Simulation in designing business writing activities

Abstract

It is not easy to create contexts in the classroom for business writing. However, teaching experience has shown that class activity can be successfully organized by means of role-play and simulation. That is why we have chosen to describe a simulation situation and to demonstrate that it is a very efficient method to create context and to motivate students to participate in such activities. In the article we present a three-stage simulation: the presentation of the task, the division of the class into groups, and stage three, the feedback stage, which in some ways is the most valuable stage of the simulation. Together with the students we tried to establish a number of assessing criteria, such as: aim, approach, motivation, task design, task adaptation. The students perceived this activity as ‘real' meaning they see themselves doing such an activity in their future career.