BUSINESS ENGLISH STUDY REVIEW: A CONTENT ANALYSIS
GAO XIANWEI *
Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and School of Foreign Languages, Xuchang University, Xuchang, China
MOSES SAMUEL
Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ADELINA ASMAWI
Faculty of Education, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
In this study, a content analysis of Business English literature study is conducted to figure out: the research tendency and content of business English study. In total, 200 journal articles (n=200) are studied and the title of “Business English” is retrieved from six journal databases including the main Chinese journal databases CNKI and WanFang, and four international databases SAGE Journals, ScienceDirect, SCOPUS, and ProQuest Education Journals from the year of 1999 to 2013. The findings reveal that 1) Chinese scholars publish a large quantity of journal articles; 2) Business English studies are main at three disciplines: “Foreign Linguistics and Applied Linguistics”, “English Language and Literature”, and “Curriculum and Pedagogy”; 3) The study of Business English in academic dissertations remains at the level of Master; 4) Business English study focuses on the four categories from 1999 to 2013: issues of language study, issues of education, issues of translation, and issues of cross-culture communication. This study also analyzes the research limitations and recommendations of Business English study.
Keywords: Business English, business English study, content analysis, business English institution