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guage”. The structure of the course “Business En-
glish” includes different components that are used
both independently and as successive parts within the
course. Each element of the course is aimed at achiev-
ing a specific target level of proficiency in profes-
sional English. The main goal of the discipline is the
formation of students’ professional language compe-
tencies that will contribute to their efficient function-
ing in the cultural diversity of educational and profes-
sional environments.
ESP syllabus for department of Computer Engi-
neering includes four content modules such as:
1. Work, employees and organizations
2. Production. Marketing. E-commerce
3. Finance. Business etiquette. Personal qualities
4. Culture. Telephone conversations and e-mails.
Business skills
The first content module considers Business En-
glish topics such as types of jobs and types of work,
recruitment and selection, ways to improve job op-
portunities and elaborate a personal plan for life-
long career success in IT, people and workplaces,
problems at work, managers, executives and direc-
tors, career advice and stories from information tech-
nology experts, organizations. The second con-
tent module of the syllabus deals with manufactur-
ing and services, competitors and competition, e-
commerce, profitability and unprofitability, success
and failure, startup success: how to launch a Tech-
nology Company. The third content module deals
with personal finance, inflation and unemployment,
wrongdoing and corruption, business ethics, projects
and project management, leadership and management
styles. The fourth content module concerns business
across cultures, cross-culture communication, tele-
phoning, business communication, curriculum vitae
(CV) and job applications, meetings, effective con-
versation, oral presentation, agreement and disagree-
ment, e-communication. All content modules are par-
tially based on the units from the book series “Busi-
ness Vocabulary in Use” and include revision of gram-
mar topics such as tenses, time clauses, modal verbs,
infinitive, gerund, conditional sentences, passive, re-
ported speech, etc.
In developing the Business English course we
used authentic texts related to employee motivation,
effective leadership, competitive advantage, and a se-
ries of professional topics. The professional repre-
sentative topics for an ESP syllabus focus on func-
tional areas – language for recommending, express-
ing opinions, giving advice, showing agreement, etc.
The tasks and activities were selected for the purpose
to satisfy the emerging need for enhancing such skills
as presentation techniques, negotiating, meeting skills
of future specialists. The time allotted to Business
English (one class per two weeks) is not enough for
teachers to cover the whole content. As a result, some
points are left uncovered. To overcome this problem,
we suggest using Moodle course and where possible,
leave reading and writing tasks (individual and col-
laborative work) for self-study or homework on this
platform. According to quarantine requirements stu-
dent talking time is organized on Google Meet, which
ensures plenty of opportunities for speaking practice
and discussion PowerPoint presentations.
Accordingly, based on the results of the ob-
servation, students’ and tutors’ interviews we
have designed another special course “Business
Communication Technology for Law Students”
(https://elearning.dli.donetsk.ua/course/view.php?id=
516#section-0). The course is represented on the
e-learning site of Donetsk Law Institute on Moodle
platform. 258 students of different legal specialisms
are engaged in its approbation. It is intended for
advanced students specializing in criminal police,
preventive activities, pre-trial investigation, law en-
forcement activity and other related specialisms. The
purposes of the course have been established in accor-
dance with the criteria of authenticity, purposiveness
of the language, and professional appropriateness
of the content. This therefore corresponds fully to
English-through and English-for approaches. The
program of the course is targeted at the wide range of
students of legal specialisms of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th
years of studying. It stems from their willingness and
readiness to adopt learning material and to understand
its applicability in their career context. We have in
mind the proper level of professional knowledge and
also their level of language proficiency. Besides,
the ESP course demands motivation, dedication and
responsiveness from the students. The main objective
of the special course is to improve students’ reading,
listening, writing and speaking skills within profes-
sional context. The course is structured at different
levels of proficiency and our program integrates the
skills in the professional area into foreign language
proficiency.
Let us detail the learning outcomes according to
the language domains. By the end of the course stu-
dents should:
• reveal subject-specific language from a range of
authentic sources;
• communicate about legal topics;
• read and comprehend specific legal texts, course
brochures and job advertisements;
• differentiate and exploit various sources of infor-
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