An interdisciplinary module to teach English and Business Organization in a university-level vocational course

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to outline a cooperative project between an English for Specific Purposes practitioner and a teacher of Business Organization, implemented for the undergraduate degree in Gastronomic Sciences at the University of Messina (Italy). The project’s main purpose was to raise students’ awareness on the use of English as a means of professional communication through team teaching. The general plan consisted of three different steps: it started with exposure to a chosen topic, the life cycle of business organizations (presented first by the content teacher in the mother tongue, and then in English by the foreign language practitioner), and finally through team-teaching with concurrent use of the L1 and L2. Learner evaluation was performed through oral examinations. The results showed an increase of proficiency in the target foreign language, as well as in the topic content and in oral skills.