Abstract
Research has identified that Business students, who are immersed in theoretical concepts, may not be equipped with the skills required to operate successfully in the global workplace in the English medium (Evans, 2013). Secondly, tasks in Business English textbooks tend not to bear much resemblance to those of a work environment (Bremner, 2010; Evans, 2013). This paper discusses an optional written business communication course open to international postgraduate business school students. Although the course is worth ten credits, it can only be used for a separate award, not part of their degree programme. The course focuses on the use of appropriate register, Business English vocabulary and intertextuality, as these features have been identified as pivotal to successful written business communication (Evans, 2013). A short questionnaire was distributed to the students towards the end of course to elicit their perceptions of the usefulness of the course. Consisting of two closed questions and one open question, data was then coded using constructivist grounded theory (Mills, Birks and Hoare, 2014), from which themes emerged providing valuable and unexpected feedback. The primary finding was that the course appeared to have alerted students to the importance of the business writing genre, resulting in an overwhelming request for more instruction.
Highlights
This paper reviews an innovative optional written business communication course open to international postgraduate students at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow
The first two questions were constructed to elicit students’ opinions as to whether the course had increased their confidence in business written communication in English and in applying for employment requiring the use of English. 227 international postgraduate Business students originally enrolled in the course
There is an integrated careers service in the Business School, and this may need to be more explicitly signposted to the students. It is apparent there is a demand for business communication courses that bridge academia and the workplace
Summary
This paper reviews an innovative optional written business communication course open to international postgraduate students at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow. Other researchers highlighted the lack of connection between materials and actual tasks in the business environment (Bremner, 2010; Cheng and Cheng, 2010) In his Hong Kong study, Evans (2013) found emails and reports dominated workplace communication, recommending that course designers incorporate such features as unpredictability, problem solving, intertextuality, collaboration and precision in writing. For this to be actualised, the course should be based on simulated and clearly defined role play to facilitate more authentic responses to tasks. This ten-week course is centred around a scenario
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