Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the perspectives of using content-based approach on college students in International Trade Business English (ITBE) Class. Content-based Approach (CBA) viewed as language learning with contents for academic subject matter. It provides a cognitive and motivational basis of language learning. CBA approach gave the academic or language instructors a guideline for designing the contents and activities. Concurrent triangulation research conducted with quantitative method was designed to understand the learners improve their knowledge of business English through the CBA. 115 participants who majored in the Department of Applied English completed questionnaires at both the beginning and the end of the course. To obtain qualitative data, ten participants were randomly selected for specific purpose. Participants received the semi- interview to obtain the detailed information. Findings are listed as followings: (1) CBA increase the level of students’ satisfaction toward the well-designed ITBE materials, (2) CBA has positive effects on ITBE course contents, (3) CBA in ITBE classrooms motivate students’ learning needs, and (4) CBA helps the academic teacher and language teachers work well in designing the course activities and materials. Results indicate that CBA enriched experience of ESP learners and provided practical opportunities for ITBE learning.

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