"Specificity at the heart of our role: well-known contents for renewed and 'global' Business English teaching"

The role of the business English teacher has substantially changed in the last decades, and in a variety of ways. These changes have been driven by different social, economic, political and cultural trends. Among these trends are the increasing internationalisation of economic activity, a strongly increased cross-cultural and cross-linguistic interaction, increased mobility of labour, and the increased public interest in all professions including teaching.
The role of the business English teacher is more and more demanding in many ways. It requires some basic qualities in addition to those which were typical of the good modern language teacher of the past. Among those traditional professional qualities that will still be required are: proficiency in the target language; knowledge of, and a positive attitude towards, the target culture; knowledge about language as a system and as a social construct, with particular reference to the target language; knowledge of appropriate assessment techniques. In addition to these, the changing demands require new professional qualities. We might mention: much more sophisticated and effective pedagogical skills; much greater autonomy and self-direction in professional development; sensitivity to pluricultural and multicultural issues and a willingness to work in international programmes; the ability to exploit and build on school and teaching experience.
These considerations imply serious considerations, among others, on the new role of the Business English teacher in the Faculties of Economics and Business. In this context, and in a continent where higher performing economies show advanced forms of curricular integration, the traditional profile of the teacher as a ‘lone rider’ doing his or her subject in isolation from others is no longer valid. In the light of the most recent CLIL guidelines and referring to the Italian context, we will try to highlight the specificity of the Business English teacher in the academic Italian landscape, with particular attention to his/her relationship with the public (who are the students for English for International Business language courses? Who are the EIB speakers? Are they native or non-native speakers of English?), with the contents and materials (which texts and tools for EIB teaching?), with the specific communication requirements of financial and accounting experts.