Research on the professional practice curriculum

Abstract. As a discipline with strong specialty, business English has been involved in many fields of marketing, financial management, economy and trade and so on. The essence of business English is the general use of the English knowledge, the professional knowledge and the business background. In this paper, the author discusses the problems of business English in the teaching process in colleges and universities in our country, analyzes these specific problems, and then puts forward the opinions and suggestions to resolve these problems.

Keywords: Business English Teaching in Colleges and universities; problem analysis; countermeasures

In the teaching in our country's colleges and universities, the practice teaching plays a very important role in the teaching systems, and we are now taking the business English as an example to study the construction of the practice curriculum systems of higher vocational education.

1. The concept, uses and characteristics of business English

Business English is the English people use in their daily business activities, namely Business English. Business English plays a mediating role between the countries, involving a number of areas of marketing, management, finance and trade and so on. In terms of the functions, business English is a discipline with strong specialty, and the practicality of it is manifested in the production and origin itself is the result of the frequent interactions of the world economy, and it is a kind of special English. In the linguistic context, it belongs to the target of the applied linguistics. Since the business English is the practical English language with the international business as the background, the research object of it should the English used in this context.

2. Analysis and solutions of the problems in the business English teaching in colleges and universities

Nowadays, many universities in China have set up the business English major, and it is different from the ordinary English, because of its strong specialty, so this subject has been developing quickly and widely applied.

2-1. Present situation of the teaching of business English in colleges

Business English is one of the key disciplines of which many colleges and universities focus on the construction, and has decades of years of history. In recent years, with the accelerated pace of the internationalization, the international trade also gradually began to spread frequently, and the trading range gradually expands, so that the business English specialty has been developing rapidly. In our colleges, business English teaching has been 20 years of history, and many colleges and universities refer to the business English specialty as the discipline the school focuses on constructing and the teaching features to promote, and it has trained a large number of talents in the economic development of our country. However, the universities in our country also have some problems. For example, the traditional schools and the classroom incentive structures are oriented in the achievements, and they pursue the passing rate of the Band Four and Six, and the students focus on the comparison of the performances. What is rewarded in this approach are the scores of the students rather than the really grasping of the students, which is not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of the students learning English. In recent years, various advertising can be seen anywhere on our university campus for the students to pass the Band Four and Six by irregular ways, and some especially even spend high price to buy some of the so-called high-tech products for cheating in the exams. These practices are conducted by part of the students just to get the certificate for the Band Four or Six, in order to increase some weight in the job hunting, the capital. In this paper, the author discusses the problems of business English in the teaching process in colleges and universities in our country, analyzes these specific performances of these problems, and then puts forward the opinions and suggestions to resolve these problems.

2-2. Some common problems existing in the teaching of the business English in higher vocational colleges in China

2-2-1. The single teaching method is one of the problems existing in university Business English

From the perspective of the essence of the discipline, Business English is a comprehensive discipline which combines the knowledge of English and the business knowledge, which requires the students majored in Business English should not only learn the professional knowledge of marketing, management, finance and so on, but also should have a high level of English. But the current Business English teaching methods in our country are still traditional, with the teachers as the core of the classroom teaching, and the knowledge imparting is the still same, without changes, which is the echo what the books say. Students just do the cramming learning, but do not actively participate in the teaching activities, and even their thoughts have already run to the outside of the classrooms. This phenomenon commonly exists in the universities, so this teaching approach greatly reduces the teaching quality and the teaching efficiency of the classrooms, so that the whole classes are boring, and the student learning initiatives and enthusiasms are not played.

2-2-2. The lack of the teaching staff is also the disadvantage in the Business English teaching in colleges

At present, the overall English level of most of our students majored in Business English is below that of the students majored in normal English, and their business level is generally lower than that of the students majoring in economics. This problem is the main problem facing the subject construction of the Business English. The main reason for this problem is that the ability of trade and English of the teachers in Business English is not very high, so their teaching experience is insufficient. Some teachers just teach the students from the point of view of the language teaching, and their business knowledge is obviously inadequate, and they even sell off now. Therefore, in the class, they can only simply read the text with little or poor cases, resulting in the classroom atmosphere boring. On the other hand, some teachers are the economic experts, but their English abilities are not very good, and in the classes, they can only teach in Chinese, losing the essential requirements of the Business English teaching.

2-2-3. That the writing quality of the teaching materials is poor is also one of the problems in Business English teaching

The current market for the textbooks of Business English in China lacks the unified teaching books and audio-visual materials that the students majored in Business English and the teachers are satisfied with. Teaching materials are the main tool of books for students to learn Business English. But the teaching materials for Business English teaching on the Chinese market are uneven in quality, some good and some bad, or some even just put the outdated materials together, thus causing a low level of repeated use of the Business English teaching textbooks, and the timeliness and practicability of the teaching materials are very low.

2-2-4. The teaching mode has bigger problems

In the teaching mode with the teachers as the guide and the students as the center, even the students become the object of a display that assist the teachers to complete the tasks of teaching, and the teachers will also spend most of the classroom teaching time in explaining the theory of trade and the business vocabularies, and at the same time, they neglect the student's role and status. In the setting of the teaching contents, they are seriously divorced from the real business scenes, making these trading theories and business vocabularies more abstract and jerky, and the students cannot fully understand, but only passively and mechanically memorize and use them.

3. Solutions to the problems in the Business English teaching in colleges and universities at present

Business English is different from the general English in the aspect of teaching. Not only should we learn the pronunciation, speaking, listening and the basic knowledge and other contents of the English knowledge, but also it relates to the electronics business, management, marketing, macroeconomics, microeconomics and international laws and other aspects of the business knowledge. The cultivation of the high-level professional personnel who can carry out the business activities by using English is the main teaching purpose in college Business English. Business English teaching in our country, the ethnic customs, cultural backgrounds and knowledge of business are the pillar, while the knowledge of English is the foundation, and therefore, realizing the combination of the two is very important.

3-1. In terms of the problem of the quality of the Business English teaching materials, each university can try to make up for the shortage of the quality of the teaching materials through the introduction of the foreign advanced teaching. These advanced foreign original teaching materials are usually stronger in the systematicness and theory, with accurate words, and rich and practical cases, which are able to provide abundant practice materials for the classroom teaching, and the students can also promote the improvement of their English reading abilities and their business knowledge.

3-2. In terms of the problems that the teachers' teaching ability is insufficient and the force of teaching staff is weak, universities should strengthen the cultivation of the talents for the teaching of Business English, and strengthen the construction of the teaching staff. As the teachers of the college Business English, we should improve ourselves in the foreign trade practice, the application of the multimedia teaching mode, economic theories of knowledge, the professional business knowledge and the English knowledge. The rich knowledge and the accumulation of the theories of the practitioners can play a larger role in the teaching activities, and these fresh experiences will enrich the perceptual knowledge of the students, and allow the students to combine the theory with the practice, thus making the timeliness of the teaching practice stronger.

3-3. Finally, introduce the multimedia tools into the classroom teaching of Business English. Under the auxiliary multimedia tools, students can understand the abstract knowledge of Economics in an easy and direct way, and it can arouse the students' interest and enthusiasm. On the other hand, multimedia aided teaching will improve the teaching quality and efficiency, and will be able to accommodate a greater amount of information. In terms of the problem of the role of the teachers in the process of Business English teaching, we should also carry out the appropriate reform, and should, transform the teachers teaching roles into the guide and leader of the students, thus truly achieving "to teach a man how to fish". In college Business English, teachers should consciously create a relatively open and free learning environment for students. In the teaching practice, teachers can guide the students to carry out the design and research activities, and set the teaching contents in the form of special topics, to allow the students to analyze and study some core problems involved in the business activities.

3-4. The teachers should enable the students to improve their abilities through the active learning, and show their professional talents. And they should also try to ensure that every student has the opportunity to show themselves, even can be converted into the teacher's role to carry on the teaching, to let the students obtain the full display opportunities, which is not only beneficial to the students to exercise their own language abilities, but also can let the students deepen the impression of knowledge by telling, so that the students have more responsibilities. We should make the learning become an enjoyable experience, which can also greatly improve the students' self-management, initiatives and self-control, so as to benefit the whole life. With the development of the information technology and the globalization, to cultivate the comprehensive talents in universities has been paid more and more attention to. In the process of cultivating these talents, the English ability is the important content of cultivating them. In the positions in the market and the social competition, students' English levels will bring great impact on him. This student-training method also causes the university disciplinary boundaries increasingly weakened, and all the students are trying to learn the knowledge outside of professions, to make their own comprehensive qualities improved. Business English is a comprehensive subject. Therefore, the subject has attracted more and more students into the learning.

4. Effective teaching modes

4-1. Communicative teaching model

An important method used in Business English teaching is the students-centered "communicative teaching model". A magic weapon to achieve the classroom teaching objectives of Business English is to create the language environment of the international business and the corresponding classroom atmosphere, to arouse the students' interest and motivation in learning. The practice has proved that the application of the "teacher-led, student-centered" classroom teaching mode can not only enhance the students’ understandings of the knowledge, but also improve the students' interests in learning, develop students' thinking, and cultivate their professional competence.

4-2. Laboratory teaching mode

The hand drills and the practical combat are the guarantee to obtain the skills. To let the students immediately into the "role" after graduation, we must let them experience by themselves in the classrooms, and experience by themselves the "virtual commerce warfare" in various states. Therefore, the classroom teaching should pay attention to cultivating students' abilities to solve problems independently. Therefore, it is necessary and also a must to establish an "International Business English laboratory". The students will scrape and practice in the virtual war created in the laboratory, and carry on the full range of business cooperation with any businessman in the virtual world, and through the Internet, they can directly have the business practice with the international corporations, in order to enhance the practical abilities of the students. It is composed of several simulation modules, and these simulation modules mutually interact with each other, sharing the resources, thus achieving a business throughout the whole process.

4-3. Case teaching model

China's colleges and universities began introducing the case teaching in the 80's, but it has been mainly used in the business management, law, medicine, international business and other areas with strong practicalness and application, but in the English teaching, there are few concrete practice and studies of this teaching method. The close combination of the English language skills and the business knowledge is the largest characteristic of the Business English courses, and this specificity determines that the teachers in the teaching should pay attention to the training of students' English language abilities, but also should pay attention to strengthening students' professional skills. I think that the case teaching method can be used and practiced in Business English teaching, and we should make it become a kind of inseparable teaching method in the teaching of Business English. The following are the further analyses of the characteristics, implementation processes and several key problems we need to handle well of the case teaching method.

4-3-1. The features of the case teaching method in Business English

The case teaching has the following obvious characteristics. (1) The authenticity. The teaching cases are usually the facts that have happened or the descriptions or records of the real scenes, rather than the fictions written by the teachers at random. So, the students will be attracted deeply by the cases, as if placed in the real scene. (2) Debate. The writers usually design certain questions for each case teaching, and the students are required to use their existing theoretical knowledge to "think about, participate in, analyze and debate". Through the class discussion and debate, the students not only learn the knowledge in the true background, but also improve their abilities to analyze and solve the problems. (3) Pertinence. The compilation and the design of the teaching cases also have strong pertinence. In fact, most of the cases are often the typical cases happening in a field of the social life, and the students can understand these cases, and at the same time, they also can exercise their own abilities to solve similar problems in the real practice.

4-3-2. Differences between the case teaching method in the Business English and the traditional teaching methods

First, the teaching materials are different. The textbook is used in the traditional teaching method. The case teaching mainly uses the case materials, which are the descriptions of the real scenes, and these scenes include some questions, and require the students to think, analyze, digest and absorb. So, the cases that the textbooks use are complied to adapt with the specific teaching objectives. Second, the teaching process is different. The teaching processes of the traditional teaching methods are mainly the teaching of the knowledge systems of the teachers, and the structured teaching usually requires the students to accept knowledge passively, while the process of the case teaching is not the teachers' teaching, but the discussion and debate between the students.

5. Conclusion

In a word, as a newly emerging discipline, Business English has the interdisciplinary complexity. The beginning of its development is faced with many problems. But as long as we take the objective of training the professional talents of Business English as the principle, timely analyze the problems, find the problems, and seek for the solutions and directions to the problems, and we can constantly adjust the development of the discipline. At present, facing the reality of the employment difficulty of the national higher education students, the training of the Business English talents should be oriented by the market demand, and is the inevitable orientation for the colleges to promote a variety of teaching methods, and fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiatives of the students, to transform the study into the actual combat. Let the students experience in the situational and practical classrooms the process of the trade negotiations, the simulation of signing the contracts, the communication and negotiation and other processes. The Business English teaching designs should be closely linked to the business negotiations, so that the students can maximize their own practical abilities in the classrooms. In this long road, there are many models to be explored and practiced.

6.Acknowledgements

The twelfth Five Year Plan Project of Hebei institute of scientific research in education: "Research on the practice curriculum systems of the students with the abilities as the standard in the English teaching in vocational higher education", Project Number: 1240477.

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