Formation of the culture of English business communication of students of non-philological specialties

The Business English curriculum

The curriculum from the discipline “Business English” provides that students of non-philological specialties should: learn the terminology that covers the basic concepts of future professional field; know idiomatic expressions in Business English; develop and enhance the skills of oral and written business communication on issues of future activities;  use professional communication skills to solve everyday problems; know the features of written communication and be able to compose business documents in a foreign language.
The curriculum in business English covers such basic topics as “The value of business communication”, “Means of business communication”, “Etiquette of written business communication”, “Telephone etiquette networking” and others. The main organizational forms of study of the subject “Business English” are the practical exercises, individual work and their defence, the final module control work. Future specialists master program material through educational materials, intensive use of information technologies such as relevant web sites.
During the practical exercises modern methods such as discussions, debates, group work and presentations are used. Group work is a collective work that requires thinking, direct participation to the overall educational goals. During this work, students develop their communication skills, and practical skills in the use of language in expressing their views and overcoming fear to speak the language. Group discussion enhances motivation and personal involvement of participants in solving problems and issues. Here they have to use not only the knowledge of foreign languages, but also their own opinion, to find the means to defend their positions. On the one hand, discussion promotes the development of lexical, grammatical and logical skills, on the other, it encourages students to listen to what others say thus developing listening comprehension skills. Debate and language competitions is another approach to the technology of foreign language teaching in general and business English in particular. In practice monologue is vital, it plays an important role in successful business. Students are required to efficiently organize independent work and ensure its effectiveness. The part of the independent study of the material planned to be processed is connected with working with specialized literature in the particular speciality, preparation of review essays, reports and messages that students present during workshops and individual consultations.
At the first stage of the program, students determine the subject of their research, select and learn professional literature, prepare a plan and the main thesis of their essays and reports. At the second stage, they present their completed works to defend them during the practical exercises. Particular attention should be paid to mastering terminology vocabulary. Students prepare a vocabulary of no less than 100 lexical units and pass the tests on the knowledge of terminological vocabulary.
As a result of studying the course “Business English”, students must possess professional communication skills, master a professional terminology, be able to prepare business documents in English and work with scientific literature. All the above will enable professionals to learn and effectively use foreign experience, to use modern information technology to participate in international congresses and workshops on various professional issues, to undergo training in foreign countries in order to improve their professional training, and to conduct a written exchange of business information as well.

Conclusions

Thus, modern a specialist should be not only a professional in the chosen field of activity, but also have a thorough humanitarian training, as well as a very high level of general culture, possess a culture of work, self-organization culture, culture of business communication. Today Ukraine takes the course of integration into European political, educational, scientific, cultural, and especially economic community, so the question to improve the quality of foreign language training of future specialists in various fields is very popular. Future professionals must be able to use the World Wide Web, foreign scientific publications, to expand their knowledge on the development of science in the world. The knowledge of foreign languages helps to make the process productive, creates competitive professionals in the global job market. The European community offers “mobility” of teachers and students. It is assumed that education in the world should conform to international qualifications so that any specialist can feel confident in any country. Therefore, the task of a foreign language teacher is to develop cultural business competence to the extent that the future specialist could properly navigate in the stream of business communication with foreign counterparts and defend his position.