Effective teaching methods meeting students’ preferences in the acquisition of business English at non-philological universities

Abstract

From year to year, the demands to master foreign languages are increasing not only in Slovakia but also in other European countries and the rest of the world. This relates especially to the acquisition of subject-specific vocabulary. The need for its acquisition is proved by the continuous development in almost all the fields of human activity. Therefore, special attention to the acquisition of subject-specific vocabulary is required in education at non-philological universities, which prepare specialists in different fields of science, technology and industry. The paper deals with the importance and methods of foreign language teaching and learning at university with the focus on subject-specific vocabulary. The main research tool is a questionnaire, which was distributed among 2nd year students studying at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia. The questions in the questionnaire were aimed at determining students’ preferences concerning the acquisition of Business English. Based on the results of the questionnaire we chose the teaching methods which would motivate students and facilitate the acquisition of Business English (e.g. Communicative language teaching, Lexical approach, Task-based language teaching, Oral presentations etc.).