1 Introduction

Explored the importance of international business learning in the context of globalization and the application of business English courses in business education in both China and the UK. Group discussions, as a common teaching method, promote the development of students' decision-making abilities through case studies. From a linguistic perspective, group discussions are an important manifestation of students' language skills and higher-order thinking abilities. There are differences in group discussion methods between China and the UK, with Chinese students placing more emphasis on results, while British classrooms emphasize more on communication and interaction. Chinese international students are gradually adapting and actively participating in group discussions in British classrooms, but further research is needed on their interaction with foreign students.

2 Research Methods

This chapter introduces a classroom group discussion study conducted by Chinese international students in a British business school for the Sino British cooperation program to cultivate undergraduate international business students. The research subjects are Chinese international students who have completed their final year at British business schools. After studying in China for two years and passing IELTS or English preparatory courses, they study together with local and other international students. The research method combines non participatory classroom observation and follow-up interviews, tracking case group discussions of 30 class hours over a period of five weeks. The study recorded group discussions of 7 mixed groups and 3 groups of Chinese international students only, with an average recording time of 30 minutes. The study used the IRF turn structure model to analyze discourse intention, focusing on the expectations of Chinese and foreign students after speaking, the understanding of topic expectations by Chinese international students, and the types of discourse steps they tend to respond to. The study also used interviews to assist in understanding difficult to judge language steps and summarized 10 interactive functions.

3 Group discussion methods

In the six mixed group discussions, the average number of speaking steps for Chinese students was less than that of foreign students, and Chinese students were less likely to develop topics initiated by others. Chinese students tend to respond to interrogative sentences and less to statements of viewpoints, while in pure Chinese student groups, they tend to respond more to viewpoints. Research has found three methods for students to manipulate topics: spiral method, personal method, and cumulative method. In the spiral method, Chinese students often start new topics before the current topic is fully discussed, and they believe that statements containing viewpoints do not have the function of eliciting comments from others. In personal law, the initiator of a new viewpoint is responsible for elaborating in depth, while other members hardly participate in the development of the topic. In the cumulative method, the speaker affirms the viewpoint of the previous speaker and sometimes repeats, explains, and develops it to some extent. The behavior of Chinese international students in group discussions on internationalization in the UK may be related to cultural differences between Eastern and Western societies, especially in terms of learning culture and disciplinary culture. Chinese business students believe that spiral discussions can help them reach consensus as quickly as possible, while British business teachers believe that spiral discussions lack the creativity unique to group discussions. Chinese students studying abroad demonstrate their strong ability for self-directed learning through various research strategies and methods. Case studies in business education are highly exploratory and speculative, requiring learners to repeatedly demonstrate the feasibility of facts, theoretical models, and solutions. The different discussion methods used by Chinese and non Chinese students may also be due to their different understandings of creativity.

4 Conclusion

This study conducted an in-depth analysis of the case study group discussion method for international business students in British business schools, aiming to improve the effectiveness of international business English courses and meet the needs of Chinese international students. The research suggests building a teaching community through simulation training, professional content teaching, and teacher collaboration to help students understand the importance of Business English in business learning. Dudley Evans u0026 St. Johns (1998) emphasizes that effective ESP courses should help students identify the different functions of English in different academic cultures and disciplines, rather than just focusing on general English teaching. ESP courses should shift from general English to specialized English to meet the professional learning needs of international students.