Do Contemporary Business English Textbooks Develop Students’ Indirect Language Learning Strategies?

Abstract

In this paper, we map the extent to which textbooks of business English vocabulary and skills support the development of indirect learning strategies. For our survey we adopted the classification of learning strategies developed by Rebecca Oxford. Inasmuch as direct strategies (memory, cognitive, compensation) of language learning are an essential part of every textbook, we have focused on indirect strategies (metacognitive, social, affective). We have selected the most frequently used textbooks of business English vocabulary and business English skills. In our analysis, we have tried to detect any activities in textbooks that could help learners to develop the usage of indirect learning strategies. We have found that except for two textbooks of the series (English communication skills published by DELTA Business Communication Skills and the series published by Macmillan), the focus is only on language content. To be more specific, many of the textbooks contain activities designed for pair work or group work (and thus they support social learning strategies), but most of the authors of these textbooks do not develop metacognitive and affective learning strategies for students. In conclusion, we recommend that in the future authors take into account the importance of emotions and self-awareness in the learning process and incorporate activities focused on these areas into their textbooks.