





































Education, Language and Sociology Research 

ISSN 2690-3644 (Print) ISSN 2690-3652 (Online) 

Vol. 5, No. 1, 2024 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/elsr 

122 
 

Original Paper 

Research on Business English Course Construction in 

Application-oriented Colleges under the Background of Cross 

Border E-commerce 

Ju Liu1 

1 Chongqing College of Mobile Communication, Hechuan, Chongqing, China  

 

Received: January 26, 2024     Accepted: February 20, 2024     Online Published: March 4, 2024 

doi:10.22158/elsr.v5n1p122      URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/elsr.v5n1p122 

 

Abstract 

With the rapid development of cross border E-commerce, more and more attention is being paid to 

business English in Chinese students’ employment, students are required to not only have good basic 

language skills, but also considerable professional knowledge and practical ability in business English. 

This paper explores the development of business English course in application-oriented colleges by 

reading and analyzing relative online and offline literature and further puts forward ways to improve the 

teaching from both theoretical and practical perspectives by conducting questionnaires and interviews. 

Taken Chongqing College of Mobile Communication as an example, this paper analyzes the current 

situation of business English course in application-oriented colleges, point out the existing problems, 

and put forward corresponding solutions, so as to improve the teaching efficiency of business English 

course and give implications to the further development of ESP courses.  

Keywords  

cross border E-commerce, business English course, implications, ESP 

 

1. Introduction 

As a new mode of international trade, cross-border e-commerce enjoys the advantages of flexibility, 

convenience, few intermediate links and high transaction efficiency. It has shown great potential and 

become a new engine for stabilizing foreign trade growth and promoting economic development. The 

development of cross-border e-commerce has given rise to a large number of new types of occupational 

positions, such as live broadcasting, digital marketing, overseas warehouse management and localized 

operations. So the demand for cross-border e-commerce talents from these new occupational job groups 



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has shown explosive growth, and puts forward new requirements on the knowledge structure, skill level 

and professionalism for students. 

Cross-border e-commerce refers to the international commercial activity in which transactions are 

conducted by means of e-commerce between transacting entities in different border territories. In the 

process, online ordering, payment, delivery of goods through cross-border logistics, customs clearance 

and final delivery are done to complete the transaction. Language is one of the basic skills when 

conducting business activities among different countries, and how to cultivate talents with certain 

knowledge of business English needed by society has become a heated topic. Besides, the development 

of cross-border e-commerce has given rise to a large demand for applied business English talents. The 

demand for talents in the market has put forward higher requirements for the teaching of business English 

in colleges, which not only requires students to have good basic language skills, but also considerable 

professional knowledge and practical ability in business English. Teachers’ teaching level and ability 

directly affect the quality of students’ learning, and further affect high-quality talents forested by colleges 

for the society, so it is urgent to improve the teaching level and skills of English teachers.  

This paper is to analyze the problems in the construction of Business English course in application-

oriented colleges under the background of cross-border e-commerce, and put forward ways to strengthen 

the teachers’ teaching, enhance the cooperation between schools and enterprises, promote the on-campus 

simulation training, actively participate in on-the-job training, and encourage further study to carry out 

the regular and continuous knowledge learning, so as to improve business English students’ learning and 

practical ability and give implications to the further development of ESP courses. 

 

2. The Demand for Cross-border E-commerce Talents 

In 2019 nine new additions are added to the profession, among which cross-border e-commerce is 

included. For cross-border e-commerce talents, it is necessary to have expertise in four areas, including 

international economics and trade, business foreign language skills, e-commerce platform operation 

skills, and comprehensive vocational skills (He, 2018). Diversified cross-border e-commerce cities have 

unique advantages, however, there are also some problems, for example, the development of e-commerce 

industry shows diversification and high elimination rate, which requires talents to have sufficient 

experience and innovation ability. Survey found that most e-commerce enterprises attach importance to 

the staff’s English level, especially writing ability and oral communication, in addition, e-commerce 

enterprises need employees to grasp the consumption habits and cultural customs of foreign customers, 

own some cross-cultural communication skills, be familiar with the international trade business, 

international logistics operations, cross-border e-commerce platforms and customer service business. 

These demands have provided a direction for colleges to cultivate talents with both theoretical and 

practical abilities. Application-orientated colleges aim to cultivate talents with profound knowledge and 

comprehensive skills to serve the needs of local economic and social development, so they focus on 

practice and application, and actively advocate the teaching concept of learning by applying. 



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3. Business English Course Construction in Application-oriented Colleges 

With the development of global information and cultural diversification, language service has become a 

productive practice in the process of national modernization, and play an important role in national 

economic, political and cultural construction (Wang, 2022). Application has been included as an 

important type in the establishment of colleges, and newly built ordinary colleges has been encouraged 

to transform into the application-oriented type and actively focus on the cultivation of applied talents 

needed by society. The transformation and development of colleges need dual-quality English teachers 

who have both theoretical knowledge and practical skills so as to further cultivate talents with practical 

business English knowledge. 

Business English course is is guided by the theory of applied linguistics, centred on business knowledge 

and involves many disciplines such as economics, management, cross-culture communication and so on 

(Wang, 2020). As an important branch of ESP, Business English has developed into a relatively 

independent discipline in developed countries and achievements have been made in terms of pedagogy, 

teaching materials and teachers. In the late 1980s, Business English was developed into an independent 

discipline in China. At present, with the improvement of economic strength, business English is playing 

an increasingly important role in international business activities, and the teaching and research of 

business English is also receiving more and more attention. It is estimated that more than eight hundred 

colleges and universities have offered business English majors or courses, cultivating a large number of 

talents for international business and trade. 

With the transformation of economic structure, the society needs more and more talents who know a 

certain amount of business English. However, according to the survey, there are still some obstacles in 

the process of cultivating business English talents, for example, from the teachers’ perspective, there are 

problems such as the lack of on-the-job experience, the lack of comprehensive understanding of the 

related fields, teaching language itself, neglecting business practice and so on; from students’ perspective, 

some students have little interest in learning, no strong motivation, insufficient input and little output, 

lack of initiative. Besides, many students can only understand some business English terminology after 

completing the course, but can not put what they have learned into practice, which is far from becoming 

the excellent composite business talents needed by society.  

 

4. Problems in the Construction of Business English Course  

Chongqing College of Mobile Communication is an application-oriented university that provides 

students with general English teaching in the first and second year to learn the basics of English language, 

and ESP courses related to their majors in the third and fourth year to apply professional English 

knowledge in real work. ESP courses cultivate students’ ability to use English to communicate in a 

certain working environment. It focuses on learners’ needs, emphasizes the authenticity of teaching 

content and learning tasks, highlights the integration of teaching and doing, and closely focuses on 

students’ vocational needs.  



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Business English course emphasizes the combination of language and business, focusing on the 

enhancement of English language skills and practical business knowledge, aiming to cultivate talents 

who are capable of competent business management, marketing, communication and planning in the 

industry. On the one hand, business English teaching should improve students’ language knowledge. On 

the other hand, it is supposed to emphasize the practicality of learning, help students learn by doing, and 

improve students’ international business communication and cross-cultural communication skills. All 

these put forward higher requirements for business English teachers, through questionnaires and in-depth 

interviews with students and teachers, it is found that there are still some problems in business English 

course: 

4.1 Lack of Business English Teaching Experience 

Many business English teachers are traditional language teachers without business knowledge, not to 

mention the experience of working in enterprises. Although they have good knowledge of English 

language skills, they lack practical training in business English, and most of them learn business-related 

knowledge while teaching, so it is difficult for them to understand specific problems related to business, 

and sometimes they can only teach in a rigid way. Besides, due to teachers’ lack of practical experience 

in business English, it is very difficult for teachers to combine language skills with business activities, 

instead, they favor one or the other or only the learning of the surface, resulting in the fact that students 

only learn something superficial and can not connect what they have learned in class with real work 

practice in the end.  

What’s more, some teachers neglect to explain the business cultural background and only explain the 

English language itself, which leads to the result that students feel unfamiliar with the business 

environment when they are employed, and need more time to adapt to work. Moreover, the traditional 

business English teaching environment is limited to the textbook and the teacher’s explanation in the 

classroom, and the students’ ability to apply their knowledge into actual business work is relatively poor. 

4.2 Insufficient School-enterprise Cooperation  

School-enterprise cooperation is a good way to apply theory into practice. Teachers can learn deeply and 

use the experience of on-the-job training while teaching, so as to help students understand the needs of 

employers and be clear about their own study goals and methods. However, in real situation, the teachers 

do not want to participate in the job training because of the low salary, heavy teaching workload and high 

pressure. Besides, most enterprises do not believe in the practical ability of teachers and are not willing 

to let teachers really participate in work, so that the teachers are not really integrated into the operation 

of the enterprises and just go through the motions superficially.  

In addition, from the students’ perspective, there are few internship opportunities for students to apply 

their business English knowledge into real work, which leads to the fact that students can not participate 

in school-enterprise cooperation and use their business English, and it is difficult for them to appreciate 

the knowledge and attain achievement of learning. So it is essential for teachers to carry out market-

oriented or problem-solving based practical training teaching models, so as to guide and encourage 



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students to engage in skill competitions and internships and cultivate composite talents to meet market 

demands. 

4.3 Lack of Motivation 

As a practical course, Business English course requires teachers to have not only language skills but also 

practical experience in business, which in turn makes teachers stressed. On the one hand, teachers need 

to actively prepare for the lessons, master the knowledge of Business English in the textbook and teach 

students in an appropriate way. On the other hand, they need to participate in the professional training in 

summer holiday, winter holiday or during the weekends, so as to understand and appreciate the actual 

use of business English knowledge. Compared with other teachers, business English teachers need to 

spend more time, energy and money constantly participating in different training to improve themselves. 

But at present, most schools do not have encouragement for business English teachers materially or 

spiritually, which leads to the consequence that some teachers are reluctant to teach business English 

courses. 

For the students, as the course is arranged in the third or fourth year when they have to prepare for job-

hunting or post graduate study, survey shows that students just take business English as a course to get 

credit and help them to graduate. As a consequence, a large number of students haven’t realized the 

practical importance of business English, and they have no incentive to learn actively. Besides, it is found 

that the traditional teacher-centred teaching mode adopted in business English course focus on English 

knowledge instead of business practice, and can not effectively stimulate students’ independent learning, 

innovation and communication ability for most students just passively accept knowledge without 

learning motivation. 

4.4 Students’ Low Learning Engagement in Digital Teaching Resources 

Learning engagement refers to the extent to which students are actively involved in learning activities 

(Heflin, Shewmaker, & Nguyen, 2017) and can reflect students’ initiative, motivation and effort and has 

a direct impact on their learning outcomes (Chi & Wylie, 2014). Fredricks et al. (2004) proposed that 

learning engagement consists of behavioral, cognitive and affective engagement. Behavioral engagement 

is manifested in the learners’ participation, persistence and effort in a task; cognitive engagement is 

related to the learners’ cognitive and cognitive strategies, involving deep processing, self-monitoring and 

self-regulation strategies; and affective engagement refers to the individual’s affective response during 

the learning process, which is the interest, recognition, sense of value and sense of belonging and so on.  

Digital teaching resources refer to the digital information that can provide services for education and 

teaching, which include slides, projections, audio, video, digital teaching materials, electronic lesson 

plans, Internet teaching resources such as MOOC and micro-classes. The appropriate use of these 

teaching resources is an effective way to further extend the depth and breadth of teaching and learning. 

 With the continuous development of information technology in education, paper-based teaching 

materials can no longer meet the requirements of teaching, and digital teaching resources are constantly 

developing. The appropriate use of these teaching resources is an effective way to further expand the 



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depth and breadth of teaching. However, research has found that most teachers and students fail to make 

good use of digital resources, the problems of “resource-rich” digital teaching resources and lack of 

learner engagement need to be solved urgently.  

 

5. Strategies for the Construction of Better Business English Courses  

In order to enhance teaching efficiency and cultivate better business English talents, it is necessary to 

take some measures. 

5.1 Encourage Multi-disciplinary Research 

Teachers are the organizers and guides in the teaching process, and only when the quality of teachers is 

improved can they further promote teaching, so as to better serve thousands of students and achieve the 

goal of cultivating talents needed by the country.  

In terms of teaching, it is necessary to strengthen the dual-quality teacher team construction, build a 

teaching community, and implement the policy in which experienced teachers help new teachers so as to 

pass on teaching experience and promote mutual learning and common progress (Zhang, 2019). In 

addition, it is advised to organize demonstration or open classes, carry out collective lesson preparation 

activities and encourage teachers to participate in teaching competitions so as to promote teaching ability 

and improve teaching efficiency. What’s more, teachers are encouraged to participate in professional 

academic seminars and inter-school exchanges, and write comprehensive report after learning to improve 

teaching and research level. 

Moreover, it is beneficial for business English teachers to take advantage of the school’s business courses 

and try to attain appropriate qualifications and certificates. For example, if one of the school’s special 

courses is e-commerce, business English teachers can choose to listen to this course to expand relative 

knowledge and try to get the Business English Certificate if possible. In addition, communication and 

cooperation between business English teachers and teachers of professional courses should be 

strengthened so that teachers specializing in business and teachers of foreign languages can promote each 

other and make progress together. 

5.2 Promote on-campus Simulation Training 

Actively promote school-enterprise cooperation, and carry out the go out and bring in policy. On the one 

hand, encourage business English teachers to go out to the enterprise and carry out relative project 

research so as to put the theory into practice and obtain teaching materials and practical experience. 

Teachers are advised to actively go to the industry to research and truly understand specific requirements 

of emerging occupations for talents so as to improve the curriculum and teaching content in time, make 

the major truly correspond to occupations, focus on the cultivation of students’ working ability and make 

students adapt to the new needs of occupational development. On the other hand, bring in some 

outstanding management personnel who can give lectures to share with business English teachers and 

students what kind of talents are needed by the society from the perspective of the enterprise, thus helping 

teachers and students to further develop corresponding capabilities on campus. 



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Unlike engineering majors, it is difficult to arrange relative in-depth internships for business English 

students, so in the teaching process, teachers are advised to make effective use of classroom practice 

platform, for example, some website resources, and guide students to conduct international trade 

operation simulation, which can not only help students understand knowledge better, but also allow them 

to attain a sense of achievement. In addition, it is advised to make use of school’s computer room, conduct 

systematic teaching design in the simulation, and create a variety of business scenarios so as to help 

students master language knowledge and business skills flexibly. In the process of guiding students to 

solve practical business problems, teachers need to improve students’ critical thinking and business 

communication skills so as to effectively improve students’ business vocational ability. In addition, the 

curriculum should emphasize the training of basic professional skills and help students understand the 

whole process of business operation which include marketing, negotiation, import and export.  

5.3 Expand Teaching and Learning Platforms 

It is beneficial to strengthen the construction of teaching organizations, improve teachers’ teaching and 

research ability, and create a community of teachers’ teaching and learning development. Since lots of 

colleges have set up business English majors, the establishment of virtual research environment is 

conducive to strengthen cross-major, cross-school and cross-regional teaching and research exchanges, 

and it can promote co-construction and sharing.  

The rise of Internet+education and the development of MOOC provide various learning resources for 

business English students. Students should not limit their learning to textbook, but utilize network to 

actively learn, accumulate materials and apply them to real work so as to make learning rich and practical. 

In addition, the evaluation mechanism should be improved to on the one hand actively cultivate dual-

quality teachers and on the other hand give incentives to outstanding business English students. It is 

suggested that colleges should formulate a scientific teacher and student development plan, and make 

use of on-the-job training, domestic and international training and academic exchanges, enterprise 

practice and other ways to help both teachers and students strengthen practical ability.  

5.4 Focus on Students’ Needs 

In recent years, language service vocational industry has been greatly promoted, but language service 

capacity is still in its infancy, and there are such phenomena as weak awareness of language service, 

incomplete language service system, insufficient and unbalanced cultivation and reserve of language 

talents. It has become imperative to strengthen language services, enhance language service capacity and 

continuously promote language localization services. Through questionnaires and in-depth interviews, it 

is found that most students have few opportunities to apply English in workplace internships and hope 

to improve spoken English related to their major. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate students’ and 

society needs, combine students’ interests with employment skills, and choose contents commonly used 

in employment when teaching. In this way, students will be stimulated to learn more knowledge they 

need. 



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General English courses can not fully meet students’ employment needs, and ESP courses which have a 

certain impact on the career development is imperative. Students need to learn English courses related to 

their majors to improve their listening, speaking and reading skills, and the curriculum of English courses 

should pay more attention to the practicality of language, not only explain language skills, but also focus 

on the application of language in real use. It is suggested that in the teaching process, students should be 

taken as the center, and teachers should often go into the students to understand their needs, make 

personalized teaching plans, attract students’ attention, lead students to apply what they have learned into 

use, highlight the practicality of the courses, promote the service of language, and make the learning of 

English in line with society. The student-centered teaching method can promote students’ learning, 

discover the needs of senior students, connect school education with the needs of society, promote 

learning to use, and help students to find a good job. In this way, students can adapt to the workplace 

better, which is conducive to the development of society.  

5.5 Improve Students’ Learning Engagement  

Learning engagement refers to the psychological investment and effort made by learners in learning, 

understanding or mastering knowledge and skills (Newmann, 1992). It is an important indicator to 

evaluate the learning process, predict academic achievement and influence students’ future development. 

It is found that students in application-oriented colleges, especially the juniors and seniors are often 

reluctant to study hard in class, how to improve students’ learning engagement is an emergent issue.  

According to in-depth interviews with students, it is suggested that teachers should choose practical 

teaching content and create role play activities to arouse students’ interest and motivation. Besides, it is 

essential to create real language learning environment in which students can apply what they learned in 

class into practice, interact actively with others and attain a sense of achievement in the use of learning. 

What’s more, survey shows that timely assessment and feedback on students’ performance contribute to 

classroom learning enthusiasm and learning efficiency. It is suggested that modern technology like Rain 

classroom should be used in real class teaching so as to help students concentrate on what they are 

learning, arouse students interest in class and enhance the connection between teachers and students. 

Moreover, teachers are supposed to explore a variety of teaching methods, for example task-based 

teaching method, to facilitate students’ independent learning, enhance simulation training of relevant 

professional knowledge, and improve students’ learning engagement. 

The overall assessment is advised to divide into final examination score and daily performance grade. 

Students’ daily performance grades are supposed to emphasize students’ participation in group activities 

and extracurricular practice. With students’ evaluation as the main focus and teachers’ evaluation as the 

supplement, it highlights the students’ independent evaluation ability and ensures all the activities are 

effectively evaluated with students’ self-assessment, student-student mutual evaluation and teachers’ 

evaluation. Besides, the final examination questions of business English are set in close connection with 

the themes of each unit and to help students to pass English proficiency tests. Moreover, it is suggested 



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to combine the assessment methods with English competitions and vocational certificates, so as to guide 

students to obtain certificates and abilities that can help them find a good job in the future. 

 

6. Conclusion 

Application-oriented colleges is to cultivate talents needed by the society, so the courses should match 

the vocational requirements, strengthen the integration of industry and education, and help students 

understand the needs of industries and enterprises in advance. By analyzing the problems in the 

construction of Business English course, this paper puts forward five suggestions to improve business 

English students’ learning and practical ability and give implications to the further development of ESP 

courses. Further studies are advised to focus on empirical researches about how to improve students’ 

learning engagement in more ESP courses. 

 

Project Fund 

This paper is the research result of the 2022 Chongqing Higher Education Teaching Reform Project, 

“Ideas for the Construction of “English + X” Interdisciplinary Courses in the Context of New Liberal 

Arts” (Project No. 223495), 2022 Chongqing College of Mobile Communication Teaching Reform 

Project, “Construction and Exploration of ESP Courses Based on Students’ Needs under the Background 

of New Liberal Arts” (Project No. 22JG213) and the 2023 Chongqing College of Mobile Communication 

Teaching Reform Project, “English Listening” (Project No. 23JG2091). 

 

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