A Study On Business Knowledge In The Example Texts In Domestic Business English Writing Textbooks

The features and advantages of BE lie in its interdisciplinarity that integrates language skills and business knowledge. As an interdisciplinary subject, the teaching of BE should combine Business knowledge with language skills. As to the current situation of interdisciplinarity of BE, there is no specific investigation and analysis done yet. And this is exactly the aim of this thesis. The research is an empirical study on the interdisciplinarity of BE program, aiming to investigate the business knowledge involved in BE writing textbooks so as to verify whether current BE teaching in China has integrated language skills with business knowledge organically to cultivate inter-disciplinary talents.Writing, as one of the communication modes of business, has played an important role in promoting international business. It is safe to say excellent writing skills is an insurance to effective communication, which makes BE writing an research field of much significance. Business knowledge is an integral part of BE writing due to the interdisciplinary nature of BE and business term is an important embodiment of the professional knowledge in BE texts. Based on the relationship between knowledge and terminology, the research takes terms as a quantitative entry point to investigate the coverage and structure of business knowledge in BE writing textbooks.Research Questions are:1) What is the coverage of business knowledge in domestic BE writing textbooks?2) What categories of business knowledge are included in domestic BE writing textbooks? What are the characteristics of the knowledge distribution in different business categories?3) What is the difference between different types of BE writing textbooks in respect of business knowledge coverage and structure?4) Can these textbooks under investigation meet the requirements of BE as an interdisciplinary subject in terms of business knowledge coverage?This research chooses three widely used BE writing textbooks based on questionnaires on BE writing textbooks adoption that the author participated in 2014, namely Practical Business English Writing by Wu Qinger(2012), Business English Writing by Hu Yingkun and Che Lijuan(2005) and Up-to-Date Business Correspondence for Import& Export by Wang Xingsun(2001), with a total amount of 203 example texts. Based on national standards, guidance and principles of terms and previous working experience of scholars and terminologists, the author identified terms in the example texts and take out both qualitative and quantitative study on them. The result shows that BE differs from GE and TE mainly in that it involves broad business knowledge ranging from Management, Marketing to Human Resources Management and International Business Law. Interdisciplinarity, as the most remarkable characteristics of BE,has been embodied in the current BE writing textbooks to some extent. However there are still some problems. Research shows that though business terms are frequently used in example texts, business knowledge with depth concerning international business law, international finance, multinational enterprises management, etc. are much less, which shows a lacking of interdisciplinarity of BE writing textbooks under investigation that will hold back cultivation of advanced international talents. Moreover, as to the business knowledge structures of the two BE writing textbooks under investigation, the terms of Management, Economics and Marketing tops the table. This result consists with the teaching criterion made by the Ministry of Education for BE education in respect of the business knowledge teaching. However, The percentage of International Business Law terms are far smaller compared with business terms of Economics and in those two groups of data., which means a shortage of International business Law knowledge. Therefore, as one of the three core business courses of BE, more content concerning business law should be involved to BE education practice and the teaching material. Lastly, by comparing business content in business writing teaching material and trade correspondence teaching material through business terms, the author finds that business knowledge involved in BE writing teaching materials shows an advantage in terms of business knowledge coverage and structure.