designing a novel and high performance online english for business ...

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participants have to carry out and personal abilities or participant proficiency which is evaluated orPresent Situation Analysis (PSA). Most of the participants in Business English are non-native speakersof English that based on TSA want to participate in global business language. Consequently, a precourseanalysis is essential for a successful EBP course, for the reason that, at the need analysis stagethe prerequisite information that construct the foundation of training programs will be identify. Basedon the analysis, authentic and interactive activities that closely organized in the development of courseobjectives, will be construct. But if the learner recognizes some of the services and activities have notcontributed to the rapid advance of the learning process, there would be no way to adapt or change it.Besides, providing online authentic materials and services according to Business real situation requireda long period of analyzing. Web-based training based on authentic services is to some extent necessaryto EBP course because currently the new commercial transaction and Business commercials areconducting over the Internet.The present study is focus on: How EBP courses benefit from Mashup application in order toprovide high performance service for Business English students.The paper is organized in the following sections. First, we consider the challenges and issuesin the steps of designing EBP courses, the second section will devote to the technical framework anddesign of the software and, the final section include suggestion on the implementation of Mashup toolin EBP course.1.1 Issues in EBP course designConsidering the steps refer to in the previous part, one find out that behind successful EBPcourses is process of ascertaining what a course should contain? [3]. The answer directly related to theinformation that can be available by need analysis, which is different in relation to student‟ perception.For example the course that is going to designed for business managers in a company can be muchmore varied than those in similar situation because the participants and consequently their needs havebeen changed. Due to this fact there are several methods that employ to need analysis. One of theprevailing methods especially for EBP courses is using questionnaires. The data gathering by thismethod require a computer software analysis. Nelson (1994) [2] starts with placement test and a needsanalysis questionnaire. The information were processed by computer and the final results will bedrawn by using charts include needs and wants of the students. There is a manual override to thesystem at all stages so that teachers can influence the process [2]. Reeves and Wright (1996) [2]introduced LANA (LAnguage Needs Analysis). Again the software analyses the responses that isprovided by interviews, modeling, and a computer-based questionnaire [2]. The result will bepresented by a three dimensional histograms. Munby‟s Communicative Syllabus Design (1978) [2] isone of the well-known works on need analysis. Munby in order to find out target situation analysis usea set of procedures called Communication Needs Processor (CNP). It consists of a range of questionsabout key communication variables (topic, participants, medium etc.) which can be used to identify thetarget language needs of any group of learners [3]. There are a number of other procedures introducedby Jones „Principle Component Analysis (PCA), Mackay (1978), Cohen and Mannion (1980),Richterich and Chancerel (1980), totally they are listed as; questionnaires, interviews, consultation,observation, data collection [3]. So to establish a workable course design three important types ofneeds analysis need to perform, TSA (Target situation Analysis), LSA (Learning situation Analysis),and PSA(Present Situation Analysis) (Dudley-Evans and St John 1998) [5].Generally speaking, the recognized methods are time consuming. If we want to providebusiness people with the services they need, some instruments is required to gathering information inorder to know the participants. There is a direct relationship between objectives and student needs.Business English students either want to become more experienced in their job or study English foracademic business study. It is essential to be aware of student‟s real goal. However, adapting activitiesand skills to the fulfilment of the goals might be demanding. Because instructional design should meetthe needs and preferences of the students. As we know the characteristic of online EBP courses islimited time. A businessperson is too busy that mostly they prefer not wasting too many time to reachtheir desired purpose. Determining and gathering information is a matter, interpreting the answers isanother. With regard to where they need to be, we should conduct or interpret need analysis.Throughout these activities there might be misconceptions or false information that may cause not tohave a clear definition of the purpose of the instruction. This fact enables students to reach the end
target and as a result of that the objectives may not be determined precisely. Consequently the requiredactivities for fulfillment of them will not be acceptable.Identifying and recognizing needs doesn‟t stop after the first step, but we should keepchecking „was that useful based on student need?‟ Tony Dudley-Evans and Maggie Jo St. John [2]suggest that analyzing authentic texts is a crucial stage of need analysis that is‟ Authenticity is theproperty of purpose and the level of the text that is the text should accompany with the purpose and thelevel of the students‟ [2]. That is, a text or activity which is organized or designed for Job-experiencedlearners will not be appropriate for a pre-job experienced. Moreover, authenticity in level, increaselearner‟s interests and motivation and therefore, encourage active participation of learners in usinglanguage for the determined purpose. Business English students require a course that improves theirability to use language for needs and goals. So, there might be tools to guarantee the authenticity ofpurpose and level of services. We recognize that implementing Mashup tool in EBP course design mayprovide a service that would facilitate learning Business English.1.2 Mashup and EBPThe technology revolution has brought many changes in on-line courses as a result of thatMost EBP courses are placed on the Internet and can be used by any students. In other wordsconsistent with broader trends in higher education, the delivery of education via the Internet has takenon increasing importance for business schools (Popovich & Neel, 2005) [9]. The general format forsuch courses is that learners follow them on their own. There are a number of web-based distancelearning services and applications designed for EBP students. With respect to the features of Webbasedlearning environment, most of them generally characterized as: meeting the needs of the users,selecting media regarding objectives, increase user‟s interaction, and speed learning. The significantfactor above all is that; they try to follow Learner-centered curriculum. That is, learners are incomplete involvement with their learning. Considering current websites of EBP courses, the coursesare originally for learning a variety of different Business subject matters through the effective use ofInternet technologies. They start instruction by completing need analysis forms. It includesdetermining the level of students and specific area of their requirement. A list of multimedia activitiesand material are constructed in a set of units around needs of students.In conformity with [1] generally, a Mashup comprises an application that combines multiplesets of data streams into a unified user experience. In relation to Web “Mashup” can be defined as asituational web application that extract and combines data and functionality from different sources tosupport user needs and tasks [7]. And finally with regard to e-learning, within the context of learningobject repositories, aggregation of information junks is realized according to instructional models andon terms of standards and specifications, such as LOM or SCORM. In relation to EBP, We defineMashup as: an application that surf the Internet and integrate services based on your needs anddemands. Using Mashup in EBP courses is concerned with Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).This model determine the number of factors have an effect on user‟s decision in using a newtechnology. One of these factors defined by Fred Davis as Perceived Usefulness refer to „the degree towhich a person believes that using a particular system enhance his or her job performance (Wikipedia).By using Mashup users benefit from various web-based tools and services. Since applying Mashup isbased on, combining services to support user‟s needs, the degree of Perceived Usefulness can be muchhigher in EBP web-based courses. In fact it is cooperation between services in order to provide aperfect outcome. Employing Mashup is a relatively new phenomenon among EBP web coursesbecause the course is not restricted to a set of ready-to-use bank of sources or activities which thewebsite designed for a particular subject, but it fetch other online services in terms that it support theuser demands, accordingly provide a list of activities or authentic material that allow different types ofBusiness English students (whether interest in marketing, management, etc.) benefit from the coursematerial.Two important issues in EBP courses mentioned before as; authenticity of purpose andauthenticity of level is supported by Mashup. The need analysis form is provided for recognizing TSAand the level of learners and utilize as repository for Mashup to merge the services into one webapplication.Mashup help English business learners to find the most appropriate materials that improvetheir job knowledge skills .For Business English learners taking part in courses with determined
Page 4 and 5: outcomes will be highly motivating.
Page 6 and 7: of activities to achieve their end.

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