ROLE OF CASE STUDIES IN TEACHING ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS

Abstract

Modern times require a functional level of the knowledge of the English language. Big corporations expect their future employees both to know English for Business and Economic Purposes and to possess sophisticated business skills. The task of the ESP teacher is to instruct learners to successfully develop linguistic as well as non-linguistic skills. One of the ways of doing so is by means of the case study analysis method, which might be considered as one of the most valuable methodological tools, as it provides learners with an authentic learning environment and authentic study materials. In order to successfully realize the case study task, the ESP practitioner is supposed to establish interdisciplinary collaboration with core-subject professors, who will significantly contribute to effective and efficient business solutions proposed by ESP students. The aim of this paper is to give a theoretical review of case studies and present the results of the survey on the role of case studies in ESP classes conducted at the Faculty of Economics, University of Niš. The paper will also point to advantages and disadvantages of using this teaching approach. In the end, the paper will give the suggestions about the ways as to how to overcome common obstacles which arise in the course of conducting this ESP teaching and study method.Key words: ESP, case studies, authenticity, interdisciplinarity, linguistic skills, business skills.