Pedagogy of business English to meet new trends of professional communication

Mable Chan

Abstract

The pressing need to bridge the gap between workplace communicative needs and curriculum development of business English (BE) courses has been documented in the literature. This study reports findings concerning the spoken and written communicative needs of Chinese professionals in Hong Kong, and what are considered most significant/challenging in workplace communication. Regarding the challenges/difficulties involved, seven factors were included for the participants to rank in the questionnaire: (a) language use; (b) target audience; (c) content; (d) structure; (e) cultural differences; (f) persuasiveness; and (g) non-verbal means of communication. The participants were 163 Chinese professionals from the 4 key industries in Hong Kong. They were invited to fill in a questionnaire and 66 of them joined a subsequent interview. Based on the findings, insights are developed as to what should be emphasized when teaching workplace English to meet the current trends of professional communication.

Original language	English
Publication status	Published - Jul 2021
Event	29th MELTA International Conference 2021 - Online, Malaysia Duration: 23 Jul 2021 → 25 Jul 2021 https://melta.org.my/conference/ (Conference website) https://melta.org.my/conference/downloads/melta_online_2021_programme_book.pdf (Conference Program)

Conference

Conference	29th MELTA International Conference 2021
Country/Territory	Malaysia
Period	23/07/21 → 25/07/21
Internet address	https://melta.org.my/conference/ (Conference website) https://melta.org.my/conference/downloads/melta_online_2021_programme_book.pdf (Conference Program)

Scopus Subject Areas

Arts and Humanities(all)

User-Defined Keywords

business English courses
spoken communicative needs
written communicative needs
curriculum development

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Cite this

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title = "Pedagogy of business English to meet new trends of professional communication",

abstract = "The pressing need to bridge the gap between workplace communicative needs and curriculum development of business English (BE) courses has been documented in the literature. This study reports findings concerning the spoken and written communicative needs of Chinese professionals in Hong Kong, and what are considered most significant/challenging in workplace communication. Regarding the challenges/difficulties involved, seven factors were included for the participants to rank in the questionnaire: (a) language use; (b) target audience; (c) content; (d) structure; (e) cultural differences; (f) persuasiveness; and (g) non-verbal means of communication. The participants were 163 Chinese professionals from the 4 key industries in Hong Kong. They were invited to fill in a questionnaire and 66 of them joined a subsequent interview. Based on the findings, insights are developed as to what should be emphasized when teaching workplace English to meet the current trends of professional communication.",

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N2 - The pressing need to bridge the gap between workplace communicative needs and curriculum development of business English (BE) courses has been documented in the literature. This study reports findings concerning the spoken and written communicative needs of Chinese professionals in Hong Kong, and what are considered most significant/challenging in workplace communication. Regarding the challenges/difficulties involved, seven factors were included for the participants to rank in the questionnaire: (a) language use; (b) target audience; (c) content; (d) structure; (e) cultural differences; (f) persuasiveness; and (g) non-verbal means of communication. The participants were 163 Chinese professionals from the 4 key industries in Hong Kong. They were invited to fill in a questionnaire and 66 of them joined a subsequent interview. Based on the findings, insights are developed as to what should be emphasized when teaching workplace English to meet the current trends of professional communication.

AB - The pressing need to bridge the gap between workplace communicative needs and curriculum development of business English (BE) courses has been documented in the literature. This study reports findings concerning the spoken and written communicative needs of Chinese professionals in Hong Kong, and what are considered most significant/challenging in workplace communication. Regarding the challenges/difficulties involved, seven factors were included for the participants to rank in the questionnaire: (a) language use; (b) target audience; (c) content; (d) structure; (e) cultural differences; (f) persuasiveness; and (g) non-verbal means of communication. The participants were 163 Chinese professionals from the 4 key industries in Hong Kong. They were invited to fill in a questionnaire and 66 of them joined a subsequent interview. Based on the findings, insights are developed as to what should be emphasized when teaching workplace English to meet the current trends of professional communication.

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KW - written communicative needs

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