Business English And Culture Learning
Abstract: As a language for specific purpose, Business English is highly valued in English teaching in colleges and universities. /英语论文This paper states the importance of culture learning in Business English teaching and offers some ways to culture learning into Business English classrooms.
Key words: Business English; culture learning; comparing and contrasting
1. Introduction
This paper is written to explain the importance of culture learning in Business English and to increase the awareness of culture differences in Business English classroom in order to have a successful outcome in business communication. The awareness of one's own culture in relation to those of others has become a growing issue noted in the field of Business English in usiness communication because it is the factor that determines the success of using Business English. Culture learning can be realized through comparing and contrasting different cultures, analysing the business context ,learning the language, and introducing culture knowledge by the test of background knowledge and communicative ability.
2. Business English And Culture Learning
Business English must be seen in the overall context of English for Specific Purpose(ESP) which implies the definition of a specific language corpus and emphasis on particular kinds of communication in a specific context [1],[3]. Business English is a mix of specific content (relative to a particular job area or industry) and general content (relating to general ability to communicate more effectively, albeit in business Article ID: 1009-315X (2017)situations).
Some aspects are emphasized much more, such as the skills of communication in English speaking, writing, listening and reading within a business context, and so on. Sense of purpose is the most important characteristic of Business English [1]. There is asense of purpose in the exchanges in the context of meetings, telephone calls, and discussions. Social aspects should also be taken into consideration in Business English [1]. International business people have a need to make contact with those whom they have never met before, or known only slightly. There is a need for an internationally accepted ways of doing things so that people from different cultures, and with different mother tongues, can quickly feel more comfortable with one another. The style and content of social interactions will be typified by a desire to build a good relationship. That accepted way of doing things or rule is constructed by culture.
Awareness of the importance of one's own culture in relation to those of others has become a growing issue in the field of Business English. Users of Business English need to speak English primarily so that they can achieve more in their jobs.
3. Culture Learning in Business English
(1) Cutlure Learning through Contrasting
Contrasting the different cultures can improve the awareness of cultural differences. There are some business performance skills such as meetings, presentations, which are all involved in Business English. Culture contrasting can be introduced in these skills learning. For example, at the first time meeting, the Americans always like to use given name ("Call me Jack") in order to create a friendly atmosphere because they value equality, while Chinese would think it quite uncomfortable because the name structure which includes baby ，英语论文，英语论文题目 |
