Forging a link between research and pedagogy:

A holistic framework for evaluating business English materials

Clarice S.C. Chan

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

‘‘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

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.

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

‘‘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

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

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

Thank you