Beginning International Communication

Abstract

Section 1: Introduction The English education system in Korea has traditionally been focused on test preparation such as for the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) or other similar standardized tests. This is partially due to the requirement of having high test scores on these tests by companies for employment purposes (Ahn, 2013). While English education is continually improving by adopting more communicative teaching methods, the Korean educational system still focuses heavily on testing, grammar, and receptive skills. Although many companies have recently required a TOEIC speaking test score as well (Yoon, 2012), the problem has not yet been resolved. Classrooms still include a lot of rote memorization and drilling for test preparation skills. My textbook will help students to study business English communicatively while including all four basic English skills to address the aforementioned problems. The group of students I have decided to focus on is at the novice mid to novice high level on the ACTFL scale. The target students are Asian undergraduate university students and have been learning English for over 10 years. However, they are still not confident in speaking English. They need to not only to get a high score on the TOEIC test, but also need to improve their practical speaking skills. I have chosen these target learners because I had taught a group of Korean university students who were looking for jobs upon graduation. While teaching this group, I became aware of the students' needs as my time teaching them progressed. Although I only taught one test preparation course, many students wanted to speak and practice English more extensively. In addition to understanding the needs of these Korean students, I also became aware of how useful this content could be outside of Korea as well. I had the opportunity to teach Thai university students during my MA Practicum in Thailand, most of whom had similar educational backgrounds to my Korean students, and I found them to have similar needs in regards to speaking. The target audience of this textbook will need to be able to speak English for business purposes and to communicate in international workplace settings after earning their degrees. There are not many suitable business English textbooks for beginners; therefore, this textbook is ultimately designed for novice university students who will be looking for business-related jobs. Section 2: Methodology Most learners of English in Korea have been taught in the public school system, controlled by the Ministry of Education. They have been taught through rote memorization and grammar drilling for test preparation. Numerous learners of English in Korea have only been exposed to non-communicative teaching and passive learning via the grammar-translation method. Therefore, in my textbook, I will use the following theoretical methods: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Collaborative Language Learning (CLL), English for Business Purposes (Planken et al., 2010), and Project Based Learning (PBL). The reason I have chosen such methods is to improve learners' four main English skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. I will do this communicatively through collaborative work for business purposes. Activities throughout each unit will help students to prepare for a final project at the end of each chapter that should ideally relate to their future jobs. The Sample Chapter of my portfolio will have activities based on communicative and collaborative work with their classmates. Most activities utilize either paired work or group work, so students must work collaboratively and communicatively. In the 'What to Say' sections, students will be encouraged to speak by providing scaffolding for speaking while concurrently working together towards building communicative competence. Each unit will have topics related to business English for international communication, including activities such as, introducing themselves with their business cards, selling and buying products, making agendas for business meetings, writing reports and emails, preparing and delivering presentations, and interviewing employees. Each of these activities will include a lot of scaffolding and mini activities that will lead to final business-related projects, focusing mostly on productive skills, especially speaking. The final projects in each of the units are based on the principles of PBL, and some examples of these are: budgeting, creating a newspaper, making a blog, designing a homepage, as well as producing advertisements and commercials. The reason I’ve chosen to integrate CLL and PBL in this textbook is because students will face these kinds of tasks and projects in their workplaces in the future. Therefore, students can learn practical business English language while learning some of the communication skills they need for their future careers. Section 3: Expected Outcomes and Conclusion Due to the needs of my target group, I believe my textbook will help students to learn practical business English for international communication purposes. There are some business English textbooks for higher-level students, but there are very few for beginners. Therefore, this textbook will support beginner-level students who wish to learn English in business-related fields. Learning will be further enhanced by this textbook's systematic curriculum that encourages the real use of language through integrating both productive and receptive skills.