A Multi-dimensional Analysis Of Business English Textbooks

Business English (BE) textbooks play an important role in realizing the objective of higher education for business English majors. However, the present business English textbooks are various in kinds and different in quality, which makes it difficult for us to choose the right business English textbook. Different researchers discuss business English textbooks from different perspectives. However, most of the relevant researches about business English textbooks are one-dimensional, and there is little multi-dimensional research about ESP textbooks, especially the business English textbooks.This thesis analyzes and evaluates three representative business English comprehensive textbooks from three dimensions:the needs analysis perspective, the genre-hased perspective and the perspective of textbook designing criteria. Firstly, through questionnaires and interviews, the author analyzes whether the business English graduates who used these textbooks can meet the social needs. Secondly, through statistic analysis, the author explores whether these three representative business English textbooks have covered most of the business genres. Thirdly, through contrastive analysis, the author checks whether these three representative business English textbooks meet the business English textbook designing criteria. Then, the author proposes necessary tasks and methods for the improvement of the present business English textbooks.This thesis shows its results in three aspects:Firstly, we find out the distance between what the graduates learned from the present published business English textbooks and what they use in daily business (social needs). Secondly, we find that present BE textbooks cover only part of important business genres.There is still some distance between practical business genres and genres covered in textbooks. More business genres included in business English textbooks are more likely to improve students’generic competence. Thirdly, we find how these sample textbooks meet the designing criteria of business English textbooks.