German Business Correspondence Course

The "Multilingual Business Correspondence Course" is based on the philosophy that analysis of business correspondence reveals a number of relatively unchanging, context-independent linguistic formulae and context-dependent terms and expressions, which account for a significant proportion of the content of business letters. These formulae, terms and expressions can be regarded as the building blocks of written communications between firms. Letter-writing in a foreign language becomes considerably easier if students have access to these building blocks. The "Multilingual Business Handbook" with which this course is intended to be used, gives students access to some 1200 of these buiding blocks. The "Multilingual Business Correspondence Course" provides students with the practice required to assimilate them. It is aimed at students with either a GCSE or A level in the foreign language and is designed to be a teaching course and compatible with modern approaches to language teaching. It presents letters graded in order of increasing linguistic and situational difficulty for students to compose.
Each section contains two scenarios of three letters each which simulate a continuing exchange about a specific issue, for example, a disputed insurance claim or damage to goods in transit. The course shows how one can frequently derive key terms, expressions and structues from previous exchanges within the same context and use them for producing a new letter. The course aims to provide, within the context of the assignment based approach, the regularity of practice and the gradual development of skills necessary for successful letter writing in the foreign language. It also stresses the importance of autonomous learning, information retrieval and the use of appropriate materials and technologies to support these activities.