Resumen de Challenges of Developing Speaking Skills in Business English Courses at the Tertiary Level
An increasing number of institutions of higher education has been offering language courses for specific purposes, including Business English courses. There are several reasons for this situation. First, institutions of higher education have to follow requirements concerning the teaching of foreign languages established by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. Second, first-year students have already been learning a foreign language for a number of years, so institutions of higher education offer specialized language courses, in order to avoid repeating the same linguistic content again. Third, institutions of higher education want to prepare their graduates to succeed in the labour market and specialized language courses are supposed to help students achieve this aim. As regards the main emphasis of language courses for specific purposes, students and teachers alike think that language lessons at the tertiary level should concentrate on developing speaking skills. However, developing speaking skills during language courses is burdened with some difficulties. This chapter presents what challenges language teachers face when teaching speaking skills in Business English classes
