Cross-Cultural Business Communication through CLT

Abstract

The recent spread of business conferences and project collaborations have resulted in a great deal of importance to acquire business related English skills for Korean office workers. The majority of business English textbooks published recently specialize in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) such as finance, marketing, and management which are designed to teach language for a specific language community. Frendo (2005), however, claims that Business English is an umbrella term for a mixture of everyday English and ESP since business people use language for various purposes such as socializing, negotiating, planning, and travelling. Although most Korean businessmen are familiar with using English related to their own professional fields in business, they are not able to perform in casual situations such as engaging in small talks with colleagues outside the office for relationship-building. In this regard, I found the need to specifically design a textbook that will allow Korean office workers to learn how to use language appropriately in general business situations. The target group of students for this textbook is Korean adult office workers who are mainly taught English of the Korean education system. This textbook is designed to be taught at a language institute for Korean business workers. Their expected language proficiency level is Intermediate Low to Mid according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines.