Achieving Maximum Results in a Limited Time: Development of Economic Principles in Business Chinese Adult Class

This paper reports on a trial of developing economic principles and practical strategies used in a CFL business Chinese adult beginners’ class at Newcastle College, United Kingdom. Taking into consideration the adult business Chinese learners’ particular situation: being able to contribute a limited time, but expecting to get as much knowledge and effective skills as possible, the researchers decided to develop a series of economic principles for the purpose of supporting the learners to achieve maximum results in a limited time. So far a huge amount of strategies and resources in the field of teaching CFL have been introduced, and the need of using economic principles in this field has also been addressed, including some specific suggestions in overlooking some ‘non – consequential’ skills in general education (e.g. Lu & Xie, 2004; Bellassen, 2012). However, there is little in the literature suggesting what kind of economic principles in the area of business Chinese need to be considered and how to apply them to teaching CFL business Chinese adult beginner learners. Therefore, the study presented in this paper would like to be considered as a trial at the exploratory stage rather than testing any existing theoretical framework. The data were collected through each learner’s initial and end of course feedback, and the completion of a 5 topic - based tasks portfolio as evidence to shape the results and to draw the findings. The results indicate that the strategies of economic principles are efficient and effective in CFL business Chinese beginner class. It is hoped that the findings of effective strategies applied in this study could serve as the basis for a further study of economic principles with Chinese special culture values in many other areas to best meet individual CFL learners’ need and facilitate their learning.Keywords: Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), business Chinese, adult learners, economic principles