CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Research Orientation

With the development of technology and the globalization of economy, communication between  different  parts  of  the world  deepens,  among  which  a  substantial  part  is business communication. The increasingly changing world gives rise to new problems and prompts university education to make a change accordingly. One of the phenomena in the new round education reform is the development of interdisciplinary subjects, among which is BE, a subject established to smooth business communication between different countries. 

BE  derives  from  English  for  Specific  Purpose  in  Applied  Linguistics.  BE teaching  and  researching  are  highly emphasized  ever  since.  Along  with  the development  of the theory and practice of BE, it has become an interdisciplinary subject  with  its  subject  theory  being  based  on  Applied  Linguistics,  Language  for Specific  Purposes, Cross-cultural  Communication,  Discourse  Analysis  and  related business disciplines etc. (Wang, 2012). The history of BE teaching and researching in China started from the Foreign Trade English in University of International Business and Economics  and  has  been  lasting  for  more  than  sixty  years.  With  the  fast development  of  the  import  & export activities,  investment  abroad  and  foreign investment absorbing, the economic and social development in China demands more BE talents. In 2007, the Ministry of Education approved the establishment of BE as an undergraduate program.  In  2012  it  was  enlisted  in  Undergraduate  Program  Base Directory  and  in  2013,  there  are  216 Schools  and  Universities  who  have  set  BE undergraduate program (Wang, Ye, Yan, Peng, and Xu, 2015:297). BE differs from GE teaching in that it is an interdisciplinary subject which tries to integrate English ith Business to meet the modern cross-national business communication.

......................

1.2 Rationale

The highly complex issues imposed by the development of society and science which crossed the boundary of mono-discipline are in need of integration and association of multiple subjects. This has resulted in the emergence of interdisciplinary studies. The integration trend of the scientific development has been reflected in education, which no doubt  requires  a  comprehensive  revolution  and  stressing  the crossing  and penetration  between  disciplines  in order  to  adapt  to  the  new  social  and  scientific developing trend.

Because of the development of international business, the demand for BE talents increases  as well,  because of their sound English language foundation, systematic international BE knowledge and cross-cultural communication ability. Besides, with the process of globalization, BE has become a major international working language for global products, capital exchange and flow, international investment, international management  and  cross-cultural  communication.  In the  nowadays  international business world, the competition between different countries is increasingly pierced. To gain a competitive advantage in the international business world, high quality BE elites are necessary. Thus, carrying out BE teaching and researching is an objective requirement  for  accelerating  social  economic  development  and  prospering export-oriented enterprises. 

As a platform of talents cultivation, universities should provide related teaching programs  to  meet  the social  demands of specific talents  to  prosper economic and social  development.  And  as  the  main  carrier  of  knowledge, professional teaching materials play a vital part in school education. A comprehensive, carefully compiled BE textbook which follows cognitive rules and the features of BE and meets student’s learning needs is of indispensable significance in cultivating students’ language skill. “To a great extent, teaching materials determine the teaching output and effect. As a result research on textbook is an important breakthrough point in improving teaching quality” (Tang and Su, 2009:70).

........................

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 BE Writing Textbooks

Writing has a certain purpose. To reach this purpose requires relevant knowledge and skills.  BE  writing  is  the purposeful communication  in  the  business  context  and a communication event of which the process is to reach the target. Different targets will need different text forms and different styles. In the process of writing, not only the knowledge  of English  language,  but  also  the  business  knowledge  and  cultural knowledge will be involved. So to sum up, BE writing is a purposeful communication event and an effective means to make business and trading activities happen (Zhou, 2013:19). 

During the process of business globalization, China’s foreign trade has further developed  and  an  increasing  number  of Chinese enterprises  have  entered  the international market, which needs a batch of comprehensive and applied talents who are familiar with the international business practices and in the meantime proficient in English and good at communication. As a vital means to achieve effective business communication, writing plays an indispensable role in international trade. Excellent writing skill, which is one of the core language skills, serves as the lubricant removing the cultural barrier in international business communication. 

Different  from  the  general  English  writing  skill,  BE  writing  skill  is  a combination  of  the  knowledge  of  English language,  cross-cultural  knowledge, business knowledge, and the art of communication. Zhang Zuocheng (2010) defines BE writing as “the special English writing style or the creation of written business discourse  to  meet  the  needs  of business  communication  (such  as  international business,  international  finance,  international  trade  etc.),  involving language application, and interaction in the context of the industry and of the whole society”. In brief, BE writing is the creation of written business discourse in business context. China’s expanding foreign trade activities also expand the scope of BE writing. Li Taizhi and Wang Xuewen (2009) point out that BE skill involves not only linguistic factors  such  as BE  discourse  analysis  and  the  discourse  context,  but  also  the non-linguistic  factors  such  as  cross-cultural knowledge,  business  knowledge  etc. Therefore, BE students are supposed to master both the English language knowledge and pragmatic strategies on the one hand, and cross-cultural knowledge and business knowledge on the other hand. 

........................

2.2 Business Knowledge in BE Textbooks and Teaching Practice

The  most  important  characteristic  of  BE  is  that  it  is  language  teaching  with  a profession orientation, which should be reflected in its specialized teaching materials. Hughs  (1995:9)  thinks  that  "BE  differs  from  General  English  mostly in  teaching objective and teaching material."

There  are  scholars  paying  attention  to  business  knowledge  in  BE  teaching practice and teaching materials. 

Wang  Yanyan  (2015)  studied  the  relation  between  business  knowledge  and language knowledge in BE teaching taking the textbooks of Business English: An Integrated Course edited by Wang Lifei as an example, pointing out that the textbook is an balanced combination of business knowledge and language knowledge. Hu Anna (2010)  studied  business knowledge  in  BE  teaching  practice.  According  to  her, language is the carrier of business knowledge and the purpose to master English is to conduct  international  business  in  English  context.  She  fatherly  discussed  how  to enhance business knowledge teaching in BE teaching practice, namely establishing scientific knowledge learning system, carrying out independent business knowledge training program, reinforcing the cooperation between enterprises and universities and holding extracurricular business model activities to make sure students get enough business  practice.  Lei  Chunlin (2006),  Zhao  Yali(2007)  studied  the  relationship between CBI and BE teaching models, pointing out that BE should not be limited to certain  business  vocabulary  collection  or  business  communication  skills,  instead, business  content based  instruction  or  English-medium  business  studies  instruction should  be  more  emphasized.  Wang  Xiangmin and Miao  Yan  (2014)  studied  BE textbook  compilation  and  curriculum  design  under  CBI  theory,  holding  that theme-oriented teaching modes should be incorporated in English teaching. Jia Hong (2007)  studied  the  teaching  methods  as to  how  to  guide  students  to  business knowledge learning. Xu Jing and Shi  Lei (2009) studied the BE reading teaching based on business contents. 

......................

CHAPTER  THREE  THEORETICAL  FOUNDATIONS  AND  ANALIZING PROCEDURES.............. 27

3.1 Interdisciplinary Nature of BE .............. 27

3.2 National Criterion of Teaching Quality of BA Program in Business English of China ............... 30

CHAPTER FOUR RESEARCH METHOD ................. 36

4.1 Research Questions .......... 36

4.2 Data Collection ................ 36

CHAPTER FIVE RESULTS AND ANALYSIS .................. 63

5.1 Term Statistics ............ 63

5.2 Data Analysis ........... 64

CHAPTER SIX DISCUSSION

6.1 Teaching Practice of BE as An Interdisciplinary Subjec

BE as a specialized subject in English speaking countries has already become a mature one providing service for business students. Many universities and language schools has established BE and other English courses for other special uses as well as many international cooperation and training programs. The teaching the BE has a history of more than 50 years in our country. In the early 50s and 60s in the 19th century, BE initially developed as a training tool for personnel due to the lack of relevant trading talents. BE has gone through a long way from pure trade English to a more independent discipline with  comparatively  complete  theoretical  and  course  frameworks,  and contributed a lot of talents for national economic and social development.

With  the  development  of  technology  and  the  globalization  of  economy, communication  between  different  parts of  the  world  deepens,  among  which  a substantial part is business communication. The increasingly changing world gives rise to new problems and prompts university education to make a change accordingly. One of the phenomena in the new round education reform  is  the development of interdisciplinary  subjects,  among  which  is  BE,  a  subject established  to  smooth business communication among different countries.

.........................

CHAPTER SEVEN CONCLUSION

7.1 Summary of Major Findings

Though  BE  program  has  been  established  for  many  years,  there  are  problems remaining to be solved and controversies to be dealt with. At present, BE is generally acknowledged  as  an  interdisciplinary  subject  in  BE academic circles.  However, whether there are corresponding teaching practice and teaching materials living up to this young interdisciplinary subject is not discussed specifically among the academia. This thesis takes BE terminology as a breakthrough point to investigate and analyze the business knowledge involved in current BE writing teaching material to evaluate whether current BE writing textbooks can meet the requirements of interdisciplinary subject  education  and  the BE  talents  cultivation  criteria  made  by  Ministry  of Education and try to provide suggestions to BE teaching practice and BE writing textbook  compilation  and  selection  from  the  prospective  of  BE  interdisciplinary subject construction..

After thorough investigation of the data, there are 821 terms involved in the textbooks which appearing for 2899 times in total in the three textbooks and covering all the ten business disciplines. It can be observed that BE differs from GE mainly in that it involves broad business knowledge ranging from Management, Marketing to Human Resources Management and International Business Law. The vitality of BE lies  in  its  compatibility  in  nature,  as  is  stated  by  BE scholars.  BE  is  a  social communicative system for participants in business activities to achieve their business goals  by employing  proper  vocabulary,  grammar  and  pragmatic  strategies.  Its application will be affected by business common practices & procedures and social & cultural  elements.  Both  the  interdisciplinarity  of  BE  and  its  target  of cultivating interdisciplinary talents require BE teaching practice to combine language skills and business  knowledge effectively  and  organically  instead  of  simply  putting  some language and business courses together. In other words, BE graduates should have the ability to conduct business negotiation and communication in English language or cultural circumstance,  rather  than  receiving  simply  basic  general  language  skills training  and  complement  of  unsystematic business  knowledge  input.  This  kind  of effective  combination  should  be  embodied  by  daily  teaching  practice  to meet  the learning  need  of  BE  majors.  From  the  statistics,  it  can  be  found  that BE  writing textbooks under investigation has embodied the interdisciplinary nature of BE.

reference(omitted)