Enhancing Students' Awareness of Global Englishes and Intercultural Communicative Competence through a Volunteering Project: A Case of Business English Majors Attending the Cross-Strait Floral Exposition in China

English as a global language has made great impacts socially and communicatively on widespread levels. With the increasing use of English as a lingua franca (ELF), associating English with purely native English speakers seems no longer appropriate. Instead, English is linked with users in its global community. With ever growing English users worldwide, acquiring the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) becomes a must in English language teaching (ELT). However, theories in this field have scarcely been put into practice. Empirical research exploring English learning experience, intercultural communication and practices of Business English majors remains scant in China. This study involved 98 Business English majors from a vocational college in the southeast part of FuJian Province. They volunteered for interpretation services at the Cross-Strait Floral Exposition in November 2019 between international exhibitors and local tourists. The reflective journals of each of the 98 students as well as ten semi-structured interviews were used for the qualitative analysis. During the exhibition, the participants applied the English they learned from classrooms to a real-world communicative setting. They also practiced the first-hand concept of Global Englishes (GE) and developed the ICC. This whole experience highlighted the importance of teaching Business English in a practical situation. Recommendations were made for Business English education at a tertiary level based on the results. To prepare Business English students for their future careers, English professors should master and disseminate GE pedagogy and develop their students' ICC related skills.

關鍵字

Global Englishes (GE) ； Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) ； Business English ； Volunteering Activity

並列摘要

英語已成為全球性的語言；它的廣泛使用已經在社會、溝通交流等許多層面上產生了巨大影響。隨著英語作為通用語言（ELF）且頻繁地使用，將英語純粹地與以母語人士聯繫起來似乎不再合適。相反地，英語應與全球的使用者形成聯結。隨著全球英語使用者數量的增加，英語教學（ELT）融合跨文化交際能力（ICC）成為必要的元素。但是，該領域的理論幾乎沒有付諸實踐，探索英語學習經驗，跨文化交流和商務英語專業實踐的實證研究仍不多。2019年11月，位於福建省東南部的一所職業學院98名商務英語系學生參加了為期七天的海峽兩岸花卉博覽會，為國際展商和當地遊客提供翻譯志願服務。這項研究採用了質性研究方法－98名學生的反思性日記以及十場的半結構化訪談。透過此經驗，參與者把教室裡學到的英語實際應用於真實世界的交流。他們體驗了全球性英語（GE）的第一手概念，並培養了跨文化交際能力。此經驗顯現出，透過實際情況教導商務英語的重要性。根據結果，作者對商務英語專業的教學提出了建議：為了使商務英語學生做好就職準備，商務英語專業的教師應掌握和傳播全球性英語教學法，並盡力發展學生的跨文化交際能力。

並列關鍵字

全球性英語；跨文化交際能力；商務英語；志願者活動

參考文獻

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Enhancing Students' Awareness of Global Englishes and Intercultural Communicative Competence through a Volunteering Project: A Case of Business English Majors Attending the Cross-Strait Floral Exposition in China

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