Challenges in meeting objectives: teaching grammar to business students

Abstract

The present article looks into some of the difficulties of teaching grammar to business students. Since students in economics are not philologists, they lack an interest in the workings of the language, as for them language is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Consequently, the ability to spark their interest while at the same time making headway appears to be the lecturer's main challenge. In view of the above, several courses of action need to be taken into account, such as: focus ought to be placed on language acquisition rather than language learning, specialized literature ought to be provided to the students for them to assimilate grammar naturally instead of learning the rules by heart and, most importantly, seminar materials ought to cover a wide array of real-life situations (emails, company reports, articles from economics and finance journals and magazines). Thus, the seminar experience can become pleasant while at the same time efficient and the students' knowledge of grammar can greatly improve.