment

While carrying out the research work, the most important matter was to carry aout an experiment connected with the teaching of «Business English». To carry out the experiment, we decided to choose «International Economic Relations» faculty of Azerbaijan State Economic University, where a lot of very necessary subjects are taught. The reason for it was that at the mentioned high shcool, a special attention is given to the teaching of English, especilally, «Business English». In order to be successful in signing agreements and holding negotiations in business, the teaching of «Business English» at non-specialized faculties is very important, and if possible to say, is MUST. For this, we have been sure of holding an experiment at «Business Management» faculty of Azerbaijan State Economic Univerisity.

In connection with this, the followings have been done:

We investigated the psychological, linguistic and methodological bases of the methods of «Business English» teaching, from the theoretical viewpoint, to the students at non-specialized faculties (at the «Business Management» faculty of Azerbaijan State Economic Univerisity). At the same time, we also analysed the textbooks and manuals to determine at what extend they face the requirements at the same faculty. Here some problems arise: In teaching this subject, do the manuals and teaching aids face the requirements fully or partially; or is it necessary to write new textbooks and manuels; or should the existing textbooks and manuels be improved? In the given case, while preparing different topics and the exercises systems depending on it, the above-mentioned points should be taken into consideration, and the students can benefit from it.

In order to solve the students' problems in mastering «Business english» and to develop the results on students' oral speech activity, an experiment has been planned, and the difficulties that students face while having oral activities and the errors that they make, and the shortages they have, should be revealed by means of an experiment. Later, taking into consideration the results of that experiment, new exercises' system and textbooks and manuels should be prepared and on the basis of checking experiment, their effectiveness should be determined.

Practical-experimental investigation has the following 6 stages, according to V. Sudakov's classification:

1. Organizing stage;

2. Diagnostic stage;

3. Prognostic stage;

4. Application stage;

5. Practical stage;

6. Generalizing stage [7].

Experiment 1 (November-December, 2015)

26 students participated in the experiment with 5 weeks' duration, which was realised in Group 284 of «Business management» faculty of Azerbaijan State Economic University (ASUE). The aim of the experiment was to teach the students «Business English» during 5 weeks, using the «Market Leader» book, and to observe the development, shortages and negative cases in the group, and to give definite proposals or ideas in the way of solving them.

During the experiment the students of Group 284 of «Business management» faculty of ASUE were taught the topics «Talk about your career plan», «Talk about companies», «Talk about shopping habits», «Discuss new businesses and business sectors», «Discuss the qualities of a good manager» taken from the book «Market Leader», and by means of control, the formation of speech abilities in them relating to the topics in that book has been compared.

After the experiment it became evident that the student had the problem with talking and specially with normal word stock in order to hold negotiations. Besides, some students were observed to have problems in listening skill, too. To eliminate the problems of the students the following complex of exercises is advised to be used in-class:

a) selecting texts and their adaptation (to match them to the level of students);

b) text should include new and interesting information;

c) one should avoid using too long phrases and sentences;

d) texts should be simplified in order to realise their listening comfortably.

In the teaching of speaking, unprepared speech ability, its reactivity, its being spontaneous, and its tempo develops during the dialogue, while in prepared speech initiativity and the ability of monological consistency develops.

The mutually connected characteristics of speech activity in teaching speech communicability are the follwings and they should be taken into consideration: being situational, motivation, direction and strukture.

Below is given a table established on the results of the experiment.

Table 1. Gr. 284 Experiment 1 (November-December, 2015)