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Tailoring Business ESL Classes to Suit Student Needs
Fred Burton Setzler, Khon Kaen University Language Institute (KKULI), Thailand
Abstract
When planning Business English curriculum, tailoring the content to suit the needs of a
particular class can be tricky. During 2010-2011, three groups of Business English students
were taught by KKULI. Group A consisted of employees of a Japanese-owned corporation,
whose purpose was to use English as a business language interface for communicating with
corporate officers and visitors. Secondly, Group B consisted of 50 employees from a Khon
Kaen corporation who daily interacted with native English speakers to meet their common
work goals. Finally, Group C consisted of KKU students whose main goal was to gain skills
to prepare them for their future careers. Each of the three syllabi consisted of activities to
enhance English skills and to prepare the students to speak in real-life situations. By
examining these groups, this study explores ways to tailor the curriculum to ensure success.
Keywords: student needs, Business English, career preparation, real-life situations
Introduction
In this age of globalization, the English language has become the world’s lingua franca for
International Communication, and each year 50% of the world’s academic papers are
published in English (Viola, 2010). In today's economy, companies are finding that their
primary source of competitive advantage lies in the knowledge they possess, so they are
investing more and more on training their staffs (Deambrosis, 2009). Given these
circumstances, there is an increasingly important role that English for Specific Purposes
(ESP) or Business English plays and will play in the future of non-native speakers around the
world.
As ESL educators, how can we tailor our lessons to best meet the needs of the student
populations that we are seeking to reach? How can we determine if we have been successful
in helping reach the needs of our students? To optimize learning, a teacher should have
opportunities to meet his/her students and to speak with them face to face before beginning
the class series.
Certainly, a pre-course interview would greatly assist in evaluating the student’s needs, but in
the researcher’s experience chances for having these opportunities are rare. Instead, the needs
for each of the three groups examined in this study were presented as a list of topics that
needed to be covered and a set of skills that needed to be presented and practiced. According
to Richterich and Chanceril (1978) learners, teachers, and employers should all be involved
in determining the needs of the learners. However, the groups examined in this study did not
have the opportunity to meet the teacher before classes began. For Groups A & B, the
learning needs were determined by members of the company’s management team, whereas
Group C determined their own learning needs.
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Of the groups of students examined, Groups A & B had already received their educations and
were employed within companies. Group C was comprised of Khon Kaen University students
without any previous work-related experience. Regarding the abilities of the three groups,
the abilities in Group A ranged from Beginning to Intermediate learners, while Group B
learners ranged from Advanced Beginners to Upper Intermediate learners. Group C learners
ranged from Advanced Beginners to Intermediate Learners (See Table 1).
Table 1. A description of the 3 groups, the individuals who determined the needs for the
students, and a detailed overview of the needs analysis for each of the groups.
GROUP
Group A
Student number:
7 Thai Students
(with no attrition)
Jobs: Secretaries,
Technicians, and
Marketing Reps
Determiner of Needs for
Overview
Business English Students
of Needs
The Manager of the Employees Students needed to be able to…
1. understand basic grammar and
pronunciation skills.
2. understand and assimilate basic
Business English Vocabulary.
3. greet customers & guests and make
introductions.
English abilities:
4. make requests and give permission.
Mixed - ranging from
Beginning to
Intermediate learners
5. thank people and give apologies.
Company Profile:
a small Japaneseowned corporation in
Khon Kaen
Purpose for Using
English:
To use English as a
business language
interface for
communicating with
the Japanese corporate
officers and visitors in
6. ask for and give personal
information.
7. give and receive directions and
instructions.
8. describe people and things.
9. carry on “small talk” and “business
chat” with foreigners.
10. learn and use proper etiquette
regarding answering the phone and
taking messages.
11. understand idioms that are
relevant to Business English.
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business and social
settings.
Assessment:
In-class Feedback
plus Formal Testing
Group B
Student number:
50 Thai Students
(divided into 2 groups
with an attrition rate of
50% by the end of the
course)
Jobs: Engineers,
Safety Officers, and
Human Resource
Officers
English abilities:
Mixed - ranging from
Advanced Beginners
to Upper Intermediate
learners
Company Profile:
a large corporation
north of Khon Kaen
that hires native
English speakers and
uses English in its
communications
Purpose for Using
English:
To use English as a
business language
interface for
communicating with
the native English
The company’s
Human Resources Department
Students needed to be able to…
1. carry on “small talk” and
“business chat” with foreigners.
2. give and receive directions and
instructions.
3. carry on conversations about
current events and social,
economic, health, and political
topics.
4.
learn and use proper etiquette
regarding using the phone and
taking messages.
5. describe situations, give reasons,
and negotiate.
6. understand basic grammar: parts
of speech, clauses, and noun
phrases, etc.
7. write proper paragraphs with main
ideas, strong topic sentences, and
conclusions.
8. understand the differences
between formal and informal
writing styles.
9. organize, properly introduce, and
deliver a presentation for a
particular target audience.
10. learn the skills to give effective
presentations by preparing visual
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speakers in their daily
work environment
aids, charts, and graphs.
11. get the audience involved and
keep them interested.
Assessment:
In-class Feedback
(No Formal Testing)
Group C
Student number:
12. make conclusions and summarize
a presentation.
The students of
The International Club
set their own needs.
Students needed to be able to…
1. organize a presentation.
15 Thai KKU
Students
(with an attrition rate
of 40% by the end of
the course)
2. learn the skills to give effective
presentations.
English abilities:
4. correctly complete the
presentation and deal with questions.
Mixed - ranging from
Advanced Beginner to
Intermediate learners
Group Profile:
Members of The
International Club of
the Faculty of Public
Health at KKU
3. choose the precise vocabulary
needed for their presentations.
5. use visual aids correctly.
6. properly use body language in
presentations.
7. write a cover letter and a resume.
8. prepare for future job interviews.
9. participate in ‘mock interviews” to
prepare them for real-life job interviews.
Purpose for Using
English:
To use English to
prepare them for their
future careers.
Assessment:
In-class Feedback
(No Formal Testing)
Objectives
The objective of this study is to measure the degree of success in the planning and execution
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of Business English curricula based upon the responses of groups of students, who were
taught material from the same text book, but for whom the supplemental material varied
according to the specific needs of the groups. The quantitative measurements based upon
self-administered questionnaires were designed to examine the following seven areas: 1)
content of the book and the materials, 2) the overall level of English, 3) the listening
activities, 4) the speaking activities, 5) the reading activities, 6) the writing activities, and 7)
the games.
Methodology
Data Collection
The compiled data was taken from the students on the last day of classes. The instrument for
data collection was a self-administered questionnaire. The instructor was not present in the
room during data collection for the following reasons: 1) so that students could discuss the
information that was being asked in their mother tongue and 2) in order that the teacher’s
presence would not influence the data.
The questionnaire focused upon two main areas: 1) the students’ degree of satisfaction with
the teacher’s performance and 2) the students’ attitudes toward the material that had been
taught. For the purposes of this study, the data presented herein is focused upon the students’
attitudes toward the material.
The second portion of the questionnaire was focused upon the following: 1) the content of the
book and materials, 2) the overall level of English, 3) the listening activities, 4) the speaking
activities, 5) the reading activities, 6) the writing activities, and 7) the games. Regarding Item
1, the content of the book, the choices ranged from “Very Boring”, “Boring”, “OK”, “Quite
Interesting”, “Very Interesting”, to “No Response”. Items 2-7 of the questionnaire were rated
regarding the degree of difficulty according to the following scale: “Much too difficult”, “A
little difficult”, “About right”, “A little easy”, “Much too easy”, and “No Response”.
Data Analysis
The raw data in the form of the answers to the questionnaires was examined based upon the
percentages of students who checked each box and also for those who provided no response.
Percentages were then calculated for each of the answers on the survey. Then the data from
the two groups was compared for each of the seven items.
Limitations of the Study
For the purposes of this study, the data from the corporation with 7 employees (Group A) has
been compared with the 9 KKU students (Group C) for the following reasons:
1. The number of respondents is similar.
2. The syllabi are similar, but vary in content and approach.
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3. The student populations differ in that Group A students already hold jobs and Group
C students are undergraduates.
Results
In regard to the content of the book and the materials that were used, all 100% of Group A
gave an “OK” rating. However, 78.8% of the members of Group C found the book and
materials to be “Quite interesting” while 21.2% found them to be “OK” (See Table 2).
Table 2. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the content of the
book and the materials.
Group
Boring
Group A
Very
Boring
-
Group C
-
-
-
OK
100%
21.2%
Quite
Interesting
-
Very
Interesting
-
No
Response
-
78.8%
-
-
When asked about the overall level of English that had been taught, 71.43% of Group A
found the level to be “A little difficult” as compared 44.45% of Group C. However, 28.57%
of the members of Group A found the overall level to be “About right” as compared to
22.22% of the members of Group C. No members of Group A found the level to be “A little
easy”; however 33.33% of Group C found it so (See Table 3).
Table 3. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the difficulty of the
overall level of English used.
Group
Much
too
difficult
Group A
-
Group C
-
A little
difficult
71.43%
44.45%
About
right
28.57%
22.22%
A little
easy
Much too
easy
No
Response
-
-
-
33.33%
-
-
When asked about the listening activities, 14.29% of Group A found the listening activities to
be “Much too difficult” as compared 44.45% of the members of Group C. The members of
Group A (57.14%) found the listening activities to be “A little difficult” as compared to
33.33% of Group C members. No members of Group C found the level to be “About right”
(satisfactory), however 28.57% of Group A found it so. Regarding the categories of “A little
easy” and “Much too easy” no members of Group A responded, while 11.11% of Group C
responded to each of the two aforementioned categories (See Table 4.).
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Table 4. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the difficulty of
listening activities.
Group
Much
too
difficult
A little
difficult
About
right
A little
easy
Much too
easy
No
Response
Group A
14.29%
57.14%
28.57%
-
-
-
Group C
44.45% 33.33%
-
11.11%
11.11%
-
Group A members (14.29%) found the speaking activities to be “Much too difficult”;
however none of the members of Group C responded so. As compared to the 42.85% of
Group A members, only 11.11% of Group C found the speaking activities “A little difficult”.
Regarding a satisfactory level (“About right”) for speaking activities, 28.57% of Group A and
11.11% of Group C responded. When asked if the activities were “A little easy”, 14.29% of
Group A responded, and 44.45% of Group C agreed. No members of Group A found
speaking activities to be “Much too easy”, but 33.33% of Group C did (See Table 5).
Table 5. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the difficulty of
speaking activities.
Group
Much
too
difficult
A little
difficult
About
right
A little
easy
Much too
easy
No
Response
Group A
14.29%
42.85%
28.57%
14.29%
-
-
Group C
-
11.11%
11.11%
44.45%
33.33%
-
No members of Group C found the reading activities to be “A little difficult”, but 14.29% of
the members of Group A did. Of the members of Group A, 57.14% found the reading
activities “About right” as compared to 55.5% of the members of Group C. Finally, 28.57%
of Group A and 45.5 % of Group C found the reading activities “A little easy” (See Table 6).
Table 6. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the difficulty of
reading activities.
Group
Much
too
difficult
Group A
-
Group C
-
A little
difficult
14.29%
-
About
right
A little
easy
Much too
easy
No
Response
57.14%
28.57%
-
-
55.5%
45.5%
-
-
Regarding writing activities, 42.855% of Group A found them “A little difficult” as
compared to 11.11% of Group C. Group A members (42.855%) and Group C members
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(44.45%) were satisfied (“About right”). Those students who felt the writing exercises were
“A little easy” numbered 14.29% in Group A and 33.33% in Group C. Of the members of
Group C, 11.11 % felt the writing activities were “Much too easy”, whereas no one in Group
A responded similarly (See Table 7).
Table 7. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the difficulty of
writing activities.
Group
Much
too
difficult
A little
difficult
About
right
Group A
-
42.855%
42.855%
Group C
-
11.11%
44.45%
A little
easy
Much too
easy
No
Response
14.29%
-
-
33.33%
11.11%
On the subject of games, 14.29% of Group A found them “A little difficult”, while no
members of Group C did. Regarding a response of “About right”, 42.855% of Group A
responded and 55.55% of Group C agreed. Group A members (42.855%) found the games
“A little easy” while 44.45% of Group C found the same. One member of Group C gave “No
response” (See Table 8).
Table 8. A quantitative comparison of the students’ opinions regarding the difficulty of
games.
Group
Much
too
difficult
Group A
-
Group C
-
A little
difficult
14.29%
-
About
right
A little
easy
Much too
easy
No
Response
42.855%
42.855%
-
-
55.55%
44.45%
-
11.11%
Table 9. A brief overview comparing the activities done with each of the groups.
Book &
Class Audio
Listening
(Audio & Video)
Group A
“English for Business
Communication” by Simon
Sweeney (Cambridge University
Press)
BBC Video Series: “Starting
Business English”
Listening situations regarding…
1) Welcoming visitors
2) Keeping conversations
going
3) Identifying why an
Group C
“English for Business
Communication” by Simon
Sweeney (Cambridge University
Press)
Business Videos on the following
topics:
1) Dressing for Success
2) Proper Interviewing
Skills
3) Writing CV’s and
Resumes
4) Classic Job Interview
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invitation was rejected
4) Identifying a caller’s
objectives
5) Asking for and receiving
repetition of information
Questions
Listening situations regarding…
1) The aspects of formal
presentations in the
following parts of oral
presentations:
a. The Introduction
b. The Main Body
c. The Conclusion
2) Sequencing
3) Summarizing &
Concluding
4) Dealing with questions
Speaking situations regarding…
1) Students giving formal
introductions about
themselves
2) Explaining a graph and
how the data can be used
in a presentation
3) Determining the types of
presentations that are best
suited to conclude with a
discussion or a question
4) Describing trends
5) Practicing and delivering
the following parts of an
oral presentation:
d. The Introduction
e. The Main Body
f. The Conclusion
Speaking
Speaking situations regarding…
1) Welcoming customers &
visitors
2) Making office “small talk”
3) Asking for and giving help
4) Cross-cultural
understanding of business
habits
5) Inviting people for social
occasions
6) Accepting and declining
invitations
Reading
Reading activities regarding…
Reading activities regarding…
1) Building customer
1) Overcoming the fear of
relationships
Public Speaking
2) E-mails
2) Problems about using
3) The impact of culture on
visual aids in
global business
presentations
4) The cultural significance of
3) Clear objectives, plans,
making eye contact
and signals in
presentations
4) Dealing with silence at
the end of a presentation
5) How a CV differs from a
Resume
Writing
Writing activities regarding…
Writing activities regarding…
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Games
1) Completing a conversation
to assist in keeping a
conversation going
2) Solving problems about
telephoning across the
cultural divide
3) Replying to an e-mail
1) Composing a formal
introduction about
yourself
2) Identifying tools
necessary to present
visual information
3) Identifying problems in
presentations based upon
pictures
4) Composing cover letters
5) Writing CV’s and
Resumes
A board game using dice
developed to reinforce the
following areas of target language:
1) Expressing preference
2) Ordering
3) Asking for the bill
4) Inviting
5) Commenting on the food
6) Offering to pay, etc.
“Mock Interviews”- a format in
which students use the target
language learned from authentic
materials the videos and reading
and writing activities to simulate
the process of conducting and
participating in the “real-life”
process of interviewing for a job.
Discussion
One of the significant ways that teaching English for Specific Purposes (ESP) differs from
teaching other forms of English is that the students are most often preparing to perform a role
or to function convincingly in a specific job function (Richards, 2001). However, there is a
further delineation which is whether or not the students already have already gained
workplace experience in their chosen field.
From the perspective of language practitioners, Business English learners fall into two
categories: job-experienced language learners and pre-experienced language learners (Ellis
and Johnson, 2000). Determining into which of these two categories students fall is a key
factor in determining the needs and developing the appropriate curriculum for ESP classes.
This is true because students who are working already have a command of workplace
vocabulary, even though that vocabulary is most likely not in the target language of English.
Additionally, Business English students who hold jobs have a bank of general knowledge
gained from operating within the context of having an occupation that university students
have not yet acquired.
Regarding the needs of the students examined in this study, the needs for Group A were
established by corporate management. In the case of Group C, the students determined the
skill sets they wished to learn (See Table 1). In addition, all of these classes were populated
with students of mixed levels or “mixed abilities”. In these two classes students with greater
English skills were encouraged to partner with those individuals who needed assistance for
533
one very obvious reason: in both groups the individual class members were already
acquainted with one another as co-workers or as classmates. Therefore, this approach seemed
the most natural and kept the students engaged.
Adikari (2012) stated that the students can help the teacher apply different student-centered
methods inside the same classroom. As a result, students don’t need to depend only on the
teacher for learning. In Group A, a large degree of peer assistance was given and a majority
of communication took place in Thai, whereas in Group C far less Thai was spoken.
As shown in Table 9, the book, the supplemental materials, and activities were centered upon
specific themes according to the needs of the two groups. Teaching in this fashion creates a
sense of continuity and focus. According to the English Club website (2012), keeping all
students working on activities and lessons based upon the same theme is a great way to help
maintain a class-like atmosphere in a multi-level classroom.
This study was conducted based upon the responses of two very different groups. Group A
were employees holding various positions, and Group C were KKU students without any job
experience (See Table 1). The research tool was designed to measure the level of satisfaction
with the book and materials and the degree of difficulty that students experienced based upon
the curriculum in the following areas: 1) the overall level of English, 2) the listening
activities, 3) the speaking activities, 4) the reading activities, 5) the writing activities, and 6)
the games. Let it be said that all data falling in the range of “A little difficult”-“About right”“A little easy” has for the purposes of this research been deemed as an “acceptable level of
difficulty”.
Regarding the book and materials, both Groups A & C were satisfied with them. However,
over three quarters of Group C (the KKU students) found them “Quite Interesting”. (See
Table 2) Given that the video materials chosen for the students of Group C covered a wide
variety of topics related to career preparation, it can be deemed that the students found them
quite interesting because they had received little previous exposure to these topics. The video
material chosen for Group A, “Starting Business English”, is approached from a more
traditional standpoint (See Table 9). In comparison to the video materials chosen for Group
C, the BBC video was certainly more formal and less interesting. Therefore, this could
account for the fact that all members of Group A rated the book and materials as just “OK”,
as compared to 78.8% of Group C who found the book and materials “Quite Interesting”.
When the students were asked about the difficulty of the overall level of English used, all
answers fell within the acceptable range, but it is worth noting that one-third of Group C
found the level “A bit easy”. This figure is believed to be indicative of a class comprised of
students with mixed levels of ability (See Table 3).
Regarding the difficulty of the listening activities, the majority of Group A (57.14%) found
the listening activities “A little difficult” as compared to the majority of Group C (44.45%)
who found them “Much too difficult” (See Table 4). The types of listening exercises varied
for each group as shown in Table 9, however, for both groups the vocabulary was very
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specific for the language being learned and students were introduced to many unfamiliar
words during each lesson.
When examining the data relating to the difficulty of the speaking exercises, it was widely
distributed with the majority of Group A (42.85%) finding them “A little difficult” and the
majority of Group C (44.45%) finding them “A little easy”. One third of Group C found
them “Much too easy” (See Table 5). Additionally, in regard to the difficulty of the reading
activities, data for both Groups A & C fell within the acceptable range of difficulty for this
study with over 55% of both groups finding the activities “About right” (See Table 6).
There was a wider range of answers regarding the difficulty of the writing activities for
Group C (See Table 7). Slightly over 11% of Group C students found them to be “A little
difficult”, while the same percentage found them to be “Much too easy”. Equal percentages
(42.85%) of Group A found the material to be “A little difficult” and “About right” (See
Table 7). This difference stems from the separate types of writing materials used (See Table
9) as well as differences in the abilities of the learners.
According to Sampath and Zalipour (2009), selecting any authentic materials and adapting
and tailoring them in order to make various teaching materials is the best method that can be
easily done to suit the pre-experienced learners of Business English. Following this method,
two different types of “games” were developed for the two groups. First, a board game based
upon the target language of socializing in a business context (i.e. expressing preferences,
ordering food, inviting, commenting on the food, etc.) was created to reinforce the language
for Group A based upon an exercise from the text book (page 19) which served as the
authentic material.
Secondly, over the course of several lessons students of Group C learned the target language
of common interview questions, answers, and proper interviewing techniques via authentic
materials which included videos, reading, and writing exercises. For this “game” students
were placed in pairs to practice “mock interviews” in order to gain experience in face to face
communication in real-life job situations. Regarding the difficulty of the games, the data for
both Groups A & C fell into the range of an “acceptable level of difficulty” with one member
of Group C offering “No response” (See Table 8).
Conclusions
Regarding the book and the materials used, it can be concluded that they were appropriate for
each of the two classes surveyed because their answers fell within the categories of “OK” or
“Quite Interesting”. Therefore, it can be stated that both groups of students were engaged
with the book and the materials. When authentic materials were adapted, tailored, and utilized
in the classrooms, students of both groups were able to gain real-life speaking experience.
As previously stated, the acceptable range of difficulty has been determined as: “A little
difficult”-“About right”-“A little easy”. Of the remaining six categories surveyed, the results
for both Groups A & C fell within an acceptable range for three of them (Overall level of
English, Reading activities, and Games). Therefore, it can be concluded that in three of the
535
six categories surveyed (50%) the level of difficulty fell within the acceptable range in which
students were challenged, but not overwhelmed by the difficulty of the materials.
The remaining three categories of listening, speaking, and writing showed a wider range of
answers. A broad range of answers came from Group C (KKU Students) in the listening,
speaking, and writing activities and showed percentages in the category of “Much too easy”.
It can be concluded that this factor is indicative of the dynamic of the “mixed abilities” of the
students. Additionally, given that 14.29% of Group A and 44.45% of Group C stated that the
listening activities were “Much too difficult”, it can be concluded that the contexts and
vocabulary were unfamiliar to both groups of students. Upon reflection, if the syllabus had
contained fewer listening activities, the researcher believes it would have better served the
students.
Additionally, a more comprehensive approach geared toward pre-teaching more target
vocabulary prior to beginning the exercises and focusing on recycling vocabulary throughout
the courses would have also benefitted students. Harmon and Wood (2008) stated that
learning new words is a cumulative task that takes place gradually over time because we
learn words in incremental fashion by internalizing new understandings in each subsequent
encounter with the words. The meanings become deeper as we are exposed to the words
multiple times in different contexts and as we actively use the words in reading, writing,
speaking, and listening.
In summation, this research has designated that when teaching students English for Specific
Purposes, there are 5 key areas that are vital to the learning success of both job-experienced
language learners and pre-experienced language learners.
1) An accurate needs analysis with contributions from learners, teachers, and
employers needs to be completed.
2) Text books and materials should target the learners’ specific needs as well as be
interesting and engaging.
3) Strategies should be implemented to deal with teaching learners with “mixed
abilities”.
4) Authentic materials should be tailored to suit the students’ abilities and their needs.
5) Methods of introducing, teaching, and recycling essential Business English
vocabulary should be implemented throughout the class.
On a further note, in classrooms with students of “mixed abilities”, active students are always
active whereas passive students remain passive if the teacher doesn’t pay attention to them
equally (Adikari, 2012). Developing a rapport with students should become a top priority
because rapport develops a classroom dynamic in which the students are given the personal
attention they need. Finally, let it be said that there is no substitute for teacher reflection both
inside and outside of the classroom. By reflecting “in the moment” and adapting the lesson
in the classroom as needed, the teacher can greatly assist in guiding students toward language
success.
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