This book analyses the learning experiences of students of Business English at a Chinese university. It addresses several topical issues in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) education and Business English teaching, including how ESP students learn, how they develop multiple identities. In particular, it focuses on their professional identity in the classroom, and how these identities are transferred to the workplace. This allows the author to present a model of learning Business English that corresponds to the lived experiences of students in China, but which can also be applied to other ESP learner contexts. In doing so, he demonstrates how to research the professional identity of ESP learners from multiple perspectives, and contributes to the validity of research on language learning and learner identity. This book will appeal to scholars of English for Specific Purposes, Second Language Acquisition, and TESOL Education.
- Chapter 1: Introduction.- Chapter 2. Conceptualising professional identity.- Chapter 3. Methodology.- Chapter 4. Emerging professional identity.- Chapter 5. Mode, access, and agency in participatory learning.- Chapter 6. Discursive construction of professional identity.- Chapter 7. Reception of students' professional identity construction.- Chapter 8. Towards a model of learning Business English learning and professional identity construction.
Learning Business English in China may be considered as an outstanding book to instructors and researchers of both ESP and Business English, but it can also be suitable for other kinds of readers, especially when having in mind the increasing popularity of Business English programmes around the world. Additionally, from a methodological viewpoint, this book provides excellent materials on how to study the professional identity of ESP and Business English students from multiple perspectives. (?lvaro Subero-Saenz, ESP Today, Vol. 7 (1)l#,