Developing Oral Proficiency in the Business French Class

Abstract

BUSINESS FRENCH OUGHT TO be a five-skills course. To function effectively in the business world one should be able to write clear memos and letters, read the economic press, understand what others say, be able to speak to them, and have some understanding of the cultural background of one's business partners. This article focuses on the development of the speaking skill in the context of the Business French course. Much has been written about adapting general foreign language classroom practices to help students achieve oral proficiency as defined in the ACTFL guidelines (Bragger, Heilenman and Kaplan, Hirsch, Kaplan, Magnan). There have also been numerous articles in recent years on the design of courses in Business French. Some of these are general descriptions of courses offered at various institutions (Finel-Honigman, Strand). Others offer specific strategies for teaching a particular skill such as business correspondence (Herman, Le Goff), culture (Dugan) or reading (Rusterholz). Two articles in The French Review have dealt with the relationship between the examinations of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and the ACTFL guidelines (Bowling, Cummins). This article examines more specifically the relationship between the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Guidelines and the speaking component of a Business French course, with particular attention to the kinds of speaking skills useful in the business environment and to classroom activities that foster those skills. We all ask our students to speak in class, but often-as was the case in this writer's class in previous years-speaking consists primarily of answering questions about the readings, with some occasional small group problem-solving exercises. Students are somehow expected to have learned before entering the course how to say the things they need to say in those situations. Since students in the course described below need only have completed fourth-semester French, such an expectation was quite unrealistic. A glance at the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Guidelines will show that the skills needed to conduct problem-solving exercises are for the most part superior level skills: expressing supported opinion, hypothesizing, dealing with unfamiliar situations.

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