Overview of key issues and challenges for business and professional English Jonathan Deer – Cambridge English Language Assessment IATEFL BESIG, Tuesday 1st April 2014

Testing EBP – the specificity continuum? In the literature on the current state of play in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Business Purposes (EBP), English as Lingua Franca (ELF) and Vocationally Oriented Language Learning (VOLL), there is a convergent trend towards viewing provision of professional and vocational English (and other language) teaching, learning and assessment as being on a continuum. Bhatia (2012) suggests that ESP and EBP are converging in terms of research, theory and pedagogy and that in many cases language assessment design needs to consider the levels of practicality and resource in producing specialised ESP tests. Source: Bhatia, V. K & S Bremner (2012) ‘English for Business Communication’, Language Teaching, 45.5, p 410-445.

Workplace English? ESP or Business English is seen as increasingly less relevant to industry and productive sector needs by employers, business associations and training providers/educational institutions Emphasis is being place more on effective communication in the workplace rather than specific domain/context driven professional communication - except in the case where there is a clear need for specific business-focussed training (this is predominantly in middle and senior management positions). Source: Bhatia, V. K & S Bremner (2012) ‘English for Business Communication’, Language Teaching, 45.5, p 410-445.

Soft/Transferable skills? There is an increasing importance of employees being able to use English effectively in informal situations and across workplace contexts. Employees are increasingly required to apply the soft skills of collaboration, problem solving, e-literacy, etc., in English and these skills are often used in a general workplace context and not related to a specific job role/function Source: Bhatia, V. K & S Bremner (2012) ‘English for Business Communication’, Language Teaching, 45.5, p 410-445.

Implications for teaching business English Growing need to understand the context of business English within a wider workplace context – impact on teaching and learning and managing client expectations Should the trainer now also a be “soft-skills” expert as well as a “business expert” – to what extent do these converge in a communicative event? Source: Bhatia, V. K & S Bremner (2012) ‘English for Business Communication’, Language Teaching, 45.5, p 410-445.