A Critical Study on the Effect of the Case-based Teaching Method in Business English Reading in Higher Vocational Colleges

Yin Yang

doi:10.11648/j.ijalt.20210702.11

Abstract

The research of teaching methods has been attracting L2 researchers and practitioners, for the proper choice of teaching methods may produce a considerable effect on both languages teaching and learning. Case-based teaching method is now widely applied to many courses, which has been well examined in the existing literature. While there still remains some space worth exploring in the field of ESP teaching, especially in business English teaching, which is scarcely studied by many researchers and teachers. In addition, most of the researchers focus their attention on the secondary or tertiary learners. Similar research has rarely been found as regards the business English learners of higher vocational education institutions, and even more scarcely to probe into the problems in the implementation of case-based teaching method in business English reading. Against such a research background, this study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of the case-based teaching method in business English reading at the higher vocational college level, with a special focus on the identification of the problems in the process of implementing the case-based teaching method. The ultimate goal of the study was to help push forward the necessary pedagogical reforms conducted in higher vocational colleges so that the case-based teaching could be implemented to the desired effect. With the mixed design of quantitative and qualitative approaches, the study comes to the conclusions that despite that a few problems or difficulties were found in the implementation of case-based teaching method from the perspectives of teachers, students and administrators, the method is significantly effective in improving students’ enhancement in autonomous learning, cooperative learning and independent thinking.

Highlights

It can be concluded that case-based teaching in business English reading at Higher Vocational Colleges has some advantages over the traditional teacher-centered approach in improving students’ business-context English reading and problem-solving ability
As indicated in the results of independent-samples T-test based on the scores of the post-tests, a significant difference was found between and EC and CC, which suggests that EC performed generally better than CC after the treatment of the case-based teaching method, at the level of.003 which is much lower than
The possible factors contributing to the effectiveness of case-based teaching are students’ enhancement in autonomous learning, cooperative learning and independent thinking

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of economic globalization, the depth and width of China’s opening up continues to expand. Business activities and economic exchanges are increasingly expanding on the global scale. The cultivation of great mount of high comprehensive qualified talents who are excellent both in English proficiency and economy, foreign trade, international business is very important, which is undoubtedly a good thing for business English majors. Great importance is being attached to the specialty of business English. In 2006, the Ministry of Education issued No 16 document

Objectives

Results

Conclusion