Abstract:

Readiness for business correspondence with partners is vital to future managers in an increasingly globalized business world. Managers should know not only about the types of business letters, but also how to handle them in an everyday business situation. Many executives still prefer a written document over other forms of communication, because the document can serve as a contract, the facts will be on record in writing, and executives do not have to rely on memory. This is why it is important for students to be taught to write a good letter. Although much research has been devoted to the problems of teaching Business English, less attention has been paid to the urgent need to correspond in English. Business meetings, trips etc. involve extensive correspondence. A questionnaire, which gains the future managers’ understanding of writing correspondence in English, was completed by students from four groups of similar educational programme in South Ural State University (3 experimental and 1 control groups). They were also interviewed to determine their views on their own level of competence in business correspondence. As a result, the majority of students understand what business correspondence involves and consider it important to their careers. However, it appears that students are not familiar with the types and the structure of formal letters in English; moreover, they lack specific vocabulary and grammar. In the process of efficiency testing, the following methods were used: modeling, pedagogical experiment, pedagogical observation, testing, questioning, analysis of students' activity products. The final cut showed that the greatest increase in the level of readiness for business correspondence occurred in EG3 (experimental group 3), where the process of implementing the model of pedagogical assistance to the formation of the future managers’ readiness for business correspondence was carried out on the basis of a set of conditions.

Keywords:

Readiness for business correspondence, future managers, methodological approaches, educational interaction.