Summary
#is article summarizes some of the findings of a large-scale study of the foreign language needs 
of economics students (Čepon 2007). It focuses on the rationale behind the lengthy period of 
disuse of general English (GE) during economics students’ first year of undergraduate study. #e 
article presents evidence for processes of GE attrition that slowly set in and are deemed to be 
particularly detrimental to economics. It is also important to determine exactly which language 
needs are essential for the future professional development of the economics graduates. It is 
hoped that this will spur foreign language policy renewal.
Key words: business English, needs analysis, language attrition, language teaching, 
economics
 Povzetek
Pričujoči članek povzema določene ugotovitve iz večje raziskave, za potrebe katere smo opravili 
več vrst analiz potreb in tako pridobili podatke o jezikovnih potrebah študentov ekonomije. 
V prispevku navajamo rezultate iz raziskave o začetkih procesov pozabljanja tujega jezika pri 
študentih ekonomije, zato je poudarjena resnost slabega vpliva eno-/večletnega obdobja nerabe 
angleščine v 1. letniku, ko na fakulteti ni organiziranih predavanj iz tujega jezika. Članek 
se zaključi s priporočilom o uvedbi pouka tujega jezika že v 1. letnik, saj bi s tem omogočili 
prepotrebno stalnost v učenju tujega jezika.
Ključne besede: poslovna angleščina, analiza potreb, obraba jezika, poučevanje jezika, 
ekonomija
 DOI: 10.4312/elope.4.1-2.137-148

#e impetus for carrying out this study arose from the one of the author’s experience teaching 
English as a foreign language. #e Faculty of Economics at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia 
(FELU) has no organized foreign language instruction for first-year economics students, which 
means that business English (BE) students spend a year not using general English (GE) before 
BE instruction starts in the second year. #is paper deals with this issue primarily within BE 
teaching/learning. It first briefly examines the study of English as a foreign language in the 
Slovenian environment from the viewpoint of language attrition. It then focuses on possible 
consequences of GE attrition for the BE students at FELU – that is, prospective economists. A 
major part of this paper focuses on a study conducted that included several types of analyses of 
BE students’ linguistic needs. Its findings yielded useful information for all participants in the 
BE program and the potential improvement of that program.
#e literature provides much more information on language acquisition and learning than 
attrition. Nonetheless, it seems that, in recent years, the research focus has shifted from ‘successful 
language learner’ to ‘successful language maintainer’, or to studying effective recall of the language 
learned. In some countries there are even second-language maintenance programs (Hansen & 
Reetz-Kurashige 1999).
Experts refer to the processes of forgetting a language in various ways. #e term used in this article is 
‘language attrition ’. #e literature offers various terms for gradual language attrition processes, however, 
these often refer to the same or similar phenomena. #e most common terms used for language 
regression processes that could affect the understanding of language attrition include language 
regression, language loss, language shift, language death, language obsolescence (Hansen & Reetz-
Kurashige 1999), language decay (Dressler 1982) and language transformation (Dressler 1988).
#e most frequently cited definition of the language attrition phenomenon is that it is ‘loss of 
any language or its part by an individual or language communities’ (Freed in Weltens 1989, 1). #e 
factors and situations affecting language attrition are very diverse, which is why the literature 
draws attention to the fact that a good knowledge of all the factors is very important. #ese 
factors can be psychological (e.g. intelligence, general recall features), social and psychological 
(e.g. an individual’s motivation and orientations), or linguistic (e.g. the relationship or distance 
between two linguistic systems) (see Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999).
#e fact that the findings in specific areas of language attrition research contradict findings from 
other areas is not particularly surprising because research areas can be quite diverse. Moreover, 
all these obvious contradictions depend on the fact that experts do not yet have a reliable way 

to measure language attrition; this is why various types of studies and measuring instruments 
are used. So far, the focus of language attrition research has been on syntax and vocabulary 
loss. However, there are still no satisfactory instruments for observing processes of forgetting 
phonological, pragmatic, and discourse language skills (Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999).
Currently, the main language attrition research focuses on four areas. #e first area relates to 
the possible existence of a learning method that hinders later language attrition (the method 
effect) and, with regard to attrition, the importance of individual maturity level, level of achieved 
foreign or second language literacy, real emphasis on individual language skills, and intensity of 
the foreign or second language programme. 
#e issue of prior knowledge and its influence on later attrition processes is closely connected 
with seeking the best learning method. With regard to attrition, researchers are still in doubt. 
Some believe that at all language knowledge levels, from lowest to highest, individuals are equally 
subject to language attrition (Weltens et al. 1989, Bahrick 1984). In contrast, others conclude 
that individuals with a high level of foreign language knowledge are much less subject to language 
attrition (Bahrick 1984, Godsall-Myers in Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999). Some studies of 
individual maturity level and the level of achieved foreign language literacy demonstrate smaller 
language attrition in individuals that are more literate or have developed better reading and 
writing skills (Ohlstain in Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999).
#e second language attrition research area relates to the different effect of language attrition 
on language skills (the skills effect). With regard to language skills’ susceptibility to attrition, 
language attrition studies consistently confirm a smaller degree of forgetting of receptive language 
skills in comparison to productive ones (Spolsky 1998, Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999), and 
the comprehendible theory that recall is more subject to attrition than is recognition (Weltens 
1989), or that productive language skills are more subject to attrition than receptive ones.
#e retrieval failure theory of language loss emphasizes that forgotten information is never lost 
forever, but is merely temporarily inaccessible because individuals cannot find the right key to 
access it (Loftus & Loftus in Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999, 11). #e critical element is the 
processing time because one of the early signs of decreased retrieval ability is the increase in time 
needed for retrieving the right information in a foreign or second language (Olshtain in Hansen 
& Reetz-Kurashige 1999, 11) or the use of various techniques of circumlocution, hesitation and 
repair behaviours, and progressive retrieval when the individual initially remembers or retrieves 
the wrong form, before retrieving the correct one after a certain amount of time.
Language attrition experts have dedicated attention also to the issue of the intensity of the 
foreign language program: individuals learning foreign languages in more intensive courses 
should acquire language faster than those in less intensive programs with the same number of 
hours. Attrition researchers have thus inferred that higher or lower program intensity encourages 
stronger and weaker language acquisition, which is consequently reflected in various processes of 
language attrition (Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999).

#e third language attrition research area relates to the onset of the second language forgetting 
curve (the typical forgetting curve effect) and the method of combating language loss. #e findings 
in this area correspond completely with Ebbinghaus’s findings (in Marentič-Požarnik 2000, 14). 
Ebbinghaus proved the existence of a forgetting curve, according to which forgetting occurs quickly 
and always within two years after the study process, whereas later attrition recedes more gradually. 
Bahrick (1984) emphasized that memorizing is stronger with a higher level of acquired knowledge 
or material that individuals have learned well or learned for a longer period of time.
Other studies do not confirm immediate attrition after the study process, but show that forgetting 
occurs somewhat later – in adults this then proves to be the initial phase of the normal forgetting 
curve (Weltens et al. in Weltens & Cohen 1989, 130). In other words, according to these studies, 
a few years after the study process, during the period known as the initial plateau, the material 
learned should seem safe from the forgetting processes, though only in adult individuals with 
a relatively high level of acquired foreign or second language knowledge is this the case. Ecke 
(2004) emphasizes the fact that students who did not start learning a foreign language for a long 
time forgot more structures than students that started learning a foreign language sooner.
#e fourth language attrition research area relates to the possible existence of a typical attrition 
order (the typical attrition order effect) with regard to which the regression theory (or hypothesis) 
is used as a theoretical background. #e regression theory is the most widely used theory for 
describing the nature of language attrition at the level of interlinguistic skills (Bahrick 1984, 
Weltens 1989, Yoshida et al. in Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999) and the level of morphology, 
syntax, and vocabulary. It is derived from Jakobson’s claim (in Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999, 
9) that attrition is a mirror image of language acquisition. In other words, we quickly forget the 
language structures we learned last, and remember the ones that were learned first (Ecke 2004).
#is regression statement proves to be correct in the case of receptive language skills, which 
individuals acquire first but forget last (Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999, 9). However, at the 
level of morphology, syntax, and vocabulary, the regression hypothesis is much more difficult to 
study and prove. It seems that some authors have succeeded in doing this because they conclude 
that the basic syntactic patterns that were learned first were remembered the longest (Kuhberg 
in Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999, 9), or they describe examples of attrition of the language 
that the speakers learned last before being no longer present in a foreign language environment 
(Cohen in Weltens 1989, 6). 
 As a target language in the Slovenian-speaking environment, English is not naturally present 
to the extent that would justify studying English in Slovenian schools. In Slovenia it is spoken 
rarely, or only on special occasions, and most frequently with non-native English speakers. #e 
lack of natural English contact outside the classroom and in social environments in Slovenia thus 

presupposes self-initiated improvement of English outside the formal educational environment, 
while also generating considerable differences in prior knowledge between foreign language 
students. For students at the FELU, this situation is even more difficult. Since they do not have 
the opportunity to attend foreign language instruction in the very first year some students may, if 
they fail classes in the first year, spend a year or even more not using and thus learning the language 
uninterruptedly. Here the fact is important that, during the transition from secondary school to 
the university system, students do not simply continue learning GE but encounter BE, which 
differs from GE in terms of linguistic competence (e.g. vocabulary range), discourse competence 
(e.g. discourse features of various categories of BE letters) and intercultural competence (e.g. 
relationship dimensions significant for BE). In addition, taking into account the survey results, 
BE teachers feel that the GE knowledge of an average second-year English student – that is, 
after one or more years of almost complete non-use of English – is lower than the formal grades 
obtained on various secondary-school leaving exams the previous year.
In the second, third, and fourth years, the students at the FELU attend BE classes which are 
heterogeneous with regard to prior English knowledge and composed of students from various 
study tracks grouped alphabetically. Also, Faculty management formally does not demand 
evaluation of prior GE knowledge before the start of BE instruction in the second year, and BE 
teachers therefore do not perform such tests.
An extensive study was conducted in order to obtain deeper insight into the events in foreign 
language study during this special transition period, when several years of studying GE changes 
into studying BE and when secondary-school students become university students. #is transition 
period is marked by at least one year lack of formal foreign language instruction, which causes 
problems to students (and BE teachers) as in the second year of their study the foreign language 
instruction focuses on BE language contexts which can differ substantially from that of GE in 
terms of language activities. Many findings from the study indicate that foreign language non-
use, all the factors mentioned above, and especially the unstimulating language environment 
in the first year, can cause a lack of real internal and external motivation for learning a foreign 
language among the students. Indirectly, this contributes to language attrition processes.
 #e study was divided into a quantitative and qualitative part. For the quantitative research, 
data were collected from October 2004 to January 2005, and for the qualitative research data 
were collected from the beginning of November until mid-December 2005. In the study, it 
was decided to use five sources and three methods in the expanded method of triangulation by 
sources and methods. #e quantitative research thus included:
a) second- and third-year students from FELU in the 2004/05 academic year (111 
respondents);
b) Faculty graduates (54 graduates from the FELU’s business school and economics 
program in 1999 and 2000);
c) Faculty’s BE teachers (8 respondents); and
d) other subject matter teachers/professors (16 participants).

#e data was obtained by using questionnaires, checklists, numerical evaluation scales, and a 
grammar test. 
#e qualitative research was based on the following three sources:
a) Faculty’s BE teachers (8 respondents);
b) Faculty graduates (12 respondents); and
c) first-year students (18 respondents), and
the following three methods:
a) individual interviews;
b) group in-depth interviews, and
c) a journal on English use.
#e study combined various instruments. #e data were processed using the SPSS 11.0 statistical 
package. Software for calculating frequencies, a χ²
 
test and a bivariant analysis were used. #e 
main quantitative research areas included the determination of prior knowledge quality and the 
method of using GE during studies at the Faculty with an emphasis on one or more years of 
English non-use in the first year. In addition, the study addressed processes of general English 
attrition and the areas subject to this, self-initiated language (non-)study and dedication, and 
reading English professional literature, newspapers, and magazines. Furthermore, the study 
analyzed students’ feelings about their own knowledge and the current method of BE instruction 
at the FELU. Opinions about the applicability and usefulness of the Faculty’s BE teaching 
activities were also obtained from all of the other study participants.
#e qualitative research focused on English (non-)use in the first year at the FELU – that is, 
during the time when there is no organized foreign language instruction. More precisely, the 
study addressed students’ evaluation of their own English knowledge, their talent, their English 
language skills, their expectations regarding BE study, their awareness and feelings about the 
process of forgetting English, and (non-)study of GE during the one-year hiatus in foreign 
language learning in the first year. 
Given the extensive analyses and the number of findings, the outcomes of the study will be 
presented in a narrative form in the next chapter.
 #e findings of the study were obtained by conducting several types of analyses of student 
needs at the Faculty. #e results of the target situation analysis and the analysis of anticipated 
professional English needs indicate that, in Slovenia, future English (non-)use for professional 
needs greatly depends on the students’ future professions and jobs. Due to the great span 
of professional situations and various jobs available to future economists, carrying out these 
analyses was highly demanding because it was not possible to determine the final goal of 
studying business English, the target performance repertoire, and the underlying competence. 
In other words, what is meant here is the indefinability of the selection of anticipated 

language skills and knowledge (of the most frequent language structures, functions, specialized 
vocabulary, and typical discourses).
For a long time, experts (e.g. Littlewood 1984) have emphasized three basic conditions for 
learning language: individuals’ language skills, the true inner motivation for learning languages, 
and sufficient opportunities to use the language. Unfortunately, students at the FELU do not 
meet two of these conditions because, in addition to generally lacking true motivation, they also 
lack sufficient opportunities to use English in Slovenia. Taking into account the results of the 
current situation analysis and the analysis of prior GE knowledge, the majority of students do 
not learn the language through their own desire to learn a foreign language; they believe that 
BE instruction is useful only because of potential indirect benefits for their future profession. 
Furthermore, the outcomes demonstrate that all the respondents believe that there are many 
opportunities to use foreign languages as a prerequisite for good language knowledge; in contrast, 
language non-use was indicated as an obstacle in obtaining good foreign language knowledge. 
Nonetheless, the majority of students mistakenly believe that a hiatus in studying English in 
the first year is a welcome help, relief, and a well-thought-out gesture on the part of Faculty 
management, which should provide them more time to study other business subjects.
#e results of the present situation analysis, analysis of prior GE knowledge, and deficiency/lack 
analysis indicate differences in prior GE knowledge among the students, i.e. possibly an insufficient 
number of hours of foreign language instruction in Slovenian elementary and secondary schools 
(depending on the student’s home region). #is may cause problems to students and teachers of 
BE when BE instruction in the second year begins. 
However, as expected, none of the analyses indicated serious language knowledge problems, 
probably due to students’ relatively high level of foreign language knowledge. According to 
the findings, the majority of students are at the level of language independence (i.e. B2 level 
according to Common European Framework) (2001) prior to second-year BE instruction – that 
is, as individuals they can communicate authentically, spontaneously and fluently in English, 
while being able to argue effectively, defend, and discuss their opinions, and even showing the 
ability to correct errors.
In addition, many findings of deficiency/lacks research indicate limited opportunities for 
English communication and development of spoken English skills in the natural Slovenian 
environment, in elementary and secondary school, and the first year of study at the FELU. All 
these facts presuppose that students improve their foreign language knowledge on their own 
initiative; however, this is made impossible due to economics students’ lack of motivation to 
learn a foreign language. #e deficiency/lacks analysis confirmed that students do not review 
their GE knowledge and do not use available opportunities to maintain and improve their 
English when there is no BE instruction. In the one-year (or multi-year) period of English 
non-use in the first year, fewer than half of the students decided to independently review 
GE and English grammar; the majority (54.9%) did not. In addition, they generally do not 
learn new words, do not read English study literature, newspapers, and magazines, do not use 

dictionaries (see also Vrbinc 2005), and do not attend foreign language courses. #e outcomes 
also indicate that more talented students, and those who are employed, forget the language less 
because they tend to use English at work, and the fact that some students mistakenly confuse 
the process of forgetting the foreign language with the process of forgetting the study material 
learnt in their mother-tongue.
#e findings of the deficiency/lacks research confirm that the first-year students are aware of the 
fact that they start losing their spoken and written communication skills, which causes uncertainty 
and dissatisfaction with their own foreign language knowledge. Taking into account the findings 
of language attrition theory (Weltens et al. 1989), the subjective feeling of uncertainty and the 
lack of self-confidence connected with foreign language skills reported by the students is the 
most important indicator of the onset of the language attrition process. Students perceive their 
own written English communication as the most demanding and problematic aspect. #ey 
also find that they have problems recalling certain English words and that they consciously 
speak so called ‘simplified and simplified English’, as well as tend not to bother with certain ‘more 
difficult’ English grammar (e.g. past perfect, future continuous and future perfect, sequence of 
tenses in reported speech, if-clauses and ‘I wish’ and ‘If only’ structures).#e students believe 
these problems make them use less demanding vocabulary and simpler language structures from 
previous, earlier periods of learning English. #e theoretical background for these statements is 
the regression theory, which draws attention to the fact that acquired language skills disappear in 
the opposite order to those in which they were learned.
Furthermore, the failure to distinguish between productive and receptive language skills is 
emphasized as a problematic phenomenon found among Faculty students. #is causes the 
students to equate relatively good reading and listening language skills with comprehensive 
English knowledge. Language attrition studies consistently confirm a lower degree of forgetting 
receptive language skills as compared to productive skills (Spolsky 1998, Hansen & Reetz-
Kurashige 1999). #e regression statement proves to be correct in the case of the receptive 
language skills that individuals learn first and forget last (Hansen & Reetz-Kurashige 1999).
According to the survey, students mistakenly believe their productive skills remain as good as 
their receptive skills if they merely maintain contact with English by keeping up with the media, 
watching films, and using the Internet. Also, the findings of the study reveal that students do not 
read English professional literature, newspapers, and magazines. Strangely enough, the reason for 
that is not their insufficient reading skills, which for the majority of students are relatively well 
developed, but rather the students’ unwillingness to read in English as well as the fact that, with 
the exception of one subject, the obligatory study literature in the fall semester of the first year 
(the 2004/05 and 2006/07 academic years) did not include English professional literature either 
in the business school program or economics program. 
#e findings regarding students’ subjective needs and wants demonstrate that they expect BE to 
be useful and to learn a great deal of business vocabulary for the needs of their future profession 
or job. Only certain students’ expectations were evaluated as plausible; for example, a desire to 

improve their grammar knowledge, to obtain practical BE knowledge, to practice participating 
in meetings and business negotiations, and to maintain English business correspondence.
#e findings of the learning situation analysis and, within this, the analysis of students’ study 
patterns and strategies, indicate an inability to independently eliminate the essential and 
interesting parts of information, and to focus on details in language learning, which presupposes 
a great deal of support from BE teachers. #e students perceive the study material as a whole and 
process information from the top; they remember the total experience better than the details and 
find it easier to study in situations in which ideas and concepts occur. Because they remember 
more things if they are active, they need a concrete language learning experience, interaction 
with individuals, and contact in English with the outer world. T o students, language learning 
represents establishing new contacts (role playing, dialogues) and as active an approach to language 
learning as possible (short presentations, group presentations, etc.) with clearly structured and 
useful tasks and a great deal of pictorial material. Organizational skills and systematicity are of 
key importance, as are clear ideas, overviews and visions on paper, using sketches and structural 
diagrams, learning through doing, and a gradual linear method of presenting study material due 
to remembering information in steps. In addition, gestures, slow speaking, and an encouraging 
class environment are very important. Reviewing all the study material in advance and before 
individual BE classes, forming possible questions and answers, and using internal dialogue while 
studying result in faster BE learning.
 BE teaching/learning is extremely important for the future professional life of students at the 
FELU because, as the findings of this study have demonstrated, in the Slovenian environment 
students will undoubtedly use BE for the needs of their profession and job. However, the 
outcomes did not demonstrate to what extent this is true.
#is study has clearly demonstrated the onset of language attrition processes among students 
at the Faculty. #ese processes can especially be perceived in students’ subjective feelings about 
incipient loss of spoken and written language skills, and forgetting English grammar, and in 
their reports about having problems recalling ‘more demanding’ English words, as well as their 
admission of consequently returning to their ‘elementary-school’ levels of language knowledge. 
#ese findings lead to the conclusion that one of the reasons for the deficiencies and lacks 
mentioned above is the disappearance of the main factor of successful BE learning – that is, a 
logical structure of prior GE knowledge. In the authors’ opinion, this is a result of a long period 
of English non-use, which renders the students’ acquisition of new BE knowledge more difficult 
on the basis of the prior GE knowledge already obtained.
At first glance it seems that dividing students according to their study tracks – and not according 
to the alphabet, which is the current case – would contribute to a more stimulating class 
atmosphere because language study seems more plausible in groups with equal, similar, or related 
interests (Black 1995). However, the authors feel that forming groups of students based on 

their study tracks is not necessary. Focusing on typical discourse in BE teaching/learning would 
be somewhat premature, because prospective economists must normally learn the method of 
foreign language communication that is typical of the profession they will engage in – regardless 
of the content of BE classes during their studies. #e Faculty selection of BE instruction activities 
thus cannot be used for a specific purpose or with reference to students’ future profession, but 
must focus on foreign language learning. #is study has shown that target English language use 
for future professional students’ needs is practically indefinable. In the authors’ opinion, this 
is why the Faculty’s BE teachers must focus on all of the deficiencies and lacks in the students’ 
knowledge to the same extent. #ey should be addressed without any set priority, since they are 
all equally likely to cause problems for students in the future.
Among other things, this means that BE teachers avoid especially strong emphases on individual 
language skills to the detriment of others (e.g. on spoken skills). According to the Faculty’s 
graduates that participated in this study, combinations of two or three language skills are the 
most frequent in everyday practice; for example, writing-reading, or speaking-listening. #e vast 
majority of graduates still remember well how they felt they were forgetting English during their 
first-year studies and believe that language attrition processes were one of the main factors that 
impeded fast and easy learning of BE.
It can be concluded that, in the first year, when students are left to their own self-initiated 
language study, they neglect the development of their foreign language productive skills. #e 
findings demonstrate that the majority of students do not consider changing their non-existent 
or inactive method of studying general or BE and, even if they do, this only involves minor 
changes because they are generally satisfied with a superficial approach to maintaining their 
knowledge. T o most of the students, their acquired English language knowledge seems adequate 
for their needs, i.e. passing the exams and browsing the Internet. Also, they only take the receptive 
language skills of reading and listening into account.
A little (foreign language) knowledge is a dangerous thing in the harsh business reality of our 
globalising world. According to a study of 2000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and 
30 multinationals from 29 European countries (CILT 2006), it is possible to assess the impact 
of foreign language knowledge on the effectiveness and the profitability of modern businesses – 
11% of SMEs from the study lost what had been assumed to be concluded business deals due to 
the lack of employees’ foreign language knowledge. Considering the fact that not all SMEs from 
the study were willing to reveal the true value of the lost business deals, the study researchers’ 
estimated that the more accurate figure for 37 SMEs could be between 8 and 13.5 million Euros, 
in other words, about 945,000 European export SMEs in the whole EU region are likely to have 
lost their business due to inefficient or non-existent employee foreign language skills, which on 
average amounts to 325,000 Euros per business in three years’ time.
Since the majority of experts in foreign language study still believe that active teaching by a foreign 
language teacher encourages processes of foreign language learning it can be concluded that first-
year BE instruction would have a positive effect on students’ foreign language knowledge. In 

other words, at the beginning of studies at the FELU, when students are still susceptible enough 
and motivated for everything new due to adjusting to their study program, would internally 
motivate students to learn a foreign language and primarily prevent them from forgetting the 
language they have already learned. 
Greater contact, and as early contact as possible, of students with (business) English would possibly 
improve their foreign language knowledge because, with an additional 60 to 90 foreign language 
hours in the first year, their knowledge would come close to the standards recommended for 
Slavic foreign language students (see Čebron 1998). Better foreign language knowledge could, in 
turn, result also in fewer business dealings lost on competitive global markets for the economics 
students’ prospective employers. 
It seems reasonable to dedicate potential first-year English instruction to an easy transition from 
general to BE, expanding BE vocabulary, and practicing all (not just spoken) skills in addition 
to occasional reviews of specific areas of grammar, but only as needed and, most importantly, 
in smaller groups. By prompting an individual approach, such small groups would allow BE 
teachers to work more easily with students who have weaker or incorrect external motivation for 
BE learning.
One of the major deficiencies of the change proposed is that is impossible to expect that, at 
the beginning of their studies, students will bring any business experience or carrier content 
knowledge into the BE instruction process. In the first year, students are pre-experience learners 
or, in other words, are not yet developed experts, but are in the midst of obtaining professional 
and theoretical knowledge. #ey lack empirical knowledge because their business knowledge 
is not yet practical and personalized, but theoretical, incomplete, and obtained merely from 
books.
In the case of introducing first-year classes, the Faculty’s BE teachers would thus have to bear not 
only all of the burden of teaching pre-experience learners without any professional knowledge, 
but also the burden of teaching foreign language learners among whom (following this study’s 
findings) it is already possible to perceive the beginnings of language attrition or the attrition of 
real content that is the prerequisite for BE teaching/learning.
In addition, the Faculty management and the Faculty subject matter teachers/professors should 
also contribute their share to facilitating the transition from GE to BE teaching/learning after the 
hiatus of one or more years – the latter with demands for regular reading of English professional 
literature, and a wider and more binding selection of obligatory study literature in English, 
and the management by introducing formal evaluation of students’ prior GE knowledge, and 
organizing first-year classes in foreign languages, which would provide vital continuity in foreign 
language learning.

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