Abstract

• Market Leader Business English coursebooks (3rd Ed.) are used for English for Business Course offered in the four-year Bachelor of Arts in English for Professional Purposes (BA (EPP)) Programme. The purpose of the course is to fulfil the needs of EPP graduates who are going to work in various business fields. The purpose of this research was to investigate the business knowledge and skills provided in the coursebooks and their usefulness in EPP employees’ business field. Firstly, all English for Business coursebooks used in BA (EPP) programme were studied and analysed using an evaluation checklist proposed by Romanowski (2016) which was based on the theories of Hutchinson and Water (1987), Cunningsworth (1995), McGrath (2002) and McDonough and Shaw (2013) in order to examine business knowledge and business skills contained in the coursebooks. Then, EPP graduates working in business field were given a questionnaire to explore their responsibilities, and knowledge and skills they need in carrying out their daily business schedules and their opinions on the course. After that, the data were investigated and it was found that the business knowledge and skills contained in the prescribed English for Business coursebooks were suitable and helpful for BA (EPP) graduates and English for Business course was of great help for them to function in business field. The suggestions given were to integrate internship programmes in the course, include more practical tasks and arrange field trips for students so that they will get more experience from actual workplace and learn how the business is going well in real business world.