Developing CB3AS Teaching Module to Improve Speaking Proficiency among EFL Business English Undergraduates at a Chinese Higher Education Institution: a Proposal

Proceedings International Conference on Teaching and Education (ICoTE) Volume 3 English Language Teaching Research and Practices (2022) Developing CB3AS Teaching Module to Improve Speaking Proficiency among EFL Business English Undergraduates at a Chinese Higher Education Institution: a Proposal Ke Hu1,2; Asmaa AlSaqqaf 3*; Esther Jawing 4 PhD Candidate at the Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) – MALAYSIA1 Tutor at the School of International Business, Hunan University of Information Technology–CHINA2 Faculty of Psychology and Education, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) – MALAYSIA3 Center for the Promotion of Knowledge and Language Learning, Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) – MALAYSIA4 * DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26418/icote.v3i1.55792 This article was presented orally at: 1st International Conference on English Language Teaching Research and Practices; organized by TEFLIN of West Kalimantan Chapter; 1-2 June 2022 Abstract The technological revolution, globalization, and the increasing exposure to different cultural communication, English language teaching (ELT) have led to several reforms in the Chinese higher education system. Meanwhile, English for specific purposes (ESP) has also gained an extraordinary attention resulting in comprehensive developments of ELT in China. However, business English (BE), which is one of the disciplines of ESP, is considered challenging for Chinese EFL learners in higher education. Additionally, mastering a fluent Englishspeaking skill is extremely difficult for those learners compared with the other language skills (i.e., listening, reading, and writing). Accordingly, a growing need emerges for a curriculum development to improve the Chinese ESP learners’ speaking proficiency particularly in business-related areas. Therefore, this paper aims at bridging the gap between theory and practice by proposing a conceptual framework that integrates the approach of content-based instruction (CBI) and Thornbury’s 3As model (awareness, appropriation, and autonomy) into developing a localized teaching module to enhance the speaking proficiency among Chinese EFL learners of BE major in higher education. Adopting an explanatory mixed-method research design, this study will employ a quasi-experimental design with a purposive sampling where students from two classes of BE major from a private university in China will be involved in the study. A CB3As Speaking Teaching Module for a 14-week intervention will be implemented for the experimental group, while a traditional method will be used with the control group. Pre-test and post-test will be conducted to identify whether there is any significant difference in the mean score of the pre-test and post-test given to the two groups before and after the intervention. It is hoped that the results of this study would contribute to improving the speaking skill among Chinese EFL learners. Keywords: CB3As Speaking Teaching Module, business English, module design, Chinese EFL learners ICoTE Proceedings is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 1 INTRODUCTION Undeniably, the development of globalization and the various forms of cooperation among different countries over the world have deepened the global communication mutually. It is clear to see that English takes a Ke Hu, Asmaa Al-Saqqaf, Esther Jawing considerable role in forming and strengthening individuals who intend to construct a greater understanding of a shared and mutual consensus due to it is also portrayed as lingual franca on many occasions, such as in education, politics, business, etc., while e-ISSN: 2685-1407 |5 English seemingly has the power to connect different entities together who are speaking different languages. China has the world’s largest second economy, which has been undergoing the implementation of the reform and opening up since the 1970s (Halpern, 1983; Wen & Zhang, 2020), and currently is in the need of using English to reinforce its status in the international stage by giving its own unique profile of the profound culture with the help of English in order to promote its “Going out Strategy of Chinese Culture” since English is the language widely used as a vehicular language (Liu & Yang, 2019). Additionally, it has promoted China’s government to embrace the high demand for using English in accelerating the development of globalization when exposed to diverse forms of international communication and cooperation. Moreover, China’s continuous harmonious interaction and involvement with the countries and regions have ensured it to spread its influence. Therefore, according to Wen and Zhang (2020), English plays an active role in various respects of China’s society, whereas English is served as a foreign language (EFL) in China. 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 General English education in China Overall, the development of general English language teaching (ELT) in China can be classified into three stages as concluded by Wen and Zhang (2020) and they also revealed that Chinese have owned various attitudes toward English learning among different generations. The first stage (1978-1998) took place in the 1970s when China’s government dedicated itself to reform and opening up. However, a sharp contrast emerged between China’s government and Chinese citizens regarding English learning. While China’s government highlighted the status of English learning in education, but the citizens treated it in cold. And then, the second stage (1999-2011) commenced with the rapid development of globalization, the increasing need for English learning, and the social discontent toward EFL teaching in China. Currently, it is at the third stage of general English education development (2011 and onwards), the emphasis on English teaching and learning is given to fostering Chinese EFL learners’ moral values through language teaching and promoting Chinese cultures to other countries in the world. In another word, students are expected to equip with cultural knowledge of their own and then make them well-round. 2.2 Business English education in China Besides teaching English for general purposes (EGP), teaching English for specific purposes (ESP) has ramped up in China since the rapid development of globalization in the aspect of economy and trade internationalization in the 20th century (Gaikwad, 2016). This change has brought new challenges and revolutions to applied linguistics. Regarding the application of ESP, English is taught specifically to fulfill the particular needs of certain students in programs, such as education, computer science, management, etc. It is different from the general usage of formal structured English education; English is Ke Hu, Asmaa Al-Saqqaf, Esther Jawing used practically and functionally to solve the issues that emerged in some particular areas related to English use. One of the subbranches of ESP named Business English (BE) takes a ro (...truncated)