An empirical study on application of frequent quizzes to business english courses

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of frequent quizzes applied to subject-based business English courses designed for students in Sichuan University of Arts and Science in China. Besides, this study investigates students’ views on design, administration, optimizing of quizzes. A total of fourteen quizzes were administered in the teaching practice of a business English course called International Settlement and Documentation, which was offered to two classes of business English majors in one semester. Then, a questionnaire survey was conducted online and 45 students responded to the questionnaire. Findings and analyses were based on the 45 respondents’ feedback. The study results show that the students had a positive attitude to the application of quizzes on the whole and the quizzes were effective to a large extent in facilitating their acquisition of relevant business knowledge and language items. The vast majority of students were satisfied with the amount of items in quizzes and administration of quizzes. What needs to be improved on in their views focused on diversity of question types. Recommendations on application of frequent quizzes to English teaching, future research and optimizing quizzes were put forward in the end.