TY - JOUR AU - Xie, Qing PY - 2016/10/30 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - Investigating non-English major undergraduates’ needs and perceptions of business English teaching in a Chinese university JF - The Asian Journal of Applied Linguistics JA - AJAL VL - 3 IS - 2 SE - Articles DO - UR - https://caes.hku.hk/ajal/index.php/ajal/article/view/381 SP - 185-198 AB - <p style="margin: 0cm 42.45pt 0pt 35.45pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">This article reports an investigative study of non-English major undergraduates’ needs and perceptions of business English teaching in a Chinese university context, within the context of College English Teaching reform and internationalization. The main instruments used were surveys consisting of rating and open-ended questions, and classroom observations. There were 147 valid participants in the study who were enrolled in various academic programs. The results show that participants most needed to improve writing and speaking skills, and most often read general interest articles. Less than one third of the participants had had job application experiences and they held various career expectations linked to their academic specialization. However as pre-experienced learners, they lacked adequate experience to understand the business world. For business English teaching, participants perceived the use of media resources and authentic materials, case-based methods and simulated practice as effective approach to achieve communicative competence development for the real business world. This study promotes college English teaching reform and guides further curriculum upgrading as well as informing business English curriculum design and implementation in China.</span></p> ER -