Contrasting views of business students’ writing needs in an EFL environment

Abstract

This paper reports on a study of business student and faculty views at the Lebanese American University as to the students’ language proficiency levels, writing in particular, and what the specific writing needs are in order for students to be effective in their course work. The role of the English and business faculty is also investigated. English for specific purposes (ESP) research has indicated that although both faculty and students consider writing skills important, students’ English proficiency is not always up to the level needed to cope with the various writing genres required. Helping students raise their writing proficiency level has been the role of the English teacher; however, recent research in the field shows that students would benefit from the cooperation between the business and English faculty towards this end. Findings indicate that students perceive their writing skills as more satisfactory than faculty do, differ on what writing tasks are necessary, but agree that both the business and English faculty should cooperate in the teaching of English. Implications are drawn for ongoing cooperation in the teaching/learning of writing between the business discipline and the English as a Foreign language classroom.