Business German for the Liberal Arts

Abstract

Over the course of the past decade the value of business language courses has become widely accepted, leading to their implementation in major institutions across the country. It no longer seems necessary to justify their existence. This is due in part to the publicity given the sometimes serious faux pas committed by our monolingual businesspeople and politicians, and in part to the growing national awareness of a shrinking world-both economic and political.' The business language course is perceived by educators, students, and the business world alike as the ideal forum in which to begin the requisite training in foreign language proficiency and cultural familiarity. The liberal arts college is no exception to this nationwide trend: here too we find increasing support for the development of business language courses. However, the small liberal arts college poses a unique set of challenges and goals. Its educational philosophy necessitates a business language course which will be significantly different from such a course at a large university. The liberal arts philosophy influences the design of a business language course in at least two very fundamental ways. First, the emphasis of the course is not on technical business-oriented skills. A minimum of classroom time is spent on activities such as business letters or other types of commercial correspondence, translation skills, writing a resume, or the interview situation. Instead, economic concept building and communicative competence in the target language are emphasized. Second, the course recognizes and builds upon the interdisciplinary and international focus of the liberal arts philosophy. This means that economic principles will be viewed within a cultural context, i.e., the interaction between economic, political, and social forces must be analyzed, as well as the historical background and international framework. It is the communicative and cultural components which serve as the primary justification of the business language course within a liberal arts curriculum. The following sketches a Business German course taught at a small liberal arts college. It represents the attempt to meet student need and to address market realities, while simultaneously preserving and furthering the goals of a liberal arts education. It is hoped that this model will prove useful to educators facing similar curricular decisions.