Professional Documents
Culture Documents
JOANNA KIC-DRGAS
Koszalin University of Technology,
Institute of Modern Languages and European Studies,
Koszalin
POLAND
Abstract: The purpose of the following paper is to investigate the possible problems of Business
English Teaching in Poland. In the article, previous research on the subject is presented and
confronted, including a survey conducted among Polish teachers. As a result of a SWOT analysis
of recently finished Business English courses, a catalogue of potential problems has been created.
In the final part of the article, the author discusses the possible solutions to the established
challenges and presents the main areas for development of the education service market.
Keywords: English for specific purposes, methodology, General English, problems, teaching
perspectives
1. INTRODUCTION
During the last few decades, the position of English as an international language and as a domain
of peoples lives and activity (Gnutzmann 2009, p.
519) has strengthened. With the introduction of new
trends, English has become not only the language of
communication worldwide but also the language of
science, technology and commerce. In fact it is, above
all, the language of business contacts. As a result, many
corporations decide to invest in language teaching to
streamline internal communication (in many international companies English is the corporate language of
choice) and improve their efficacy of work. Today, the
level of language skills is also perceived to be one of
the essential indicators of the educational quality at a
university or college. Students graduating from business colleges, economic universities or just searching
for a job must be competitive in the labour market. A
good knowledge of Business English seems to be, next
to managerial skills, a necessity nowadays.
JOANNA KIC-DRGAS
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ACCURACY
FLUENCY
EFFECTIVENESS
JOANNA KIC-DRGAS
5. DATA PRESENTATION
5.1 Experience and Qualifications
The majority of teachers admitted to having experience in Business English language teaching. The exact
results are presented in the diagram below.
Twelve teachers had conducted similar courses
before. Three of the teachers regularly participated in
special courses to broaden their knowledge in the field
of Business English. One person had, additionally,
graduated from economic studies. The rest of the teachers did not mention any form of additional training.
5.2 Strengths
In that part of the survey teachers shared their
opinion about the courses strengths. The most often
repeated answers were:
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6. CONCLUSIONS
The conducted research had a very general character and was targeted at locating the problematic areas
in Business English teaching in order to make the
teachers aware of the possible risks and also reveal
the fields that need an in-depth analysis in the course
planning. The main conclusions resulting from the
conducted research are divided into internal (referring
to the teachers) and external (referring to the teaching
surrounding) as follows:
6.1 Internal Problems:
No need to broaden BET qualifications. This aspect
is visibhle in the teachers answers. The majority
of them rely on their experience or knowledge
of General English, which may be very good but
as the quoted researches stress General English
Teaching differs from Business English Teaching.
This attitude may be the result of the fact that such
methodological trainings are not offered or teachers
are just unwilling to gain additional qualifications.
Lack of methods to cooperate with the group. The
atmosphere of a course is not always nice, especially
when the teacher lacks specific knowledge and the
course participants are not willing to support. Failure to establish clear expectations of cooperation
in the class results in lowering educational quality.
6.2 External Problems:
Regular learning poses a problem especially for
professionally working learners who combine the
course with work. Despite their broad specific
knowledge, they do not have time to learn regularly. This is stressed by the teachers in terms of
possible risks.
The group variety and size requires individual attitude to each participant whilst working simultaneously with the group.
6.3 Potential solutions to the discussed
problems
Internal problems:
Extending an offer of methodology courses for BE
teachers.
Encouraging teachers to invest in broadening their
knowledge.
Encouraging teachers to cooperate and exchange
their experience.
This group of problems affects the quality of language learning greatly. Therefore it is advisable to
check teachers qualifications and experience neces-
JOANNA KIC-DRGAS
DR JOANNA KIC-DRGAS
Koszalin University of Technology,
Institute of Modern Languages and European Studies
Koszalin
POLAND
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