The Impact of International Business Games on Improving Cultural Awareness and Writing Proficiency: An Evaluation of The “Course in International Business Writing” (1994-2004)

Abstract

This article gives a critical evaluation of the advantages of adopting a cross-cultural approach to teaching language for specific purposes (i.e., business English) by reporting on ten years of experience with the “Course in International Business Writing,” a course that was taught simultaneously at institutions in Belgium, Germany, Finland and the United States between 1994 and 2004. After a brief description of the three course components, i.e., instruction, simulation and case study analysis, this study examines the impact of this teaching and research project on participants’ cultural awareness and writing proficiency. The main findings are that international projects need to contain sufficient product and process authenticity in order to increase student motivation and output and to improve cultural awareness but also that these beneficial effects can only be made visible if they adopt a sufficiently rigourous and formal research methodology.