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DESIGNING A NOVEL AND HIGH PERFORMANCE ONLINE ENGLISH FOR

BUSINESS PURPOSES COURSES WITH MASHUP

Mona YAZDANJOO, Bakhtiar SADEGHIIslamic Azad University Maragheh Branch, Islamic Azad University Zanjan Branch

monayazdanjoo@gmail.com,nishtemanco@gmail.com

Abstract: Since English has become the international language of business, the study of EBP/BE

(English for Business Purposes/Business English) is the current growth in ESP (English for Specific

Purposes) Web-based Training. The absolute characteristics of ESP courses is to meet specified needs

of the learners, In EBP courses, using and downloading internet sources based on need analysis can be

purely investigative that might have no feedback on the language and use of program because, what

work well in one EBP course may not work in another. The aim of this paper is using Mashup to

provide online Tutored distance-learning based on need analysis for EBP students. In this study an

online EBP learning course is run for job-experienced learners, focusing on one or two language skills.

As Mashup recognize each participants needs and purposes, it surfing the Net, selecting and producingon demands reliable activities for the course program. Since Mashup provides authentic services based

on authentic purposes, students actively engage in actual activities. That is; to communicate effectively

as professional business person.

Keywords:Mashup, English for business purposes.

I. INTRODUCTIONThe issue of ESP is one of the current growth areas in academic and individual learning. ESP

courses according to the definition is an approach to language teaching which, aims to meet the needs

of particular learners [3].On the basis of such a definition ESP is classified by professional area as:

English for academic purpose and English for occupational purposes. English for business purposes as

an important category of EOP is, currently the area of greatest activity and interest in ESP, mainly

deal with adult learners. Besides, it is a learning for practical rather than academic purposes (Guy and

Mattock 1993) [2]. Nowadays people not only need to know English but also they need to develop it in

order to communicate effectively in their job-related task. Among the key variables in business

English courses, the mode of learning might impress others. By that we mean, for example selecting a

web-based training or telephone teaching for specific business English courses might have an effect on

participants involvement, objectives and course duration. Growing in to a global resource ofinformation, internet is now considered as technology that provide interactive instrument of

overcoming time and distance in EBP. The tendency toward web-based courses and distance-learning

is increasing in e-commerce and business communication. Since most of the business participants

prefer intensive courses in a way that achieve their objective in a short period of time, much effort may

be put into establishing extended internet courses based on individual learner needs and expectation

they might have of a specific course. Designing web-based EBP courses by Mashup is fundamentally a

matter of responding to a wide various questions considered need analysis.

What is, in fact, distinguish EBP courses from the general courses is not the nature of the need

but rather, the awareness of a need [3]. Consequently, generally the following steps are recognized in

ESP courses: Identifying student needs - Determining course objectives - Designing curriculum -Selecting materials - Evaluation of students achievement. Pilbeam (1979) [2] suggests that needsanalysis should be concerned with Target situation analysis (TSA) that is the actual activities the

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participants have to carry out and personal abilities or participant proficiency which is evaluated or

Present Situation Analysis (PSA). Most of the participants in Business English are non-native speakers

of English that based on TSA want to participate in global business language. Consequently, a pre-

course analysis is essential for a successful EBP course, for the reason that, at the need analysis stage

the prerequisite information that construct the foundation of training programs will be identify. Based

on the analysis, authentic and interactive activities that closely organized in the development of course

objectives, will be construct. But if the learner recognizes some of the services and activities have not

contributed to the rapid advance of the learning process, there would be no way to adapt or change it.

Besides, providing online authentic materials and services according to Business real situation required

a long period of analyzing. Web-based training based on authentic services is to some extent necessary

to EBP course because currently the new commercial transaction and Business commercials are

conducting over the Internet.

The present study is focus on: How EBP courses benefit from Mashup application in order to

provide high performance service for Business English students.

The paper is organized in the following sections. First, we consider the challenges and issues

in the steps of designing EBP courses, the second section will devote to the technical framework and

design of the software and, the final section include suggestion on the implementation of Mashup tool

in EBP course.1.1 Issues in EBP course designConsidering the steps refer to in the previous part, one find out that behind successful EBP

courses is process of ascertaining what a course should contain? [3]. The answer directly related to the

information that can be available by need analysis, which is different in relation to student perception.For example the course that is going to designed for business managers in a company can be much

more varied than those in similar situation because the participants and consequently their needs have

been changed. Due to this fact there are several methods that employ to need analysis. One of the

prevailing methods especially for EBP courses is using questionnaires. The data gathering by this

method require a computer software analysis. Nelson (1994) [2] starts with placement test and a needs

analysis questionnaire. The information were processed by computer and the final results will be

drawn by using charts include needs and wants of the students. There is a manual override to thesystem at all stages so that teachers can influence the process [2]. Reeves and Wright (1996) [2]

introduced LANA (LAnguage Needs Analysis). Again the software analyses the responses that is

provided by interviews, modeling, and a computer-based questionnaire [2]. The result will be

presented by a three dimensional histograms. Munbys Communicative Syllabus Design (1978) [2] isone of the well-known works on need analysis. Munby in order to find out target situation analysis use

a set of procedures called Communication Needs Processor (CNP). It consists of a range of questions

about key communication variables (topic, participants, medium etc.) which can be used to identify the

target language needs of any group of learners [3]. There are a number of other procedures introduced

by Jones Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Mackay (1978), Cohen and Mannion (1980),Richterich and Chancerel (1980), totally they are listed as; questionnaires, interviews, consultation,

observation, data collection [3]. So to establish a workable course design three important types of

needs analysis need to perform, TSA (Target situation Analysis), LSA (Learning situation Analysis),and PSA(Present Situation Analysis) (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998) [5].

Generally speaking, the recognized methods are time consuming. If we want to provide

business people with the services they need, some instruments is required to gathering information in

order to know the participants. There is a direct relationship between objectives and student needs.

Business English students either want to become more experienced in their job or study English for

academic business study. It is essential to be aware of students real goal. However, adapting activitiesand skills to the fulfilment of the goals might be demanding. Because instructional design should meet

the needs and preferences of the students. As we know the characteristic of online EBP courses is

limited time. A businessperson is too busy that mostly they prefer not wasting too many time to reach

their desired purpose. Determining and gathering information is a matter, interpreting the answers is

another. With regard to where they need to be, we should conduct or interpret need analysis.

Throughout these activities there might be misconceptions or false information that may cause not tohave a clear definition of the purpose of the instruction. This fact enables students to reach the end

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target and as a result of that the objectives may not be determined precisely. Consequently the required

activities for fulfillment of them will not be acceptable.

Identifying and recognizing needs doesnt stop after the first step, but we should keepchecking was that useful based on student need? Tony Dudley-Evans and Maggie Jo St. John [2]

suggest that analyzing authentic texts is a crucial stage of need analysis that is Authenticity is theproperty of purpose and the level of the text that is the text should accompany with the purpose and the

level of the students [2]. That is, a text or activity which is organized or designed for Job-experiencedlearners will not be appropriate for a pre-job experienced. Moreover, authenticity in level, increase

learners interests and motivation and therefore, encourage active participation of learners in usinglanguage for the determined purpose. Business English students require a course that improves their

ability to use language for needs and goals. So, there might be tools to guarantee the authenticity of

purpose and level of services. We recognize that implementing Mashup tool in EBP course design may

provide a service that would facilitate learning Business English.

1.2 Mashup and EBPThe technology revolution has brought many changes in on-line courses as a result of that

Most EBP courses are placed on the Internet and can be used by any students. In other words

consistent with broader trends in higher education, the delivery of education via the Internet has taken

on increasing importance for business schools (Popovich & Neel, 2005) [9]. The general format for

such courses is that learners follow them on their own. There are a number of web-based distance

learning services and applications designed for EBP students. With respect to the features of Web-

based learning environment, most of them generally characterized as: meeting the needs of the users,

selecting media regarding objectives, increase users interaction, and speed learning. The significantfactor above all is that; they try to follow Learner-centered curriculum. That is, learners are in

complete involvement with their learning. Considering current websites of EBP courses, the courses

are originally for learning a variety of different Business subject matters through the effective use of

Internet technologies. They start instruction by completing need analysis forms. It includes

determining the level of students and specific area of their requirement. A list of multimedia activities

and material are constructed in a set of units around needs of students.

In conformity with [1] generally, a Mashup comprises an application that combines multiplesets of data streams into a unified user experience. In relation to Web Mashup can be defined as asituational web application that extract and combines data and functionality from different sources to

support user needs and tasks [7]. And finally with regard to e-learning, within the context of learning

object repositories, aggregation of information junks is realized according to instructional models and

on terms of standards and specifications, such as LOM or SCORM. In relation to EBP, We define

Mashup as: an application that surf the Internet and integrate services based on your needs and

demands. Using Mashup in EBP courses is concerned with Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).

This model determine the number of factors have an effect on users decision in using a newtechnology. One of these factors defined by Fred Davis as Perceived Usefulness refer to the degree towhich a person believes that using a particular system enhance his or her job performance (Wikipedia).

By using Mashup users benefit from various web-based tools and services. Since applying Mashup is

based on, combining services to support users needs, the degree of Perceived Usefulness can be muchhigher in EBP web-based courses. In fact it is cooperation between services in order to provide a

perfect outcome. Employing Mashup is a relatively new phenomenon among EBP web courses

because the course is not restricted to a set of ready-to-use bank of sources or activities which the

website designed for a particular subject, but it fetch other online services in terms that it support the

user demands, accordingly provide a list of activities or authentic material that allow different types of

Business English students (whether interest in marketing, management, etc.) benefit from the course

material.

Two important issues in EBP courses mentioned before as; authenticity of purpose and

authenticity of level is supported by Mashup. The need analysis form is provided for recognizing TSA

and the level of learners and utilize as repository for Mashup to merge the services into one web

application.

Mashup help English business learners to find the most appropriate materials that improvetheir job knowledge skills .For Business English learners taking part in courses with determined

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outcomes will be highly motivating. In fact Mashup create a community of online services based on

Business Englishs demand.The aim of this project is first, to develop a Mashup framework for EBP courses as one

solution to problems in web-based EBP need analysis, and second, to construct a web-based course

access authentic activities and text with a minimum of effort that exploit instructional online tools and

services to integrate them for a useful online course. We hope this new study develop the application

of Mashups for EBP courses.

II. METHODOLOGYIn current study Mashup tools apply for web-based EBP course. The great advantage of such

an application is that there is no need to spend on need analyses or interpreting data for the reason of

establishing an appropriate design for online EBP course. But, as the students requirements of thecourse is recognized by the software, it surf the Internet services render activities which best match to

the needs of the learner. Besides, learners are not restricted to some types of pedagogical activities

presented by one web-service but they exploit similar activities in other online services or websites.

Learners are in direct interaction with the software, so that they can control their own learning pace.

Such involvement of learners offer a new instructional environment in on-line EBP courses. The

methodology of this study is discussed in such an order: Technical design and the structure of the

software, Integration of Mashup with EBP on-line course and the final section is a sample testify.

2.1 Technical design and the structure of the softwareThe software design is conducted under a triple-ware schema to achieve information and

filtered data from the internet and related services must to be merged and provided as an interface to

end user. Figure 1 provides an explicit explanation about the triple-ware schema. It shows a complete

data flow of the information from the beginning of the process to its end.

Figure 1. Triple-ware schema

The Triple-ware schema function follow these steps: First, we design a script in EMML(Enterprise Mashup Markup Language) language to invoke data from the web by using web servers- in

our proposed solution is tomcat 5.5- and the implementation backplane of Mashup. The engine uses

JDK (Java Development Kit 1.5) on the windows platform.

After that Mashup apply forced script to surf the net and web services to fetch data. The output

file will be created in this step; data presented in the XML (Extensible Markup Language) format

contain some elements with optional attributes. So, XML file will be available to use, the elements actas input for the next step. The third step is the main part for the users, which is the implementation of

software in the .Net environment by C# language programming to fetch data from the XML file as an

input feed in the special form. It is done in a friendly design to be used by learners. In this step the user

requirement will be asked. According to it Mashup outline short abstract so that the proper data will be

available for the user. If any of the information does not satisfy the user, the URL (Universal Resource

locator) can be clicked to gain extra information in order to show the original source of data.

2.2 Integration of Mashup into EBPThe course is proposed for intensive web-based EBP courses, respectively run for job-

experienced students who bring business knowledge and skills to the language-learning situation. The

nature of the course is mainly focus on the learners as a main source of need analysis. Some pre-course

information is obtained by completing a short form of questionnaire. The approach for designing the

EBP course is the integration of skill-centered and learning-centered approach. The former makes the

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learning situation dependent on the target situation analysis. The learner is used to identify and to

analyze the target situation. It provide opportunities for learners to employ and evaluate the skills and

strategies considered necessary in the target situation [3]. The latter consider interest, enjoyment,

learner involvement influence the entire course [3]. In this study not only highlight the importance of

learners preference and involvement in selecting their own activities but also the appropriate skills and

exercises is presented to cope in target situation. The process of need analysis and lay down course

objectives is handled by the learners. That is the course objectives that have been laid down are

appropriate for learner.

Figure 2. Screenshot for start page

The curriculum design of the course conduced in Mashup is as follows:

Need analysis: West argues that an essential feature of a good needs analysis is that it takes

into account the preferences of the learners in terms of both what to learn and styles of learning (1997)

[11]. So in this level the learner complete a form which is similar to a questionnaire, in addition they

should study and fill it in carefully. It is designed on the basis of learners need of the course, level,and objectives they assume to be able to carry out as the resu lt of training. For example to be able towrite effective business report. By completing the form in fact the objective of the course isdetermined too.

Fetching links: Unlike other methods, the information analysis and interpretation for designing

and determining appropriate activities will be managed by the software. The information that is gainedduring need analysis is employed to Mashup. Having completed the form the learner click the invoke

bottom (Figure 2). The invoke bottom make Mashup to surf the Internet, in other words fetch the

online services and activities related to online EBP services and websites. Information provided by the

student in the previous step is the only factor taken into account by Mashup to fetch the Web services

that include text-based or html-formatted documents, or online activities. This means that, the outlined

activities are best matched to learners level, course objectives, and above all learners specific needs.

Activities and links will be appeared in the fetching List (Figure 3).Selecting Activities: We can relate this step to the complete involvement of the student for two

reasons: first, they identify and select activities from fetching list. Most of the students in this step

need activities to improve their language skills. On the other hand, Since the selection of activities is

carried on according to the needs of a particular student, the fetching list provide a short snippetsabove each link and activities to show a coherence between the needs of students and the curriculum

structure. Reading that short snippet ensure that the course provides adequate and appropriate coverage

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of activities to achieve their end. Second, users of EBP course identify their own pace of learning.

Having read the snippets, learner confirms it or click on next button to see the following URL. There is

a timetable button on the right side of fetching list that business user can establish an order for thecourse based on confirmed services and a schedule to practice the activities.

Evaluation and assessment: A formative evaluation takes place during the lifetime of the

course [2]. A mini-evaluation undertake in the middle of course and the final evaluation at the end of

the course. The advantage is that if the mini-evaluation doesnt show positive achievements within theparticular activity in fetching list, the student can select another. The evaluation button is located in

timetable windows which enable students to avoid less successful aspects in course.

Figure 3. Screenshot for Mashup s fetching list2.3 The studyIn this section we just try to testify the course in relation to individual users. Participants in

this study were ten job-experienced Iranian students. All 10 participants took part in the study

voluntarily. Some of them were students in an English Language Learning Centre. Four of participants

were computer engineers, one bank teller, and five accountants. A checklist proposed by Clarice S.C.

Chan [10] was applied for evaluating Mashup functions on the basis of EBP pedagogical consideration

to illustrate the value of Mashup component according to the requirement form. Each of the

participants completed the need analysis form then clicked on the invoke button. Considering the

fetching lists, general observations include the following:

The majority of services were suitable for job-experienced learners. Most of the materials closely fit learners needs that were highly motivating. Access to authentic material was easier for the learners for example in the case of the need

to negotiate in stock market some financial news headline from Yahoo! was fetched.

It provides wide choices over activities and services in relationship to learnersprofessional practice.

It establishes multidisciplinary URL. For example some new models of trades andelectronic commerce that enhance competitiveness of Business English learners were

presented in fetching list.

According to these finding we realize that Mashup in online EBP courses is easy enough for a

real course implementation. It promotes online learning and creates a supportive environment for EBP

learners.

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IV. CONCLUSIONSConsidering the recent movement toward online web-based l Business English courses and the

development of international contact, Users of EBP courses need to use English so that they can

achieve more in their job and in e-commerce. In this study, we tried to propose a workable web-based

training based on Mashup that allows self-directed, self-paced learning in any topic related to BusinessEnglish. Each step of designing has focused on meeting the needs of the user. The basic innovation in

this paper is applying Mashup for designing Business English web-based training that dynamically

adapt to the user needs. The course is not restricted to a specific service but, it can benefit from various

online services or authentic activities available in search engines to enable the users to communicate

effectively in their job. The issue based on Mashup is still open to discussion, especially in expanding

courses for pre-experienced users or the number of participants to run the course for.

Acknowledgements

The first author would like to thank her devoted husband for his comments on this study. Theauthors wish to acknowledge Dr.Farzad Salahshoor for motivating his students towards innovations

and researches on online EBP courses.

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