Current Trends in Foreign Language Development: The Case of Business English Teachingwithin CLIL and non-CLIL Programmes

Resumen

Business study programmes have for long been offering English for Specific Purposes (ESP) training for their students so that they have better access to an international labour market. Both the new trends in teaching through an additional language and the improvement of foreign language (FL) levels amongst potential students may make us contemplate the impact of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in this regard, and question whether specific ESP training courses should be given by language, rather than content, experts. In view of this, a key issue to be addressed will be the possibilities of FL development both through ESP training and also through the completion of content courses taught in a FL. This study discusses the current trends in specific Business English teaching within Bachelor of Science in Business Management programmes offered in Spanish universities, as well as anticipating the future of Specific FL development within content programmes and suggesting specific measures to adopt. Results will support the need for ESP training within Business studies as a way to help increase students’ FL proficiency in their particular field of study. This specific language awareness to be encouraged and developed in ESP courses will prove to be highly beneficial when implementing bilingual programmes in Higher Education.