A Study On Application Of Situation-Based Mehod To Business Oral English Teaching At Vocational Colleges In China

With the economic globalization and China's entry into the World Trade Organization, China's business activities with other countries and regions are becoming more and more robust, which has set higher requirements for people who work in business. They are required to be both professional in their fields of work and proficient in international business communication. As a result, teaching Business Oral English (BOE) has become an important part of English teaching at vocational colleges. Considering the nature of Business English and characteristics of vocational college students, the present thesis is an attempt to propose a situation-based teaching method to be used in the BOE course, aiming to improve the practical value of the course and engage students in active learning.Proposition of applying situations to BOE teaching, however, is not a new idea. In recent years, a number of researchers have made studies on how to integrate situations into Business English teaching, but their researches were mainly about the implementation of simulations in teaching. By referring to findings of teachers and scholars, this thesis gives a detailed description of the teaching method proposed, including a brief history of the teaching method, the teaching principles and the application of the teaching method. First, teachers need to conduct needs analysis to identify the most suitable situations for classroom teaching; second, they need to make a good use of multimedia to relate students to target situations; and third, they can design simulation games for students to practice language and skills. It is pointed out that this teaching method is based on both the Constructivist Theory and the Input Hypotheses. Contextualized learning provides students with comprehensible input and opportunities to discover and construct meaning.To better apply the situation-based method to BOE teaching, a research was conducted at Suzhou Vocational University (SVU) in Jiangsu Province, China. Based on the findings produced from observation, survey and interviews, this thesis analyzes the current situation of the BOE classes and the difficulties with the implementation of the situation-based teaching method in BOE teaching. The implications of the study include: the needs analysis for the creation of a database, the need for teachers to design proper tasks for teaching as well as the need for instructors to keep abreast of the developments in language teaching, in business as well as in technologies.