Abstract
Online learning prospered in recent years, so did the research in this area. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it the default option of education. The design, implementation and evaluation of a completely online education model are of universal urgency. The learning purposes of Business English encompass the mastery of business knowledge and language abilities. This paper reviews the online teaching and learning of this course and tries to assess its effectiveness in equipping students with business related language competence. Students’ performances were measured in score comparisons; their levels of participation and activeness were captured in statistics across learning platforms; their perceptions on the advantages and disadvantages of this teaching model were collected in a survey and in-depth interviews. Research results show significant progresses have been achieved in students’ reading proficiency; language production in terms of speaking and writing was perceived to have been improved; the level of engagement was high. Challenges of this model have also been summarized and corresponding modifications would be proposed, to facilitate proficiency acquisition more efficiently.
Highlights
As the concept of higher education evolves, the focus of language proficiency acquisition has shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered, from lecturing to autonomous learning
This paper presents a completely online education model of a Business English course for the junior students of English major, whose performances are being traced throughout the whole semester, to evaluate the effectiveness of this model and obtain insights and implications for future education
Six students have been individually interviewed, among whom two students belong to the high score range, the mid-level range, and the low score range respectively
Summary
As the concept of higher education evolves, the focus of language proficiency acquisition has shifted from teacher-centered to student-centered, from lecturing to autonomous learning. Du (2020) asserts that self-regulated learners have the ability to choose suitable methods to fulfill the learning tasks set by teachers or learners themselves, so as to achieve the established learning goals. The emphasis of this course is to develop students’ abilities in listening, reading, speaking and writing related to business topics, along with the objective of passing the Cambridge Business English exam (Vantage). Whether this model is beneficial to the cultivation of these skills is worthy of study
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