Business Foundations

Piggybacking on cafank's post, I've learned I'll be teaching "Business Foundations" next semester. Never taught this before, there is no module descriptor, no syllabus and I won't have access to the NEW text book until I return three days before the first lecture.  Other than that I'm all set.

Do I bluff my way through or pull an "enjoi" and abruptly leave after handing over my passport?

Might they be meaning something similar to Business Studies?

I think business studies, as in the academic subject normally taught at AP high school level or freshman university level, might haz a bright future in China.

A quick internet surf shows that you're probably quite right.  The names or so generic that a person could teach almost anything. But, that's actually my concern. How do you make such a generalized course useful to freshmen?

A quick internet surf shows that you're probably quite right.  The names or so generic that a person could teach almost anything. But, that's actually my concern. How do you make such a generalized course useful to freshmen?

I don't know yet. I know Business Studies is a thing in China. It's one of those prep courses you can find companies like Kaplan teaching. High school students do a special year in China as preparation for university in foreign. It seems to me that if there's a course suitable for high school students who can go abroad, then that course can be taught to freshmen who are good enough to stay behind.

That's my rough plan for how to not teach English. I have purchased some A/AS Level textbooks to eventually make the dream come true.

I was just going to post that one place I worked at pretty much just used used A-Level Business Studies and Economics textbooks for their foundation year programmes in those subjects, so that might be a good place to start. 

I also noticed that some of the better students were using the GSCE (level below A-Levels) textbooks to supplement the course, help them understand, and reinforce core concepts.

I see that M.I.T., Harvard and other big time universities are offering their course material online for free.  A quick scan looks like there may be a little gold in them thar hills.

How do you make such a generalized course useful to freshmen?

A question each of us has had to ask him/herself at one time or another.

Business studies has to be a growth industry in the post-digital age. How else can a person who has never opened a book in his/her life earn an advanced degree?

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How do you make such a generalized course useful to freshmen?

Business studies has to be a growth industry in the post-digital age. How else can a person who has never opened a book in his/her life earn an advanced degree?

By paying tuition at my university.

I've asked my FAO what they expect from my Business English teaching and he said he doesn't know. No text book as yet either so I may have a lot of prep to do. 

I've gathered a few books (and lugged them over with me) and done a bit of on-line research and I figure I'll just be teaching basic English as used in the business world. There are a couple of sites for business English students so no doubt I will use them a bit too.

I also have a business in the US and Aus so will be able to draw a bit from my own experiences.....

Anyway I'm here now and visiting friends before I get to the school next week, so no more thinking about business until next Wednesday.

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That's my rough plan for how to not teach English. I have purchased some A/AS Level textbooks to eventually make the dream come true.

In these business English courses, that is an eye-opening question, whether to teach English or not. It had not occurred to me to think of it in that way, but it's a fundamental question. Most foreign teachers at Chinese universities must be in roughly the same boat, as far as these courses are concerned. At my school, we completely wing it. In student surveys, they tell me it is the English they want to learn. Of course, they're going to improve their English in any course taught in English, as long as they stay awake.

There's pretty much zero percent chance of teaching no English at all, but it doesn't really make sense to think of Business English as existing at some level lower then intermediate. If I were a better English teacher I'd know why, but I'll just guess and say below intermediate, "Business English" can't be much more than specialist vocab. Above intermediate, you can be developing and practicing increasingly sophisticated functions that are also more specialised, which is actually a serious language teacher's special skill, and not something I know much about.

Intermediate is where most people stop learning any language though so.... I dunno.

If it's the same as a "Foundation Program" (a one-year preparation to send the kiddies to a uni in the UK, and maybe other locations) expect a general cluster flux. To the extent that you are able to organize anything, that may be how organized it is.  Several years ago I was handed a work assignment to teach one of those courses.  My class was supposed to be about the IELTS exam, I found out in about week 12(!) There was one other foreign teacher who was light on grammar and pronunciation but at least had some English-only excursions to run errands, etc.  I'm not sure what the Chinese teachers taught. In the end, it didn't really matter as the UK school was happy to provide remedial English as an expensive prerequisite for low IELTS achievers, at a higher tuition fee, of course.  By now, that Chinese uni presumably has a better handle on the program, but maybe not.  The good part was the class was small, and of the four students, one of the girls could understand English (and didn't need the remedial classes- or very little). 

In fairness, that was my only experience with the one year program.  I've also taught in the "International Programs" where the students are in China for the first three years and then finish the degree in either the UK or Australia.  That's probably a more reasonable program, except for the "first three years in China" part.  I'd say in the International Program I've had some students who would do fine in my English major classes, but there are more at the lower end of the spectrum.  Better last year than previously, though, so perhaps my uni is screening out better.  (Both programs are at much higher tuition fees and open to students with low gao-kao or no gao-kao scores.)

The two main tests of English outside Universities and schools in China are called the "China Public English Testing System (CPETS)" and the "Business English Certificate" (BEC) which was repurposed for China in 1993 by UCLES and MoE'S Examinations authority the NEEA.

Take a look at the BEC in China if you want a picture of what constitutes an "official" understanding of business English.

For content courses, I would plump with previous suggestion for GCSE/AS Level/A Level Business Studies materials.  The the "International GCSE" (IGCSE) curriculum as well.