This collection bridges the gap between research and practical applications by showcasing the latest research developments on business English as a lingua franca and the ways in which they might better inform language teaching practice.
Featuring contributions from both established and emerging researchers in the field, this book brings together research findings on business and workplace English pedagogy with a focus on addressing issues and challenges around spoken communicative needs in the workplace. The volume explores spoken communication in the business context across a diverse range of settings and media, including oral presentations, small talk, meetings, business negotiations, and interviews. Taken together, the book offers an up-to-date synthesis of research on key topics at the intersection of spoken workplace communication and language teaching toward facilitating more engaged, empirically grounded business English as a lingua franca teaching.
This book will be of particular interest for students and scholars in business communication, workplace communication, and English for specific purposes.
Mable Chan (PhD, Language and Linguistics, University of Essex, UK) is currently Associate Head at the Language Centre, Hong Kong Baptist University. Her main research interests include second language acquisition at the interface with language education and professional/workplace communication. She has published widely in these areas and secured key external grants from the University Grants Committee (GRF) and the Standing Committee of Language Education and Research (SCOLAR).
This excellent volume is essential reading for anyone wanting an up to date understanding of the teaching of English for business. The research includes in-depth exploration of authentic texts with exploration of genre, based on data from the workplace in a range of contexts, including emerging areas like online discourse. The focus is on teaching workplace communication with emphasis on communicative and interactional competence. By interrogating the language of business in classrooms, in text, in teaching materials and in the workplace itself, this volume is comprehensive in its approach to bridging theory and practice.
- Professor Melinda Whong, Associate Professor and Director, Centre fore Language Education, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology