Professor : Patricia Su
Presenter : Ming-Jen Tsai (Pink)
Number : 10022614
Date : April 19th, 2012
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We will now look at three case studies which
illustrate the implementation of the
parameters described in this report.
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Topic: Language for business: effective
needs assessment, syllabus design and
materials preparation in a practical ESP
case study.
(by Nathan Edwards *)
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This paper presents an ESP case study which
took place in a specialized business context
involving senior German bankers.
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They had studied English at the university
level, and had an impressive vocabulary and
store of idioms, although these were not
always used appropriately or in a native-like
way.
The class took place twice a week in the
morning at 10:00 h and lasted for two45 min
periods in a large meeting room at the bank.
The one important aim of the course the
improvement of the student's spoken English
used in business meetings and negotiations.
 The second important aim would be to include
work on giving presentations using different kinds
of graphs and charts.
 The final aim of the course was to continue to
build both general and specialist vocabulary.
 During the course the students were asked for
their valuable feedback and opinions on the
exercises used, as well as about the general
direction of the course.

Teaching nearly 40 contact hours a week,
including weekends.
 Jumbled sentences were used to help students
become familiar with the discourse patterns of
language used to conduct business meetings, to
negotiate and to engage in ``small talk''.
 Articles and reports were used to practice. The
students were often required to guess the
meaning of new vocabulary based on the context,
clues in the surrounding text, or on cognate roots.
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A variety of vocabulary exercises based mainly
on the exercises in Build Your Business
Vocabulary were used.
Short vocabulary quizzes were held orally near
the beginning of each class in order to recycle
previously learnt vocabulary and key words
from past articles and discussions.

Topic: How does a sales team reach goals in
intercultural business negotiations? A case
study.
(by Taina Vuorela *).

The study: it will be of interest to see whether
a sales team uses similar means when
attempting to reach their goals in a business
negotiation. Some similarities regarding the
functions of teamwork could be expected
when investigating how the sellers pursue
their goals as a team in the present study.
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The research approach of the study is
phenomenological. Background information was
collected about the participants and the
business relationship between the buyers and
the sellers, and informal interviews were held
with the sellers immediately after the Client
Negotiation and at regular intervals with one
seller, who acted as a specialist informant, in
order to check on the researchers
interpretations against the views of the sellers.
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In researching the interactional strategies used
in reaching goals as a team of sellers, the
following research questions:
1. What kind of goals can be identified in the
Client Negotiation?
2. What kind of interactional strategies,
conscious or unconscious, do the members of
the sales team use in order to reach their goals?
3. What kind of teamwork can be identified in
the Client Negotiation?
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From the technical part of the Client Negotiation
(cooling radiator, protection system) and two from
the commercial part (payment terms, price).
Regarding the items analyzed from the commercial
part of the Client Negotiation, the sellers had set
themselves achievement goals in their Internal
Meeting. Their own topics in order to improve the
terms of the contract.
Regarding the price of their engine, the sellers
initial goal is to either maintain the present price
level or increase it.

Topic: Towards an integrated approach to
teaching Business English: A Chinese
experience.
(by Zuocheng Zhang *)
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Since the early 1980s when China opened up
to the outside and moved towards a market
economy, students of Business English found
themselves having to learn not only the
language but also the way of doing business.
The 1990s witnessed a boom in Business
English teaching in China. The number of
colleges and universities offering Business
English programs increased significantly.
1.ESP and Business English:
-Understood properly ESP, it is an approach to
language learning, which is based on learner
need.
-Business English is characterized by ‘‘sense of
purpose’’, ‘‘social aspects’’, and ‘‘clear
communication’’.
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2.Language-as-discourse view and Business
English:
-The teaching of Business English requires a
sound description of English in use in
business.
-Representing a domain of social and
economic life, it has its own subject matter,
interpersonal relations, choice of media and
channels of communication, and patterns of
organizing messages.
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3.A working definition of Business English:
-business and language, i.e. the activities and
topics of business participants, complicated
networks of interpersonal relations,
strategies and tactics taken up for pursuing
particular goals, dynamics of discourse, and
features of linguistic realizations
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Research into three essential fields – subject
knowledge, business practice and language skills.
 The vertical axis represents courses in business
studies, like marketing, finance, and fundamentals of
business law.
 The courses represented in the horizontal axis
acquaint students with the procedures, conventions,
politeness systems, strategies and tactics for
addressing various goals in the professional
community.
 Business discourse, represented by the oblique axis,
plays a pivotal role in organizing Business English
curricula.
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~The end~