a paper by: Clarice S.C. Chan

1. Forging a link between research and pedagogy:
A holistic framework for evaluating business English materials
Clarice S.C. Chan

2. It is suggested that checklists incorporating research findings should be developed for other business English
topics to strengthen the link between research and the evaluation, development and use of materials.
research findings from different studies are rarely brought together in
an accessible manner for use by business English practitioners
The present paper proposes a model for linking research and pedagogy in business
English, whereby applied linguistics research findings are channeled to pedagogical
practice a holistic framework for evaluating teaching materials.
research findings related to both pedagogical considerations and the discourse of the business English
a two-part checklist for evaluating materials developed by using the framework.
Using business meetings as an example
an evaluation of textbook materials on meetings by means of the checklist

3. One way in which the applicability of research findings can be broadened is to develop
criteria for materials evaluation which reflect the current understanding of the language of
business and the associated pedagogical issues.
To forge a link between research and pedagogy and to make the materials evaluation process
more rigorous, a holistic evaluative framework is necessary, one which also addresses research
findings showing ‘‘how language and skills are used in the target situation”
different types of business interaction
(e.g. meetings, negotiating, socializing)
involve different language and strategies
different evaluation criteria

5. Identifying relevant research findings
Pedagogical considerations
• needs analysis,
• spoken grammar and authenticity,
• approach to teaching the
language of meetings,
• learner autonomy.
Discourse features
 goal orientation,
 language used in meetings,
 strategies used in meetings,
 the structure of meetings,
 cultural differences.

6. Brieger (1997) four types of knowledge/skills (the basis of most business English courses)
‘‘general language knowledge”
‘‘specialist language knowledge”
‘‘general communication skills”
‘‘professional communication skills”
Hutchinson & Waters (1987) Learning needs: ‘‘what the learner needs to do in order to learn”
When selecting materials, it is important to ascertain which of the four types of knowledge/skills is the main
learning objective of the materials and whether the learning objective is appropriate for the target learners.
Ellis & Johnson (1994) according to work experience
‘‘pre-experience”
‘‘job-experienced”
To help learners function in a variety of meetings in the workplace, experiential learning can play an important
role. Materials should include a range of role-plays or simulation tasks which ‘‘mirror real-life situations”
Pedagogical considerations

7. In business English, learners should be able to benefit from input of
some of the unique features of spoken English.
used to soften the speaker’s statements.
used for various interpersonal purposes, such as palliating potentially face-threatening acts
creating ‘‘an atmosphere of informality or even intimacy”.
vague language
spoken grammar, may best be taught through exposing learners to samples of
authentic language used in business.
corpus-based research using business English corpora provides insights into features
of authentic business English, especially in terms of collocation and prosody.
Pedagogical considerations

8. One major problem
they are decontextualized
short or incomplete utterances
learners need to see how the functions unfold in discourse
Williams (1988) in business English textbooks the language of meetings was
often represented by a set of functions and exponents
Without a context, it would be difficult to determine which exponent would be the
most appropriate for a given situation.
Pedagogical considerations

9. Lake (1997) evaluates EFL textbooks based solely on ‘‘the
extent to which learner training is presented and developed”
Learner autonomy has become increasingly important in
teaching, learning and materials development
To facilitate self-/ peer-assessment, the identification of weaknesses and goal-setting, learning activities
should have clear objectives and outcomes against which learners can evaluate their own performance
peer-assessment has also been recommended for the teaching of professional communication skills
Pedagogical considerations

10. ‘‘non-task sounding stage”
Functions: including making judgments about how trustworthy, reliable and powerful the other side is.
Discourse features
One feature of institutional talk is its goal orientation the participants has some goal
associated with the institution in
question.
Phatic talk performs the important function of constructing,
expressing,
maintaining,
reinforcing interpersonal relationships.
Phatic talk is an integral part of meetings

11. In most textbooks the language of meetings is presented to learners as a range of functions
Expressing, agreement, expressing disagreement, expressing opinion, suggesting, directing, eliciting,
focusing, stating intention, explaining, concluding, interrupting, correcting and asking for repetition.
Koester (2002) that explicit performatives rarely occur in workplace conversations
The requesting strategies made by the native English-speaking chair in the meetings
‘‘explicit directness” (e.g. ‘‘I want to. . .”)
‘‘conventional indirectness” (e.g. ‘‘Could you. . .?”)
‘‘non-conventional indirectness” (e.g. ‘‘Have you got any travel lined up in the near future?”)
Discourse features
Williams (1988) the exponents taught in textbooks are ‘‘over explicit”
The
language
of
meetings
participant-talk
chair-talk the chair, as a ‘‘conductor of ongoing discourse”, commonly
performs functions such as starting, nominating, terminating
and concluding. These functions help the chair to manage
topic sequencing, topic focusing, turn taking, etc.
Participants, contribute more on the information side, the
most common function they perform is informing.

12. Brown and Levinson (1987) Interlocutors try to respect each other’s ‘‘face”.
Two types of politeness: ‘‘positive politeness” and ‘‘negative politeness”
the purpose of using these strategies is generally
to establish rapport and maintain good relations.
The appropriate degree of formality depends largely on the context; hence,
activities on meetings should aim at giving a clear context to learners, so that they
can practice using the most appropriate language and interpersonal strategies.
Discourse features

13. ‘‘an overall structural organization consisting of a number of phases”
British and Italian meetings have the same generic structure consisting of three phases:
opening, debating and closing.
is less ‘‘rule-governed” It is difficult to construct a model
Linde (1991) identifies different resources for topic closure and topic introduction:
Discourse features
Topic closure
‘‘OK. OK.”
‘‘Well, that’s OK”
‘‘Good for you. I’m glad that that worked well”
‘‘What’s next?”
‘‘OK, what else?”
“What else do we have to worry about”?
Topic introduction
Debating phase

14. Goal orientation
Yamada (1997) more time was spent on phatic talk in meetings held by Japanese
participants than those held by Americans.
Structure of meetings
Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris (1995) while the British and Italian meetings had the
same generic structure, the boundaries between phases for the Italian meeting were less clear-
cut and the debating phase was more complex and prolonged.
Debating phase
Yamada (1990) topic management and turn distribution in American and Japanese
meetings differed considerably.
Discourse organization
Garcez (1993) the Brazilians provided supporting details before making a point,
whereas the Americans did the opposite.
Discourse features

17. criteria for
choosing
the
textbooks
(1) Availability
(2) Year of publication: in or after 2000.
(3) Level: intermediate level (pre-intermediate, intermediate and upper-intermediate).
(4) Type of materials: business English
(5) Focus on meetings

18. Thank you