









































Communication, Society and Media 
ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) 

Vol. 4, No. 4, 2021 
www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm 

10 
 

Review Paper 

A Research on the Improvement of Business English Teachers’ 

Competence in an Internet Plus Era 
Yu Chunmei1* 

1 Foreign Language Department, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, 180# Xueyuan Street, 

Huixing Road, Zigong City, Sichuan Province, China 
* Yu Chunmei, Foreign Language Department, Sichuan University of Science & Engineering, 180# 

Xueyuan Street, Huixing Road, Zigong City, Sichuan Province, China 

 

Research Project on Teaching Reform of Sichuan University of Science & Engineering (JG-19-58), 

2019 

 

Received: November 9, 2021   Accepted: November 15, 2021   Online Published: November 19, 2021 

doi:10.22158/csm.v4n4p10                       URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v4n4p10 

 

Abstract 

In an Internet Plus era, the internet technology has brought an unprecedented change to people’s ways 

and habits of learning, so the traditional BE instructional design cannot meet the talent needs of 

international business practice. BE teachers’ lack of business knowledge and practical experience 

forms an obstacle to BE teaching. BE teachers in transition should make more efforts to improve their 

competence and teaching quality, so as to cultivate comprehensive and practical talents of high quality. 

This paper aims at discussing how to improve BE teachers’ competence in an Internet Plus era. 

Keywords 

Internet Plus, business English, teachers’ competence, comprehensive and practical talents 

 

1. Introduction 

Business English, as an ESP used in business environment, requires teachers not only to have a high 

level of English language, but also to have rich international business knowledge and practical ability. 

With the rapid development of foreign trade, the demand for compound and applied foreign language 

talents is increasing day by day. The ability of teachers affects the training quality of business English 

talents. “The quality of business English teachers has a direct impact on the teaching quality of 

business English” (Weng, J. L. & Weng, F. X., 2012). However, most business English teachers in 

China lack basic knowledge and practical experience of international business. The rapid development 



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of Internet technology has unprecedentedly changed people’s learning styles and habits, the traditional 

teaching mode of business English class have been unable to meet the demand of students’ learning, is 

bound to trigger a new teaching model reform—the advanced Internet technology will be applied to 

traditional teaching process, in order to adapt to the development needs of the era of large data. 

Classroom teaching is still the main way for students to acquire knowledge, while teachers are the main 

body of classroom teaching, and the growth and achievement of students is the goal of teaching. In the 

era of Internet plus education, how to improve the quality of teaching through the development of their 

own ability, and cultivate comprehensive and practical talents of high quality is a problem that every 

business English teacher should think about. 

 

2. Method 

The author adopts qualitative method to make an analysis on business English teachers’ competence in 

an Internet+ era. In the study, the author chooses the course design, business English teachers’ 

education background, classroom teaching methods etc. as the object of the research. Questionnaires 

with twenty questions for each are designed to collect the data for research, and samples are selected 

randomly from the students and teachers in our school. 

 

3. Result 

Prime minister Li Keqiang, in his government work report put forward the concept of “Internet +”, 

points out that the “Internet +” is the innovation of the Internet and economic society in various fields 

depth fusion, to promote technological progress, improve efficiency and organizational change, 

promote the real economy, innovation and productivity to form more widely on the Internet for 

infrastructure and innovation elements in new form of social and economic development. It can be seen 

that “Internet + Education” is not simply adding network technology to the field of education, but 

applying advanced Internet technology to all aspects of education, including classroom teaching, 

textbook compilation, and students’ comprehensive evaluation system, to deeply integrate the 

innovative achievements of the Internet with teaching. In order to promote the overall development of 

Internet technology and education industry, promote the reform and innovation of teaching and 

improve teaching results. The Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting the “Internet Plus” Action 

issued by The State Council clearly proposed exploring new ways of providing education services, 

including encouraging schools to make use of digital education resources and education service 

platforms, gradually exploring a new model of networked education, expanding the coverage of 

high-quality education resources, and promoting education equity. Universities are encouraged to 

connect online and offline education resources through cooperation with Internet companies, promote 

online learning models such as massive open online courses, and accelerate the reform of higher 



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education service models. This also indicates the advent of the “Internet + education” era. In this era, 

business English teachers are faced with a problem: how to develop themselves, achieve a successful 

transformation from language and literature to business English teaching, and adapt to the 

transformation from traditional teaching mode to new classroom teaching mode. 

3.1 Problems Faced by Business English Teachers 

Experts from Ministry of Education in National Standard for Undergraduate Teaching Quality of 

Business English Major in Colleges and Universities clearly pointed out that the training target is to 

cultivate comprehensive and practical talents of international vision and high quality, to cultivate their 

English basic skills with international vision and the humanities accomplishment, and to master 

international business knowledge and related rules of practice, With English application ability, 

business practice ability, cross-cultural communication ability, thinking and innovation ability, 

independent learning ability, can engage in international business work compound, application-oriented 

talents. The cultivation of talents is inseparable from the teacher’s teaching work, and the teacher’s 

ability and quality also determine the teaching quality. Therefore, “Business English Standard” also 

puts forward requirements on the quality of business English teachers. Business English teachers 

should have noble ethics, qualified basic English skills, professional knowledge, teaching ability, 

scientific research ability, practical ability, and the ability of applying modern educational information 

technology to carry out classroom teaching and teaching reform. However, the ability of business 

English teachers and the level of scientific research are not satisfactory. 

Using ESP demand theory, Guo Guihang and Li Dan (2015) found that the defects of business English 

teachers in terms of ability and quality were mainly reflected in the following aspects: First, the 

proportion of composite teachers who had both English language and business background education 

experience was low; Teachers’ knowledge reserve is insufficient, English language, culture and 

business knowledge need to be improved; Lack of business practice experience and weak business 

practice ability, most teachers are unable to keep pace with The Times, unable to apply social hot issues 

as practical cases in classroom teaching; Business practice teaching ability is limited, information 

teaching ability needs to be improved. Since most business English teachers have changed from single 

language teaching to teaching business knowledge in English language, there are widespread problems 

of lack of business knowledge and insufficient business practice ability. To some extent, this restricts 

teachers’ inspirational and creative teaching ability, is not conducive to arousing students’ interest and 

enthusiasm in learning, and seriously hinders the teaching effect of business English classroom 

teaching. 

3.2 Suggestions on the Development of Business English Teachers 

Teacher ability refers to the personality and psychological characteristics that teachers show in 

educational and teaching activities and directly or indirectly affect the quality and completion of 



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educational and teaching activities. “The key factor affecting students’ ability development lies in 

teachers’ ability, and there is a high correlation between the components of teachers’ ability and 

teaching effect” (Lu & Hong, 2007). Zhang Bo (2007) believes that teachers’ ability consists of four 

elements: teaching ability, scientific research ability, management ability and creative ability. Students 

majoring in business English in colleges and universities are a group with mature mental development 

and self-behavior management ability. However, the particularity of business English requires teachers 

to constantly improve their business knowledge level and practical ability. Therefore, how to improve 

the ability of business English teachers is mainly elaborated from the following three aspects: 

innovative teaching ability, business practice ability and scientific research ability. 

3.2.1 Innovative Teaching Ability of Business English Teachers 

Teaching ability is “the individual psychological characteristics required by teachers to successfully 

complete teaching activities, and a professional quality formed by transforming individual intelligence 

and knowledge and skills required for teaching through practice” (Yang, 1996). Business English 

teachers should not only have solid English language and business knowledge at the same time, but 

also have creative teaching methods in order to successfully complete the set teaching tasks and 

achieve the teaching objectives. Teachers’ creative ability refers to “teachers’ ability to synthesize 

existing knowledge, information and experience to produce unique and novel teaching, educational 

design, educational skills and new results that are different from others” (Wang, 1991). The 21st 

century needs compound talents with innovative ability most, only teachers with creative ability can 

cultivate creative students. Business English teachers create unique and novel teaching designs based 

on existing professional knowledge and teaching skills according to the particularity of their major, 

rather than “a simple tool for mechanically transferring knowledge” (Zhang, 2007). 

With the rapid development of mobile Internet technology, students have diversified channels and ways 

to acquire knowledge, and teachers are no longer the only representatives of preaching and clarifying 

doubts. Under the traditional closed business English teaching mode, the teaching content is outdated, 

the teaching method is backward and the teaching efficiency is low. The current business English 

teaching design based on classroom teaching has been unable to meet the needs of the increasingly 

expanding practice of business English knowledge operation (Wang, 2009), let alone meet the needs of 

the rapidly developing international business activities. “Internet + Education” has broken the 

monopoly of authority on knowledge and turned education from closed to open. Students can access 

knowledge no longer only in class, but can enjoy the learning resources they want anytime and 

anywhere. The teacher is no longer the representative of authoritative knowledge, but the creator and 

consumer of knowledge as well as the student. At this point, business English teachers must change 

their role from the classroom controller to the guide of students’ learning, to stimulate students’ 

enthusiasm and initiative in learning. 



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Classroom teaching is an interactive process between students and teachers, and teachers should give 

full play to students’ subjective initiative. The teaching process is crucial to the training quality of 

students, and teachers’ teaching methods and methods directly affect students’ experience of the 

teaching process (Guo & Li, 2015). That is to say, teachers’ teaching methods and methods directly 

affect students’ learning results, high-quality teaching should be creative and inspiring teaching, 

stimulate students’ learning enthusiasm. Therefore, business English teachers should strengthen the 

application of modern information technology in the teaching process, use multimedia and network 

resources to design creative activities in and out of class, and strengthen the vividness and extensibility 

of classroom teaching, so that students can not only stay in class, but also continue to supplement their 

learning and thinking after class. For example, when it comes to price terms, letters of credit and other 

knowledge, teachers can not only tell the relevant basic theoretical knowledge in class, but also 

organize students to conduct group case analysis, and provide students with after-class learning 

resources through social platforms to further consolidate the basic knowledge learned in class. Teachers 

can find the latest case analysis materials and learning resources for students to expand their learning 

after class through the Internet. 

In the Internet + era, flipped classroom, MOOC, micro-class and other new teaching models can 

mobilize students’ enthusiasm and enthusiasm for learning to a certain extent, but teachers are always 

the leader in the teaching process. Therefore, business English teachers insist on student-centered 

teaching and meet the learning needs of students through their own continuous development. The full 

use of the Internet information platform, not only can timely update the content of the teaching material, 

but also can extend the teaching content to the learning process outside the classroom. Using Internet 

technology, adding simulated business practice activities in the teaching process can not only improve 

students’ ability to analyze and solve problems, but also improve their learning initiative. 

3.2.2 The Business Knowledge and Practical Experience of Business English Teachers 

“Teachers’ abilities should include teaching ability, subject professional knowledge and ability” (Song, 

1999), while “business English teachers should not only have high English knowledge and skills, but 

also business professional knowledge and cross-cultural communication ability” (Wang & Zhang, 

2006). Therefore, business English teachers should not only have a high level of English language and 

culture, but also constantly strengthen the “input” of international business knowledge, so as to 

accurately “output” to students in class teaching and cultivate interdisciplinary talents with strong 

business practice ability. 

In the Internet + era, international business knowledge is changing with each passing day. Business 

English knowledge in practice is a constantly changing and developing “knowledge network”, covering 

knowledge in many fields, which is “rooted in all levels” and constantly updated and developed (Mao, 

2003). In other words, the knowledge of business English in practice keeps pace with The Times, 



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responds promptly and applies to the development of international business. However, the content of 

most business English textbooks is outdated after several years. Students cannot acquire such dynamic 

business English knowledge from textbooks and coursebook-based classes, so they cannot adapt to the 

rapid development of international business. Therefore, business English teachers should constantly 

update their professional knowledge and improve their professional skills, such as going abroad for 

further study, attending vocational training and various academic conferences, and strengthening 

communication and cooperation with teachers of related majors, to make up for the deficiency of 

teaching material knowledge. 

Teachers’ classroom teaching should keep pace with The Times. When teaching business knowledge, 

they should not copy the contents of textbooks, but carry out discussions based on current economic 

and social hot topics. Combining business knowledge with hot topics that students are interested in can 

not only activate the classroom atmosphere, mobilize the enthusiasm of students to participate in the 

class, but also strengthen their business practice ability and critical thinking ability. The development of 

network technology increases the breadth of knowledge acquired by students, but most of them are 

superficial and fragmented, which leads to students’ passive acceptance and lazy thinking and 

systematization of knowledge. Therefore, professional teachers should provide students with 

knowledge sources of depth and breadth by screening these easily available fragmented knowledge, 

encourage students to be good at thinking, and reconstruct the fragmented knowledge. Let the Internet 

be a resource for students to read and think and debate. 

The business English major aims to cultivate high quality compound and applied talents who can do 

practical work in the process of international business communication and cooperation. The business 

practice ability of business English teachers plays an important role in cultivating such talents. 

Advanced teaching equipment, novel teaching methods and modern teaching means can improve the 

teaching effect to a certain extent, but teachers are the fundamental guarantee of teaching quality. 

Therefore, teachers should use their spare time to strengthen the improvement of business practice 

ability, so that classroom teaching is no longer empty theoretical teaching, but a business practice 

experience sharing. Teachers should take their own business practice experience as the teaching content 

in class, encourage students to actively participate in classroom activities, make classroom teaching 

more creative and attractive, and help improve students’ enthusiasm and initiative in classroom 

participation. 

3.2.3 Scientific Research Ability of Business English Teachers 

The scientific research ability of teachers is “the ability of teachers to creatively solve problems by 

taking educational phenomena as objects, using scientific methods and exploring the rules of 

educational activities” (Zhang, 2007). It can be seen that teachers’ scientific research activities are 

teachers’ creative means to study and try to solve the new problems found in the teaching process, for 



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the purpose of promoting teaching. Shu Dingfang (2004) said that; “Whether a teacher is engaged in 

scientific research or not, is also the standard that distinguishes a teacher from a mere ‘teacher’ or an 

‘expert’ in foreign language education”. As a business English teacher, we should not only ensure 

high-quality teaching work, but also actively improve our scientific research ability. 

In the usual teaching process, we should be good at finding new problems and looking for 

breakthroughs in scientific research. How to effectively teach language knowledge and silently impart 

business knowledge and skills in classroom teaching is a test of teachers’ teaching efficiency and 

teaching methods, and also points out the direction for teachers’ scientific research, that is, how to 

improve the efficiency and effect of business English teaching. Teaching work provides teachers with 

scientific research materials, and in turn scientific research can promote the improvement of teaching 

quality and comprehensive quality of teachers. The composite characteristics of business English 

teachers determine that their research direction is mainly in the business field, including the research on 

various business activities, policies, talents and the development trend and laws of international 

business and other related affairs. The study of business theory and practice can effectively enrich 

teachers’ business knowledge and improve the specialization of classroom teaching. 

Of course, teachers’ personal development is inseparable from the support of the school. Hang in China 

(2008) said: “the good scientific research environment is the soil for young teachers’ scientific research 

ability raise, effective incentive mechanism is the innovative ability of young teachers fertilizer”, 

therefore, should schools for teachers’ scientific research work and more investment funds and 

equipment, efforts to create a strong academic atmosphere, establish excellent research team and 

effective incentive mechanism. Encourage teachers to actively participate in scientific research to 

steadily improve their innovation ability and teaching level. Under the leadership of the scientific 

research team organized by the school, business English teachers participate in systematic and 

standardized scientific research training to improve their scientific research ability; Attend international 

academic conferences and cooperative research projects in the field of language and business, and pay 

close attention to the leading figures in the field, their research achievements and research topics they 

are engaged in, so as to understand the most cutting-edge professional knowledge and research trends; 

Cooperate with local enterprises to do some horizontal research projects to help enterprises improve 

economic benefits and promote the development of local economy. 

Teaching and scientific research are the two most important factors to measure the ability of university 

teachers. Teaching is the foundation, and scientific research is the theoretical summary of teaching 

practice, which acts on teaching. If a teacher is all teaching and no research, teaching will stagnate. 

Therefore, business English teachers must strengthen the awareness of scientific research; make full 

use of the scientific research environment and conditions provided by the school, and work hard to 

improve the teaching level and scientific research ability. 



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4. Discussion 

In the era of Internet + education, education can be realized without the restriction of time and place. 

Teachers and textbooks are no longer the only channels for students to acquire knowledge. Internet + 

education is a new ecological industry of Internet in the field of education, which brings convenience 

as well as some challenges to business English teaching. To realize the strategy of Chinese enterprises 

going global, it is particularly important to cultivate comprehensive and practical talents of high quality. 

The ability and quality of teachers directly affect the quality of teaching and teaching effect, and then 

affect the training quality of business English talents. However, at present, most business English 

teachers in China are deficient in business knowledge, business practice ability, business teaching and 

scientific research ability, which seriously hinders the overall development of business English 

discipline and the cultivation of business English talents. The competitiveness of business English 

teachers can be improved by promoting their competitiveness of business practices, creativity, and 

scientific research level. Only the continuous improvement of teachers’ ability can promote the 

continuous growth of students and thus improve the overall development level of business English 

subject. 

 

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