When I started teaching business English this semester, I was being hired due to the previous instructor leaving unexpectedly. There was a temporary replacement during the previous term who decided to focus the course around business English news. While I didn’t get examples of what this looked like in the course, I was interested in continuing to use business news articles with the learners because they found it engaging.
Instead of shaping the whole course around these texts, I opted to integrate reading and discussion activities as a sort of warm up each week. In this post, I will explore the use of authentic news articles in my business English course. I’ll share some examples of activities as well as thoughts about how this type of task might support learners in the university business English context.
Using authentic materials
Authentic materials are broadly defined as resources that were not originally created for language teaching purposes but rather for native speakers in real-world contexts. In business English education, these materials encompass a wide range of texts including newspaper articles, business magazines, company annual reports, industry analyses, and online business news sources. They could also include things like podcasts, presentations, and other spoken texts as well.
The rationale for using such materials stems from their ability to expose learners to genuine business discourse, current terminology, and real-world applications of the language they are studying. This approach aligns with the communicative language teaching methodology that emphasizes meaningful, context-based learning.
In addition to supporting relevant language learning in the business English classroom, authentic materials might also create opportunities for learners to explore and discuss current issues facing the business world. I’ve written about how I’ve used social reading to explore global issues with learners in the past. And while more exploration of this question should be done before drawing conclusions, I suspect that the benefits of social reading to explore global issues could be mirrored in the business English classroom with issues facing the corporate landscape.
First, let’s explore some of the benefits and challenges of using authentic texts in the business English classroom.
Benefits of using authentic materials
Motivation
Research consistently indicates that authentic materials increase student motivation by providing relevant, current content that directly relates to learners’ professional needs. When students engage with real business articles discussing contemporary issues, they see immediate relevance to their career goals and the current business ecosystem.
Exposure to real business discourse and language
Authentic business articles expose learners to the actual language used in professional contexts, including:
- Industry-specific terminology and jargon
- Formal and informal registers appropriate to different business situations
- Current trends in business communication styles
- Cultural nuances in international business contexts
Development of critical thinking skills
Current business articles often present complex issues, multiple perspectives, and require analytical thinking. This exposure helps develop not only language skills but also the critical thinking abilities essential in business environments.
Currency and relevance
Unlike textbook materials that may become outdated, authentic materials from current business publications ensure that students are exposed to the most recent developments, terminology, and issues in the business world.
Challenges and limitations
Linguistic complexity
While authentic materials expose learners to vocabulary and language structures they might find in the real world, they also often include complex sentence structures, advanced vocabulary, cultural references, and an assumption of specific background knowledge. These things can make accessing authentic texts challenging for lower-level learners or learners with little exposure to the world of business.
Selection and adaptation difficulties
Another challenge instructors could face when using authentic materials in the business English classroom is related to selecting appropriate texts and adapting them for the most engaging experience for the greatest number of learners. Selecting appropriate materials for different proficiency levels, balancing authenticity with specific pedagogical needs, and investing the time needed to adapt and develop activities to accompany authentic texts are all things that might be barriers for instructors. Finally, selecting and creating and adapting might vary widely from instructor to instructor or even within a course without the assistance of a pedagogical framework to guide the work.
Additionally, related to selecting materials, while some content might be engaging for some learners, other learners might find the content less engaging or even strange or uncomfortable to work with.
Theoretical Foundations
Authentic Learning Theory
The use of authentic materials aligns with authentic learning theory (Donovan, Bransford, & Pellegrino, 1999), which emphasizes situating learning tasks in contexts that reflect how knowledge will be used in real-world situations. In business English, this means exposing learners to the actual texts and communication challenges they might encounter in professional settings.
Social Constructivist Approach
The use of current business articles supports social constructivist learning (Vygotsky, 1978) by providing shared content for discussion, collaboration, and knowledge building among learners with diverse business backgrounds and experiences.
Next, let’s take a look at specific examples of how I used authentic texts with my business English learners last semester.
Discussion activities with authentic texts
For the authentic text activities, I selected a number of texts from various online publications in English. The publications included the BBC, The Conversation, and The Guardian. For some of the activities, I used summaries of the texts rather than asking learners to read the entire text during class time. I’ve written about using Gemini to help generate course materials, and these summaries are one example of how I used Gemini to support my teaching. In other activities, we read the full texts together in class.
With each activity, I included preview discussion questions to engage learners with the topics. Then the reading component, either a summary or the full text, followed by comprehension discussion questions and vocabulary work.
Example activities
- ‘We use them every day’: In some parts of the US, the clack of typewriter keys can still be heard
- First migrant worker dies building a World Cup stadium in Saudi Arabia
- Mark Zuckerberg thinks workplaces need to ‘man up’ − here’s why that’s bad for all employees, no matter their gender
- Winemakers finding Trump’s tariffs hard to swallow
Final thoughts
Using authentic materials in the business English classroom can offer advantages like motivating learners as well as providing relevant content and authentic language exposure. However, successful integration of these types of materials requires careful consideration of learner needs. In the future, I’d like to explore the use of authentic texts a bit more deliberately with my business English learners. It would be interesting to see what student perceptions are of the benefits of these types of activities and how they might support student learning. It might also be worth exploring how social reading might be integrated into these types of tasks.
As Business English continues to evolve with changing global business practices, the integration of current authentic materials could be crucial for preparing learners for real-world professional communication challenges.
References
Donovan, S., Bransford, J., & Pellegrino. (1999). How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
Palincsar, A. Sullivan (1998). “Social Constructivist Perspectives on Teaching and Learning”. Annual Review of Psychology. 49: 345–375. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.49.1.345. PMID 15012472. S2CID 40335935.
Vygotsky, Lev (1978). Mind in Society. London: Harvard University Press.
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