Investigating a research-informed teaching idea: The use of transcripts of authentic workplace talk in the teaching of spoken business English

Abstract

In business English, many research-informed teaching ideas have been suggested, but the effects of these ideas have rarely been investigated. The present paper seeks to show the value of pedagogically-oriented research in establishing the validity of novel teaching ideas and identifying ways of dovetailing them with actual teaching situations. The paper investigates the impact of using transcripts of authentic workplace talk in teaching spoken business English, which is an idea advocated by researchers for raising learners' awareness of features of spoken workplace discourse. The study involved two business English courses for university students in Hong Kong. The data sources included questionnaire surveys and samples of learners' language produced during role-plays. The study shows that most of the learners found learning from transcripts interesting and useful and that some learners demonstrated their awareness of politeness strategies and interpersonal language in the final role-play of the course. The study also helps to identify some issues in using transcripts as teaching material that need to be tackled to make the learning from transcripts more effective and motivating. Overall, the paper illustrates that pedagogically-oriented research can help to refine research-informed teaching ideas and to strengthen the link between research and pedagogy in business English.