Background | The Students: General Information | The Students: Communicative Needs |
The Course |
As more and more Mexican entrepreneurs set their sights on trade with the U.S. they begin to recognize the fact that English is indispensable to their economic success. Business people constitute an ever growing segment of ESL students across the board. This population is growing especially quickly in Latin America. Since the ratification of the North American Free Trade Agreement business people, especially sales representatives, are increasingly required to deal with native English speakers in both professional and non-professional capacities as part of their daily duties.
Latin American companies are hiring English teachers to conduct in house business English classes more and more all the time. This is becoming an increasing trend because business people have very different needs than aspiring college students who need English for academic purposes, or adult learners who need English for survival in the community. The demand for English instruction specially geared toward the needs of international business in general, and sales/marketing in particular, will continue to grow providing plenty of opportunity for ESL teachers. I have designed the following project with this new trend in mind.
Ten middle-class Mexicans (six men and four women) all of whom are sales representatives of the (fictitious) PetroMex petroleum company, have enrolled an intermediate-level English oral communication course. The students are non-native speakers of English, but have had several years of English instruction beginning in secondary school; all of them have also traveled in the United States. However, none of them has reached higher than the intermediate level in speaking (intermediate-advanced in reading and writing). Their jobs, nevertheless, require them to speak English on a daily basis with American business people.
Their duties include: one-on-one conferencing/deal-making over the telephone, face to face negotiation of contracts and prices (one-on-one and in small groups), making oral presentations to small groups, communicating by letter and memo (by fax and snail mail), and communicating via e-mail. They need to perform these activities using correct pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation, and appropriate register in order to present themselves as credible representatives of their company.
Since writing does not pose significant difficulties for most of the Ss, and since the majority of their job-related tasks involve oral production, the course will focus on the development of oral communication skills. Attendance for the 9 - 10 am daily meetings will be required and PetroMex, the sponsor of the course, will hire the teacher for a period of ten weeks, and it will pay the salary bi-weekly. The company requires the Ss to take bi-weekly exams in order to monitor their progress.
Part II What will this module provide to the teacher? |
Part III Involved Discourse and Grammar It Includes |
Part IV How is the grammar of involved discourse to be organized in this program? |
Activities Table of Contents | Glossary | Appendix: Authentic Materials | References
Table of Contents for Issue 1 | Front Cover of the Journal of English Grammar on the Web