Unity in diversity: The view from the (UAE) classroom

Author First name, Last name, Institution

Catherine Nickerson, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Language Teaching

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Abstract

Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012. This talk is about finding 'unity in diversity'. I ask how we can best focus our research efforts and then design our teaching for those of us involved with teaching language for specific business purposes in the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East. In parts 1 and 2 of the presentation I discuss how we need to (i) refer to empirical evidence as the basis for our teaching and training materials, (ii) become more aware of the challenges posed by globalisation, (iii) understand the role played for business people by English as a lingua franca, alongside other languages and (iv) develop closer ties with people working in business and industry. In part 3 I discuss, first, a teaching project involving undergraduate research that is a course for our senior business students on workplace communication and, second, the development of an evaluation instrument to chart our students' progress in terms not only of their language proficiency but also their communication knowledge and skills.

ISSN

0261-4448

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Volume

48

Issue

2

First Page

235

Last Page

249

Disciplines

Business

Scopus ID

84925272092

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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