GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Business English is an online course which is intended for students enrolled at Tunisian business, economics and management colleges and higher education institutions. It is designed to meet the curricula requirements of the LMD scheme and falls within the module “Unité Transversale” which is meant to provide students with training in a subject that is interdisciplinary. Thus, a specialised English language course (Business English in this case) is provided covering five semesters of 14 weeks of instruction at a rate of two hours a week. The “Unité Transversale” in specialised English has been a high priority project for the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technology over the past two years. Five teams of course developers have already produced courses for Semester 1 and Semester 2 in conjunction with the Virtual University of Tunis (UVT). As to the 2009-2010 academic year, one semester of general English and a second semester course of specialised English have been put online at the disposal of ESP teachers and students in a number of institutions of higher learning. Course developers and course coordinators have benefited from numerous training sessions at UVT to help to familiarise them with the principles of distance learning and with the practice of interactive teaching using Moodle.
The present course is a follow up of the second semester course in Business English which aim was to raise students’ proficiency level in English in general and Business English terminology in particular. The BE course for semester 3 is an extension of the same global objectives. The aim is to increase vocabulary level and to consolidate the students’ mastery of the basic grammar structures used in the language of business. Similarly, this syllabus is theme-centred. Each unit delves into an issue of current relevance to the world of business and international economic and trade relations. As was the case in Semester 2, the themes provide the framework for the introduction of concepts, related vocabulary and perspectives of interest to students training for prospective careers in business management and administration. The content-oriented units are also designed around the four language skills. That is, students will have the opportunity to practice specific sub-skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Since speaking is a challenging skills to practice online, it will be up to the course tutor to harness the availability of live chat programs and to press for the purchase of software at the level of the institutions so that students can submit pre-recorded assignments through which they would truly demonstrate their abilities in speaking using the language skills and vocabulary targeted in each unit.
The BE course S3 consists of 14 units. 12 units provide new input focusing on themes progressing from the macro to the micro level with two review units (unit 7 and unit 14). Topics covered issues related to New Economic Order, Economic Cycles and trends, Motivating the Work Force, Economic Achievements, Multinationals, International Financial Institutions, Stock Markets, Business Strategies, Negotiating Deals across Cultures, Economic Recovery, ICT in Business, and Management by Objectives. These themes are based on reading from current business news reports.
UNITS STRUCTURE
A typical teaching unit includes a reading activity with a language focus follow-up, a listening activity based on a live audio or video resource, a pronunciation activity and a writing task usually guided but requiring collaboration with class members and/or further research to build up knowledge and help learners develop autonomy. As the reading is the main focus of each unit, there will be a pre-reading phase, a reading phase and post-reading phase. Throughout these phases the four skills (listening, speaking, writing, and reading) are brought into focus and practised: The phases serve the following aims:
Pre-reading: This phase serves as an introduction to the topic of each unit and usually takes the form of a cartoon, an image to comment on, and/or a question/answer prompts intended to generate discussion and to activate previous knowledge. It may also be in the form of a webquest activity to help students acquire skills in using web tools and resources and to facilitate retrieval of content-based knowledge and to increase familiarity with the ideas and issues they will encounter in the reading.
Reading passages: Reading passages in this semester are slightly longer than in the previous one (generally between 800 and 1500). The design of each unit is meant to encourage interactive reading through the provision of continuous access to the reading and the availability of automated immediate feedback. Interactive reading is believed to promote independent work, use of appropriate reading strategies and self-regulation. It is hoped that, as distance learners, students can approach the readings independently and study autonomously the materials in the unit in preparation for the more participatory forum activities online to be carried out with other class members and monitored by the course tutor.
Post-reading activities: On the whole, the post-reading tasks are meant to recycle and consolidate understanding of concepts and issues dealt with in the unit and to provide further practice with the vocabulary and specific language structure and/or functions (both lexical and structural items) that are most recurrent in the reading passages. These are followed by pronunciation tasks designed to increase students’ ability to perceive sound difference at the word level and to develop intuitive knowledge of word stress. This is done with focus on key vocabulary met in the unit. These words are recorded so that students can listen to these words during self-regulated independent study. The writing activities in the post-reading phase of each unit are particularly important opportunities for learners to integrate content knowledge and language skills covered in the unit to perform tasks using language related to the main issue in the unit. Moreover, each unit includes a self-contained listening activity using audio and/or video resources retrieved from business websites or radio and TV stations (Voice of America, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, The British Council, etc.). The listening are sometimes broken into segments to facilitate the students’ task and help them focus on the ideas without feeling overwhelmed. The listening activity is an additional opportunity to recycle vocabulary and to expand the students’ knowledge of the contents and to raise their awareness of difference in perspectives when it comes to the issues related to the general themes of the units.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The Business English course for semester 3 was conceived with the following objectives in mind:
(1) to familiarise students with macro and micro level concepts in business and economics
(2) to stimulate students’ interest in current issues in business and global economic issues
(3) to equip students with terminology, vocabulary, structures and idioms encountered in business situations they could use to communicate with classmates and audiences elsewhere
(4) to raise students’ language proficiency level and help them develop the skills needed for engaging in oral and written online communication
(5) to help students to think critically about the issues debated in the units and to develop personal opinions in connection to these themes and issues.
(6) to equip students with strategies for reporting ideas accurately, appropriately and effectively in preparation for careers business administration and/or international commerce and trade)
(7) to develop students’ abilities to Listen for a purpose and to develop strategies to selectively extract information from taped extended natural speech
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
As a distance course, the specific tasks are designed to give learners responsibility for their own learning so that they develop accordingly the strategies needed to make use of the materials available through the immediate feedback function. The Forum activities are designed with the aim of engaging in collaborative interaction with the online community of peers and tutor. With the assistance of the course tutor, students will acquire the communication skills they need to participate in business situations. The Forum activities are meant to facilitate this learning process and to boost the students’ sense of initiative and motivation for learning online within online communities. The course tutor is there to provide scaffolding, further elaboration of the ideas and guidance for better performance. The course developers do not expect tutors to transmit the materials in the units but to support the learners in using the materials at their own pace and in carrying out the production activities following the main reading. With this respect, course tutors are advised to try the materials themselves in order to put themselves in the learners’ shoes and to devise ways to assist them in managing communication within their teams, in developing strategies to complete successfully the tasks in the unit, and in measuring their own success. If need be, the activities suggested in the units can be supplemented and/or altered to suit specific needs of particular student populations. If the students find the materials challenging, tutors can break down the tasks or simplify them. If the students are too advanced, tutors can expand on the themes by designing further reading activities and/or assigning web-based projects. As course designers, we value the input of our experienced fellow teachers.
EVALUATION
Besides, the possibility of measuring their own performance by means of the built-in immediate feedback function, the course was designed so that learners have numerous opportunities to gauge their own progress as they perform the activities. The assignments and forum activities are also opportunities for learners to measure their level in relation to their classmates. It is by engaging with the tasks and thanks to the feedback they will obtain from their tutor that students can gauge their grasp of the concepts, understanding of the issues, and mastery of the communication strategies needed to express themselves using the materials. In addition, the course developers incorporated two formal opportunities for students to assess their knowledge in a more comprehensive way in the review units (Unit 7 and Unit 14). Since the assessment method required for the specialised English module is Contrôle Continu, or suggestion for course tutors is to develop a paper-based progress test after each review unit and to make provision for on-going formative assessment of students’ performance. This can be done daily, weekly or bi-weekly by lurking online to check randomly how present they are online and to develop an idea about the level of participation in the Forum and investment in the assignments. The on-going assessment grade should make up 30% of their final grade while the grades of the two comprehensive tests are combined to make up the remaining 70%.
Business English is an online course which is intended for students enrolled at Tunisian business, economics and management colleges and higher education institutions. It is designed to meet the curricula requirements of the LMD scheme and falls within the module “Unité Transversale” which is meant to provide students with training in a subject that is interdisciplinary. Thus, a specialised English language course (Business English in this case) is provided covering five semesters of 14 weeks of instruction at a rate of two hours a week. The “Unité Transversale” in specialised English has been a high priority project for the Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and Technology over the past two years. Five teams of course developers have already produced courses for Semester 1 and Semester 2 in conjunction with the Virtual University of Tunis (UVT). As to the 2009-2010 academic year, one semester of general English and a second semester course of specialised English have been put online at the disposal of ESP teachers and students in a number of institutions of higher learning. Course developers and course coordinators have benefited from numerous training sessions at UVT to help to familiarise them with the principles of distance learning and with the practice of interactive teaching using Moodle.
The present course is a follow up of the second semester course in Business English which aim was to raise students’ proficiency level in English in general and Business English terminology in particular. The BE course for semester 3 is an extension of the same global objectives. The aim is to increase vocabulary level and to consolidate the students’ mastery of the basic grammar structures used in the language of business. Similarly, this syllabus is theme-centred. Each unit delves into an issue of current relevance to the world of business and international economic and trade relations. As was the case in Semester 2, the themes provide the framework for the introduction of concepts, related vocabulary and perspectives of interest to students training for prospective careers in business management and administration. The content-oriented units are also designed around the four language skills. That is, students will have the opportunity to practice specific sub-skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. Since speaking is a challenging skills to practice online, it will be up to the course tutor to harness the availability of live chat programs and to press for the purchase of software at the level of the institutions so that students can submit pre-recorded assignments through which they would truly demonstrate their abilities in speaking using the language skills and vocabulary targeted in each unit.
The BE course S3 consists of 14 units. 12 units provide new input focusing on themes progressing from the macro to the micro level with two review units (unit 7 and unit 14). Topics covered issues related to New Economic Order, Economic Cycles and trends, Motivating the Work Force, Economic Achievements, Multinationals, International Financial Institutions, Stock Markets, Business Strategies, Negotiating Deals across Cultures, Economic Recovery, ICT in Business, and Management by Objectives. These themes are based on reading from current business news reports.
UNITS STRUCTURE
A typical teaching unit includes a reading activity with a language focus follow-up, a listening activity based on a live audio or video resource, a pronunciation activity and a writing task usually guided but requiring collaboration with class members and/or further research to build up knowledge and help learners develop autonomy. As the reading is the main focus of each unit, there will be a pre-reading phase, a reading phase and post-reading phase. Throughout these phases the four skills (listening, speaking, writing, and reading) are brought into focus and practised: The phases serve the following aims:
Pre-reading: This phase serves as an introduction to the topic of each unit and usually takes the form of a cartoon, an image to comment on, and/or a question/answer prompts intended to generate discussion and to activate previous knowledge. It may also be in the form of a webquest activity to help students acquire skills in using web tools and resources and to facilitate retrieval of content-based knowledge and to increase familiarity with the ideas and issues they will encounter in the reading.
Reading passages: Reading passages in this semester are slightly longer than in the previous one (generally between 800 and 1500). The design of each unit is meant to encourage interactive reading through the provision of continuous access to the reading and the availability of automated immediate feedback. Interactive reading is believed to promote independent work, use of appropriate reading strategies and self-regulation. It is hoped that, as distance learners, students can approach the readings independently and study autonomously the materials in the unit in preparation for the more participatory forum activities online to be carried out with other class members and monitored by the course tutor.
Post-reading activities: On the whole, the post-reading tasks are meant to recycle and consolidate understanding of concepts and issues dealt with in the unit and to provide further practice with the vocabulary and specific language structure and/or functions (both lexical and structural items) that are most recurrent in the reading passages. These are followed by pronunciation tasks designed to increase students’ ability to perceive sound difference at the word level and to develop intuitive knowledge of word stress. This is done with focus on key vocabulary met in the unit. These words are recorded so that students can listen to these words during self-regulated independent study. The writing activities in the post-reading phase of each unit are particularly important opportunities for learners to integrate content knowledge and language skills covered in the unit to perform tasks using language related to the main issue in the unit. Moreover, each unit includes a self-contained listening activity using audio and/or video resources retrieved from business websites or radio and TV stations (Voice of America, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, The British Council, etc.). The listening are sometimes broken into segments to facilitate the students’ task and help them focus on the ideas without feeling overwhelmed. The listening activity is an additional opportunity to recycle vocabulary and to expand the students’ knowledge of the contents and to raise their awareness of difference in perspectives when it comes to the issues related to the general themes of the units.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The Business English course for semester 3 was conceived with the following objectives in mind:
(1) to familiarise students with macro and micro level concepts in business and economics
(2) to stimulate students’ interest in current issues in business and global economic issues
(3) to equip students with terminology, vocabulary, structures and idioms encountered in business situations they could use to communicate with classmates and audiences elsewhere
(4) to raise students’ language proficiency level and help them develop the skills needed for engaging in oral and written online communication
(5) to help students to think critically about the issues debated in the units and to develop personal opinions in connection to these themes and issues.
(6) to equip students with strategies for reporting ideas accurately, appropriately and effectively in preparation for careers business administration and/or international commerce and trade)
(7) to develop students’ abilities to Listen for a purpose and to develop strategies to selectively extract information from taped extended natural speech
PEDAGOGICAL APPROACH
As a distance course, the specific tasks are designed to give learners responsibility for their own learning so that they develop accordingly the strategies needed to make use of the materials available through the immediate feedback function. The Forum activities are designed with the aim of engaging in collaborative interaction with the online community of peers and tutor. With the assistance of the course tutor, students will acquire the communication skills they need to participate in business situations. The Forum activities are meant to facilitate this learning process and to boost the students’ sense of initiative and motivation for learning online within online communities. The course tutor is there to provide scaffolding, further elaboration of the ideas and guidance for better performance. The course developers do not expect tutors to transmit the materials in the units but to support the learners in using the materials at their own pace and in carrying out the production activities following the main reading. With this respect, course tutors are advised to try the materials themselves in order to put themselves in the learners’ shoes and to devise ways to assist them in managing communication within their teams, in developing strategies to complete successfully the tasks in the unit, and in measuring their own success. If need be, the activities suggested in the units can be supplemented and/or altered to suit specific needs of particular student populations. If the students find the materials challenging, tutors can break down the tasks or simplify them. If the students are too advanced, tutors can expand on the themes by designing further reading activities and/or assigning web-based projects. As course designers, we value the input of our experienced fellow teachers.
EVALUATION
Besides, the possibility of measuring their own performance by means of the built-in immediate feedback function, the course was designed so that learners have numerous opportunities to gauge their own progress as they perform the activities. The assignments and forum activities are also opportunities for learners to measure their level in relation to their classmates. It is by engaging with the tasks and thanks to the feedback they will obtain from their tutor that students can gauge their grasp of the concepts, understanding of the issues, and mastery of the communication strategies needed to express themselves using the materials. In addition, the course developers incorporated two formal opportunities for students to assess their knowledge in a more comprehensive way in the review units (Unit 7 and Unit 14). Since the assessment method required for the specialised English module is Contrôle Continu, or suggestion for course tutors is to develop a paper-based progress test after each review unit and to make provision for on-going formative assessment of students’ performance. This can be done daily, weekly or bi-weekly by lurking online to check randomly how present they are online and to develop an idea about the level of participation in the Forum and investment in the assignments. The on-going assessment grade should make up 30% of their final grade while the grades of the two comprehensive tests are combined to make up the remaining 70%.
Modifié le: mardi 12 octobre 2010, 09:31