On The Project-based Model For Business English Talents And The Course Design

With the influx of the economic globalization, politics, economy, culture, science and technology and other social domains are flourishing faster not only in China but also in other countries around the world. The social progress results in the profound international trade and business transactions. Within this context, Business English (BE) has been gaining wider recognition, securing its unprecedented role in the family of ESP as one of the most invigorating burgeoning disciplines in the academic circles.With the ever increasing needs for BE personnel, it becomes an urgent task to bring out well-qualified graduates with practical abilities and rich on-the-spot working experiences.Under the circumstances, a large number of universities recruit the necessary teaching staff and offer BE courses as an disciplinary orientation or an optional subject to enrich students'educational background. The 3 universities (University of International Business and Economics, Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and Guangdong University of Foreign Studies) were the first group to be admitted by Ministry of Education to offer bachelor's degree in BE in 2007 and 2008, a head start to this emerging discipline. Up to the present, there are more than 20 universities and colleges eligible for BE courses.However, the author has found despite its rapid development, there are certain problems in either the course design or the implementation of the teaching plan. First, although most English majors hold positive attitudes to BE learning, the interactive activities designed to promote practical communications are rather scanty, which could not satisfy students' "hunger". Second, the prevailing teaching process focuses more on the knowledge and theories rather than the practical learning, fostering students long on examinations and rote learning but short on practical skills, very different from the principle "study for the sake of application". Thirdly, the Business English Teaching (BET) is not successful because of the low employment rate, for most graduates are academic ones with little applied abilities, which constitutes a liability to the would-be firms or corporations with direct emphasis on operational skills and communicative skills.Under such circumstances, the author makes this study with two purposes. One is to make a change in the course design in light of the Project-based Learning theory to build the Project-based Model for BET. This model is intended to empower students to cooperate in projects designed by the teacher to "learn by doing" and enhance their comprehensive skills. The second purpose is to provide tentative suggestions for the future exploration in BE course design, reform, and lay foundation for cultivating BE talents more efficiently in the future.