基于需求分析的商务英语教材评估——以《商务英语综合教程》为例

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Background

With  China’s  entry into WT O  and rapid tr ade expansion, Business English (BE) has become an indispensable factor in interna tional trade over the world, with over ninety percent of international trade in China done in BE (Zha ng Qi, 2011). To meet such great social need for BE talents, universities and colleges started their own BE programs in the absence of a unified guideline. 

Since  the  Ministry  of  Education’s  approval  of  setting  up the under graduate  BE program in the University of International Business and Economics in 2007, 216 colleges and universities have been authorized to carry out the programs by far, and an increasing number of colleges and universities are preparing to apply  for the authorization. Besides University of International Business and  Economics, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies  (GDUFS)  and Shanghai University  of International Business and Econom ics (SUIBE, previous called Shanghai University of Finance and Ec onomics) are the top three leading universities in BE program. In 2009, the Higher Education Press and UIBE co-published  the T eaching Requirement  for  Undergraduate  BE Program  in Higher Education  (trial)1,  which provided a theore tical  guidance for th e undergraduate  BE education. At the end of 2012,  the Ministry of Education  published the Catalogue of Undergraduate Programs (2012) and listed the undergraduate BE program in parallel with the English program and Translation program, which symbolizes the rapid evolvement of undergraduate BE program as well as its deve lopment from self-management status to a more unified and principled one.

Although  the undergraduate BE program in China has entered a new era and will surely  have  a prom ising  future,  the resea rch  of  BE is at prelim inary  stage and  the theoretical  system  is sti ll  under construction. A  number  of scholars a nd  experts are endeavoring to advance the BE program as well as its teaching reform, exploring and standardizing the education model for fostering qualified BE graduates. As it is stated in the Teaching Requirement, the cultivating obj ectives is to “cultivate com pound English language professionals who have solid language basic skills and a  broad international prospective, who can put inte rnational perspective, who can put international business knowledge and skills reasonably , who can ma ster the basic knowledge and theory of economics,  management,  law and related  disciplines, who possess higher hum anistic knowledge and cross-cultural com munication skills, and who can undertake business, trade, management, finance and foreign affairs” (Chen Zhunming, Wang Lifei, 2009). 

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1.2 Research Purpose

The purpose of the present paper is to identif y the target needs, learning needs and needs of national development of BE program, to check whether the coursebook can meet these needs,  and  to com e  up with  several su ggestions  for the im provement  of BE comprehensive coursebooks. Based on the theories of needs analysis, this research first identifies  the  target  needs, learning  needs  and needs of nationa l  development  of BE program by analyzing questionnaires distributed to BE unde rgraduates and graduates in SEIB. Meanwhile, a system atic coursebook ev aluation is carried  out,  after which the author analyzes the ev aluations results, summarizes the merits and weaknesses of the coursebook.  Finally,  several suggestions fo r  BE com prehensive  coursebook will be proposed.   

The goal of under graduate BE program is to cultivate BE graduates that can m eet the  market  needs. W hile  the capabilities  of  BE  graduates  are  closely  related  to  the curriculum  design of BE program ,  it m ust  be acknowledged that the goal cannot be realized without appropriate coursebook. Therefore, it is worth investigating existing BE coursebooks and exploring how to select BE coursebooks that can satis fy the cultivating objectives.

As  one of the top three leading univer sities  of under graduate  BE program ,  the development  of BE program  in School of  International  Business  (SEIB)  of GDUFS reflects the development of undergraduate BE program in China, which is frequently used as model by other universities and colleges. Therefore, it is necessary for GDUFS to keep up with the fast-changing environm ent and coursebook selection is worth researching into. 

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CHAPTER TWO  LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Related Studies on Business English

To evaluate the coursebook of BE program s, we must first figure out what BE is. Due to the differences in people’s interpretation and practices of BE, a lot of terms in BE are confusing, vague and even left undefined.

2.1.1 The Origin of Business English

According to Ellis and Johnson (2002), BE m ust be seen in the overall context of ESP (English for Specific Purpose). Hutchinson &  Waters (1987) attribute the em ergence of BE to two key historical pe riods. The first is the end of the Second World War, which contributed to the fast expansion of science, technology and  business tradings all around the world. The second is the 1970s’ Oil Crisis, which attracted capital and knowledge for oil-rich countries. As a result, the language used in these knowledge transmission, capital flow and business tradings gradually became English. Due to its position as the most important  communication  tool,  the  expressions and cultures  of BE shows a strong western style.

Meanwhile,  they  claim  that  a  revolution  in linguistic also  contributes to the development  of BE, which shift the focus to  how language is  used  in real-life communication.  They ar gue  that language vari es  when the partic ular  contexts and different specific communication purposes are taken into account. Therefore, it becomes possible to base language teaching on the needs of learners. 

The  final reason relating to the origin of BE is learners’ psychology. As mentioned above, BE is considered as a br anch of ESP as it shares much theoretical bases with ESP and its development has a close connection w ith the emergence of ESP. 

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2.2 Related Studies on Material Evaluation

Material  evaluation is of crucial importan ce  in EFL  teaching. This part will briefly present  the role and importance of m aterial  evaluation  and then review the related literature both abroad and at home.

2.2.1 The Role and Importance of Material Evaluation  The  role of teaching m aterial  in  English  language teaching (EFL) is describ ed  by Cunningsworth (2002) as follows:

1) It is a resou rce for presenting teaching materials, including spoken and written. Coursebook is the most direct means to acquire language knowledge.

2)  It prov ides  learners  with class activ ities  to  practice. Be sides  presentation of language, it also equips relative class ac tivities to arouse learners’ interest and practice the vocabulary and structures learned.

3)  It serves as a reference source on language points, such as pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and so on.

4) It offers ideas for class activities. With the direction of the aims of practice, more creative activities can be put into use.

5) It is the embodiment of the syllabus. The coursebook reflects experts standards to cultivate learners’ language abilities and determined objectives.

6) It provides the learners with self-directed learning and self-access work.

7)  It serves  as a supp ort  for less  experienced  teachers.  Some  indirection and organization help teachers arrange teaching more reasonably. 

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CHAPTER THREE  THEO RETICAL FRAMEWORK ..................27

3.1 Needs Analysis ..............27

3.1.1 Target Needs .........28

3.1.2 Learning Needs ...............28

CHAPTER FOUR   DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS .................34

4.1 Target Needs Analysis ....................34

4.1.1 Necessities of BE learners ..........35

CHAPTER FIVE EVLUATION OF THE BE COMPREHENSIVE COURSEBOOKS ..47

5.0 Coursebooks to Be Evaluated ...................47

5.1 The Material Evaluation Criteria .................48

CHAPTER FIVE   EVLUATION OF THE BE COMPREHENSIVE COURSEBOOKS

5.0 Coursebooks to Be Evaluated

The wealth of published material for Business English teaching available on the market makes selecting the right coursebook a challenging task. GDUFS has been using Business English: A Comprehensive Course as the coursebook of comprehensive business English courses designed for freshmen and sophomores since 2008.  

Published by Higher Education in 2008, Business English: A Comprehensive Course enjoys a reputation as one of the BE exce llent coursebooks for colleges and universities nationwide. The coursebook includes 4 volumes, 2 teacher’s books and 4 exercise books. The exercise book is called “Learn, Practice,  Test”, which has separate consolidation exercise for each unit, including d ictation, close, vocabulary, correction, translation and etc. The edition of this coursebook takes into account of three aspects: (1) the disciplinary construction of BE program; (2) the development of students’ English proficiency; (3) the research findings of second language acquisitio n and BE teaching. It is appropriate for a wide range of learners, such as freshmen and sophomores of BE program and English program  (Business), as well as Econom ics program  and Managem ent  program.  The purpose  of this coursebook is to help lear ner  to ef fectively  strengthen language knowledge and applicable ab ility, social-cultural knowledge and lear ning ability. 

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CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSION

6.1 Major Findings

In Chapter one, we proposed three questions.  Based on the analyses and discussion in Chapter five and Chapter six, m ajor findings of the research are summarized to answer each of the three questions.

(1) What are the target needs and learning needs of the students of undergraduate BE program and the needs of national development? 

The  research carried out two questionnair e  surveys and interviews in order to identify  the tar get  needs,  learning needs and nation al  development  needs for undergraduate BE program. The major findings are summarized as follows:

a) Target Needs for Undergraduate BE Program

As the result of target needs analysis shows, the top two target positions for BE learners are management staff and foreign trade staf f. Accordingly, the most important knowledge  and expertise are the knowledge  of  management, intercultural business communication  and m arketing.  The interperso nal  communication  skills, the ability to learn and to cooperate are the top three important skills and abilities. 

In terms of what learners want from the BE comprehensive course, 42% respondents reply that they want to improve their Englis h proficiency and 41% want to improve their cross-cultural communication skills. 

reference(omitted)