Special Issue: Global Advances in Business Communication (GABC) World Languages for Specific Purposes: The Future is Blended

Unlike any time in modern history, the global pandemic has disrupted and rattled traditional language learning and teaching, including the teaching of world languages for specific purposes (WLSP). The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the suspension of the dominant delivery system, i.e., face-to-face (f2f) teaching and learning in favor of hybrid systems and the adoption of synchronous and asynchronous online teaching. Obviously, this period has led to immense hardships and challenges for teachers, students, and parents alike, but it has also provided educators with unique unintended consequences: we language educators get to rethink, re-evaluate, and reshape WLSP instruction. We are free to infuse creativity and audacity in WLSP instruction unlike at any time in our careers. This volume will describe examples of both in each chapter.

In addition to hybrid systems and the adoption of synchronous and asynchronous online teaching, BLENDED refers to four other critical factors:

1.????We have blended non-U.S. and U.S. educators to present their ideas in teaching world languages as well as English as a second language. To highlight the global nature of WLSP, we invited experts from Serbia, Switzerland, France, Korea, and other countries to participate in the special issue. Their insights and classroom practices will make this volume richer for all educators worldwide.

2.????We have included fields such as biotechnology and agribusiness to join the traditional slate of business, engineering, healthcare, and law enforcement. Biotechnology and agribusiness, necessary fields to fulfill the interdisciplinary nature of WLSP, are key disciplines as they include key topics of interest to the general public: sustainable agricultural production, the post-harvest handling of agricultural products, and food safety standards. Milevica Bojovi?, a professor of ESL at the University of Kragujevac, Faculty of Agronomy in Serbia shares the first course of its type: English for biotechnology purposes.

3.????The special issue is BLENDED because we have invited military and corporate WLSP experts to share their unique insights in curriculum design with their academic counterparts. ACTFL’s Farid Saydee shared his challenges in getting U.S. special forces combat-ready in “Languages for specific purposes: Best practices in teaching and learning South Asian and Middle Eastern languages to military personnel” while Florina Matu shared her insights in preparing future officers in “Inclusive teaching practices in a French for professional purposes course at the U.S. Air Force Academy”;

?4.????Finally, BLENDED means bringing together diversity, equity, and inclusion to make them a permanent part of WLSP in a pandemic and post-pandemic world. To illustrate, two authors in this volume are developing an industrial safety course in English, Spanish, and French via self-paced, mastery-based instruction. The course will be designed for students anywhere in the world and for engineers working in dangerous industrial settings.

?This GABC special issue aims to provide relevant theoretical frameworks and empirical research findings in the field of WLSP, especially in relation to online education and the pandemic's impact on higher education. It is written for professionals inside and outside of academia seeking to improve their and others’ understanding of the strategic future of WLSP language teaching. This includes considerations of WLSP within global contexts as well as the numerous ways our professional practices have had to adjust to current times.