Matters of Curriculum/Programme Design for Business English

Paper published in Business English Special Interest Group (BESIG), Autumn 2007, Issue 67 pages 20-22. International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL).
 
INTRODUCTION
 

Designing curricula for a German Fachhochschule, Chamberlin (1997) reviewed various studies made of industry's expectations of graduates English language abilities and though the difference between perceived and actual need is not always clear the information he found proved helpful in curriculum design.

1. Situations in the workplace in which speaking and listening skills are needed outnumber those in which reading and writing skills are necessary by a ratio of 60:40.
2. Importance of writing skills, emphasis on commercial correspondence.
3. Managers expect graduates to have a command of the English terms current in their area of specialisation in connection with their reading skills.

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