Negotiation in English business textbooks: to what extent do English business textbooks deal with the topic of negotiation

Details

Supervisors

De Cock, Sylvie

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue, à finalité spécialisée: langues des affaires

Abstract

English business textbooks generally handle business aspects in general, such as presentation, management, negotiation, etc. while also providing the learners the necessary language knowledge. Such manuals – three different manuals of two levels – will be analysed in this dissertation to examine the extent to which they deal with the topic of negotiation. In a first time, I will provide a theoretical background on negotiation, based on books and articles on the topic, necessary for the following analysis of the textbooks. In this way, I will first try to define “negotiation”; then, I will develop several fundamental concepts and aspects of negotiation, which particularly stood out in the literature. In a second time, I will describe the method used to analyse the textbooks and the criteria by which I selected the data. I will also provide general information on the presentation and content of the six English business textbooks under study. In a third time, after presenting the general approach of the manuals to the topic of negotiation, I will analyse these textbooks, in a quantitative and qualitative manner. After that examination, I will compare the different textbooks and the two levels. I will conclude this dissertation by trying to determine which would be the most appropriate textbook for the learning of negotiation and English.