The Microscopic Study of Business English’s Curriculum Design
in Application-oriented Universities
Wu Zhengying
English Department, Anhui Sanlian College, Hefei, Anhui, China
Keywords: Application-oriented Universities, Curriculum Design, Language Module, Professional Module,
Comprehensive Training Module.
Abstract: The application-oriented university, a type of higher education, is adapt to social development and the most
promising and sensitive to reflect social improvement, and would be the main force of China's higher
education. Business English is an important major for adaptation to market variations. This article studies
the Business English’ s curriculum design in application-oriented universities from three aspects Language
Module, Professional Module and Comprehensive Training Module, trying to provide an beneficial
exploration of organic integration of “English” and “Business” for Business English in application-oriented
universities .
1 INTRODUCTION
In the 1970s, Halliday put forward Register Theory
(Halliday, 1985) in the Systemic Functional
Stylistics Mode to spotlight the languages’
adaptability to occasions. Register Theory refers to a
social and cultural group with a specific kind of
language, and the register variable tags mainly
display in vocabulary and grammar. Business culture
group is a large and increasingly booming social
group. It is said that almost 90% of 1.6 billion
people who use English as the first or second
language utilize business English every day (Liao
Ying, 2007 ). Business English, a special English for
business culture group, is distinct from English for
General Purpose on the aspects of aim, significance
and construction. Business activities include foreign
trade business negotiation, business and
investment attaction, economic and trade contracts,
foreign-related insurance, overseas investment and
international transport, etc., so business English is
connected with many interdisciplinary subjects such
as Marketing, Finance, Economics, Management,
Accountancy and Law.
Business English, belonging to English for
Specific Purpose, is a practical style and its content
and readers all have very strong pertinence as well as
specific communication environment, objects, and
subjects. All these specific social attributes
determine Business English’s unique styles and
expressions and the close connection between
“language” and “profession”.
2 CURRICULUM DESIGN MODE
OF BUSINESS ENGLISH IN
APPLICATION-ORIENTED
UNIVERSITIES
——LANGUAGE MODULE +
PROFESSIONAL MODULE +
COMPREHENSIVE TRAINING
MODULE
The teaching theory and practice research of
Business English in Chinese application-oriented
universities are both immature, and the mode of
“English” + “Business” needs to be improved in
depth and width. Chinese higher education divide
the ability to be cultivated for university students
into three levels: cognitive competence, practical
ability and emotional capability. Cognitive
competence is the essential and the basis of the other
two, and Business English cannot change this
traditional knowledge-based teaching mode totally.
However professional competence-based teaching
mode should be utilized in application-oriented
32
32
Zhengying W.
The Microscopic Study of Business Englishâ
˘
A
´
Zs Curriculum Design in Application-oriented Universities.
DOI: 10.5220/0006018600320035
In Proceedings of the Information Science and Management Engineering III (ISME 2015), pages 32-35
ISBN: 978-989-758-163-2
Copyright
c
 2015 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

universities.
Directed by the view of professional
competence-based curriculum, Business English
Major selects course contents and organizes courses
according to the ability and standard needed by all
kinds of revelent business industries. The contents
include theoretical and practical knowledge of
language discipline, professional operating process
knowledge and business professional knowledge.
The connotation and proportion of these three kinds
of knowledge form the distinction of curriculum
design mode of Business English in
research-oriented undergraduate unde universities,
application-oriented undergraduate universities and
higher vocational colleges. Application-oriented
undergraduate universities should emphasize the
theoretical and practical knowledge of language
discipline and business professional knowledge, and
stress more the related professional operating
process knowledge.
Nowadays the popular matured vocational
education modes in the world are the following:
German Dual System—— schools and enterprises
cooperate to cultivate; Canadian CBE Competency
Based Education ; British Sandwich Education
Mode; ILO’s MES Modules of Employable Skill
; KH(Wide basis, Live module) put forward by
Beijing ChaoYang district vocational education
center. In China, the popular Module Courses, a set
of learning mode constructed according to social
development, professional need and knowledge
training, is welcomed by different kinds of colleges
and universities with its characteristic openness,
specificity, incentive mechanism, practicability and
feasibility.
Professional ability of Business English in
application-oriented undergraduate universities
include English language proficiency; business
application ability; computer application ability;
office practice ability; professional comprehensive
ability. In order to acquire the above capabilities, we
research the curriculum design mode “Language
Module + Professional Module + Comprehensive
Training Module” in practice. Language Module
mainly includes the following courses:
Comprehensive English; Extensive Reading; Oral
Englishl; English Listening Comprehension
English audio-visual course Second Foreign
Language; Business English Writing; Translation
Skills Course; Business Interpretation; English
National Culture. Professional Module can be
divided into Professional Basic Module and
Specialized Module. Professional Basic Module
primarily includes the following courses: Business
English; Electronic Commerce; Business
Documents; Business Management. Specialized
Module chiefly include International Trade Affairs;
International Marketing The international financial
practice Human Resources International
Business Law.
To assure the effectiveness of Language
Module and Professional Module, we require
students to get the following certificates: 1)
Language aspects: TEM-4; CET 6. 2) In business
profession aspects, get one of the following
certificates: intermediate certificate of International
business English; PITMAN; IELTS5.5 certificate
for marketer or vouching clerk. 3) Computer aspects:
First-Level Certificate for National Computer and
one certificate of application software.
We can design courses of Comprehensive
Training Module with three sub-modules: Analog
Module, The Whole Week Training Module, and
The Internship Module. Analog Module includes
mainly the following courses: Simultaneous Typing;
Business Communication; Business Simulation. The
Whole Week Training Module primarily includes
Team Management Training; Business ICT
Training; Social Practice. The last sub-modules
refers to the two or three- week social practice in
holidays during the school days, and it totally can
earn 2 credits. The Internship Module mainly
includes business practice, graduation practice and
thesis. The whole Comprehensive Training Module
is consist of three training platforms: regular
classroom training platform, the school training
center platform, and off-campus practice base
platform. Regular classroom training platform is
in-class simulation practice through the facilities of
the classroom, seat mode selection and reform of
teaching method. The school training center platform
consists of some vivid business-office classrooms
such as Business Secretarial Training Room,
Simultaneous Typing Room, ICC (International
Convention Center), Press Conference Center and so
on, in which we take unique courses. While
off-campus practice base platform includes
enterprises, industry associations, study and
communication abroad, etc.. Certain number of such
platforms can give a powerful guarantee that
students get professional practice and rotating
internship really in society, factories and enterprises.
The above three modules complement and
promote each other. We carry out PEB teaching
mode in practical working, that is to say in our
teaching, we take “practice” as the center, “English”
as the principal line, and “business” as the setting.
Practice refers to social practice in English, business
The Microscopic Study of Business English's Curriculum Design in Application-oriented Universities
33
The Microscopic Study of Business Englishâ
˘
A
´
Zs Curriculum Design in Application-oriented Universities
33

communication practice and comprehensive practice
combining English and knowledge and skills of
Business. No matter it is the language English,
Business or other knowledge, it should centre on
application, presenting the application orientation.
Business English is English applied in business
environment, so it is “directed by linguistics theories
and practical linguistics theories, and it is a
comprehensive and interdisciplinary complex, am
important variety of English and an important branch
of ESP(English for specific purpose)” ( Sun
Xiangsheng, 2001 )The central ability cultivated by
Business English teaching in Application-oriented
Universities is students’ language application
ability in the business environment, therefore
knowledge and skills of English required are more
specified than other skills, and higher in rank than
the others. English is predominant and almost all
courses are in English. Throughout the four years,
the number of all kinds of English courses occupies
no less than 77%, credits and hours are no less than
90% of the totality, which embodies thoroughly the
principle that English is the principal line. “Taking
business as the setting” is the talent localization of
application-oriented universities. English, the
professional basic, is always acquired in the
background of “business”, and also we can say,
“business” knowledge and skills should blend in
“English learning”—— students study courses not
only in professional module, such as Business
English, but also language module, such as Oral
Englishl, English audio-visual course,
Comprehensive English to become application
talents with adequate English knowledge and
powerful Business practice ability.
3 THE CURRICULUM DESIGN
OF BUSINESS
INTERPRETATION UNDER
PEB MODE
Let’s take Business Interpretation as an example.
The practice of business interpretation is the logical
starting point of the course Business Interpretation,
and all relations and structures involved are around
this practice. That English is the principal line is the
design principle, which means this course’s basic
task is to develop students’ capability of oral
translation between English and Chinese in business
practice and grasp the concrete procedure and
relevant skills of business affairs interpretation. Just
as we have discussed above, “Taking business as the
setting” is the talent localization of
application-oriented universities, this course is
bound to serve it. The two kinds of knowledge and
skill, “English-Chinese translation” and “Business”
are inseparable. “English and Chinese verbal
translation knowledge”, the course fundamental is
always abtained in rich “business situation”, and on
the contrary, business knowledge and skill integrate
into English and Chinese verbal translation learning
organically. Finally the combined action generate
strong ability of business interpretation.
Under PEB Mode, we adopt 3P process, namely
Pre-interpreting, Interpreting-performing,
Post-interpreting Packaging. In the course, we
organize all together 20 units, and each unit include
one training project about a common situation in
front- line of professional posts in international trade
and business and one set of theory and exercise
about the relevant English and Chinese verbal
translation knowledge.
Combined 20 units and 3P process, we can
arrange the teaching procedures of each unit as
follows: firstly, design specific class teaching tasks
and projects for students to complete. Secondly,
introduce theoretical knowledge. Teachers brief
certain knowledge concerned, such as the relevant
oral interpretation skills and business culture
background, laying the groundwork for students’
mastering knowledge and skills in their project
participation. Thirdly, practice in groups. Students
do itemized tasks which possess certain scene design
according to the knowledge learned in the above
step. In project design of the task, teachers need to
consider the degree of difficulty and students’
participation. Fourthly, simulate the scene. Students
practise comprehensively interpreting tasks in
simulation business scenario in the whole class. One
group performs the simulation task, while other
students act as spectators or judges, being asked or
evaluating. Video or record are encouraged to use to
increase the actual effect. Fifthly, assess after
interpretation. Teachers and students participate
together, that is to say, teachers organize students to
dicuss the performance of group simultation,
evaluating all aspects including their professional
knowledge, language expression, and interpretation
techniques, deportment ,and team cooperation, etc..
Lastly, summarize the whole unit. Teachers
conclude in details the applicable extent of unit aims,
clarify knowledge and skills, emphasize the difficult
and key points, and deploy next unit’s project tasks.
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4 CONCLUSIONS
The application-oriented university, a type of higher
education, is adapt to social development and the
most promising and sensitive to reflect social
improvement, and would be the main force of
China's higher education. Nowadays, some
successful higher vocational education colleges
provide some teaching cases about the combination
of English language teaching and business
professional teaching and business practice teaching
in Business English Major in application-oriented
universities in China, but this combination still needs
higher education managers and teachers to study
newer teaching modes, professional design, teaching
strategies and teaching methods with more
innovative thinking, original consciousness from
unique perspectives and new research areas.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper is the result of the project research.
Name of the project:
Cultivating Mode of “Infiltrative” Cross-cultural
Communication in Foreign Language Teaching
Number of the project: 2014jyxm421
REFERENCES
Halliday, M.A.K, 1985. An Introduction to Functional
Grammar. Hodder Arnold. London.
Quoted from Liao Ying, Mo Zaishu, 2007. International
Business English language and Translation Studies,
Foreign Economic and Trade University Press. Bei
Jing.
Sun Xiangsheng, Gong Yanxia, 2001. Issue No.2, On
International Business English Subject Orientation.
Social Science of Hunan Normal University.
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Zs Curriculum Design in Application-oriented Universities
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