Evaluation of Business English Writing Course-book Based on the Needs Analysis Model

Beiying He,Guihang Guo

doi:10.30560/ilr.v3n3p11

Beiying He, Guihang Guo

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.30560/ilr.v3n3p11

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Abstract

Since business English (BE) was ratified as an undergraduate major in China by the Ministry of Education in 2007, domestic research on it has been mushrooming. BE writing course is one of the core courses in the module of English knowledge and skills for BE undergraduate program. Although there are more than 354 BE writing course-books have been published, few researches have been done to evaluate these textbooks. This paper aims to evaluate one of the BE writing course-books used by Guizhou University, namely, A Basic Course for Business English Writing. Targeting on the students majoring in Business English, the paper adopted the needs analysis model proposed by Hutchinson and Waters as well as the present situation analysis model raised by Richterich and Chancerel to design the questionnaire, which was used to identify students’ needs for business English writing. Based on the results of the questionnaire survey and the course-book evaluation criteria created by McDonough and Shaw, we identified the problems with the course-book and proposed some suggestions for modifications and further improvement.

Highlights

Since business English (BE) was ratified as an undergraduate major in China by the Ministry of Education in 2007, domestic research on it has been mushrooming
Few of them explore BE writing course-books, one of the important elements of BE writing course. It is found from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) that there are only 33 papers on BE writing course-books
Respondents, students, believe that the biggest challenge they encounter in BE writing is the lack of terminology, followed by the inconsistency with standard business language and the lack of knowledge of genres of business discourse

Summary

Introduction

Since business English (BE) was ratified as an undergraduate major in China by the Ministry of Education in 2007, domestic research on it has been mushrooming. According to the National Standards of Teaching Quality for Undergraduate Business English Major in Higher Education, BE writing course is one of the core courses in the module of English knowledge and skills for BE undergraduate program. It helps students accumulate basic concepts of business activities, BE writing skills and cultural background knowledge, and lays a solid foundation for students to learn advanced professional courses as well as to work in companies after graduation as employers pay much attention to English output skills such as speaking and writing (Shi & Cheng 2019). It is found from China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) that there are only 33 papers on BE writing course-books

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