The processes and challenges in developing text-based courses for Business and Economics students

Abstract

The reformed curriculum at HKU will see students taking 12 credits of English in two courses. The first of these will be a General University English course in their freshman year and the second a more discipline-specific English course in their second year. For business and economics students this second year English in the Discipline course aims to take a broadly genre-based approach sets out to develop students' awareness of the generic features of the texts they would be required to read and produce in their major studies. While this approach allows students a more integrated learning experience that is relevant to their communication needs during their course of study, it also represents considerable challenges in material development. This paper reports on the ongoing development of this course and the challenges faced. It describes the process of the needs analysis and how the target communicative demands in the faculty were investigated. It further elaborates how student involvement in the project was sought. The paper also describes the challenges in working and liaising with the business faculty, and the challenges in identifying and selecting suitable texts within this course approach.