Application of Case-Task Based Approach in Business English Teaching—A Case Study of the Marketing Course in SEIB of GDUFS

Abstract

Business English Teaching aims at cultivating students' ability to analyze and solve problems, improving students' comprehensive language competence and honing their business practical skills. Adhering to the principle of learning by doing and learning by teaching others, Case-Task Based Approach emphasizes students' ability of language use in authentic situation as well as their competence of taking part in social practices, which, to a large extent, corresponds to the objectives of Business English Teaching. Based on a diachronic combing of research ideas of Case-Task Based Approach, this writing analyzes the marketing course offered in School of English for International Business of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies through Case-Task Based Approach, expounds the implementation process of this approach and investigates into its strengths and weaknesses. Finally this writing will have a tentative exploration on how to improve the approach in practice so as to enhance the understanding of its application in Business English Teaching.

Use of Task-Based Approach in Teaching Vocabulary to Business English Learners at University

“…We fully share the opinion that tasks based on life situations from the business environment help students to be more confident and prepared to starting a business (Grosse, 1988). The results of our study are consistent with those obtained by Guiyu and Yi (2017) and confirm that acquaintance with business environment and preparation for future job motivates students to analyse and solve problems, encourages them to acquire new knowledge and improve their skills (p. 28).…”

Integrating Content and Language in Business English Teaching in China: First Year Students’ Perceptions and Learning Experience

“…Recently, some researchers in the department, in line with developments in CLIL world-wide, have begun to focus more specifically on the learning outcomes, teaching approach, and students' perceptions while others are exploring the development of business English from a more theoretical perspective (Cai, Wang, & Yang, 2018;Dai & Cai, 2017;Ouyang, Zhu, & Liu, 2017;Zhu et al, 2016). A review of four recent papers aims to establish the teaching and research context of the School.…”

“…And this also raises questions about delaying content knowledge teaching for Business English majors-rather than offering such courses in their first year at university. Dai and Cai (2017) integrated the case study approach common in business courses with the task-based approach of English language teaching to focus students' attention on both language and content in an authentic classroom setting in a marketing course. The authors outline and illustrate a six-stage teaching and learning process: "(1) theoretical knowledge preparation (2) case preparation, (3) case analysis, (4) case presentation, (5) case summary, [and] (6) case report writing" (p. 25).…”

“…The CLIL task approach allows for increased motivational need in a real context, where using the language for a purpose (other than learning the language) can stimulate the ideal L2 self in a relevant and authentic context (Sylvén, 2017, p. 55). The case-task approach recommended by Dai and Cai (2017) seems to fit this priority.…”

“…The case-task study approach, as discussed in Dai and Cai (2017), illustrates how a case study business teaching approach, can be melded with a task-based language teaching approach. Surprisingly, Dai and Cai's paper makes little mention of key principles of task-based teaching, such as scaffolding, active learning and, integration of language skills, that should also be considered.…”