Teaching the Course of Business Communication to Large Classes in Pakistani Universities: Challenges and Suggested Strategies

Abstract

Large classes are an integral part of Higher Education Institutions in developing countries such as Pakistan, posing several challenges for ESL university teachers. This study aims to explore Pakistani ESL university teachers’ experiences of teaching Business Communication to large classes. More specifically, it seeks to identify the challenges faced by the university teachers and the strategies they use to effectively teach large classes. By adopting a basic qualitative research design and purposive sampling technique, researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 university teachers from eight private and public sector universities located in Karachi, Pakistan. All the participants were teaching business communication courses to large classes with student strength ranging from 40 to 150. The data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. Findings revealed that achieving course learning outcomes, managing large classes, assessing student work, and providing timely feedback were some of the major challenges for the teachers. The participants suggested several pedagogical strategies more suited to teaching large classes including better planning, adopting cooperative learning, integrating technology into large classrooms, encouraging self-assessment, peer-assessment, and project work, and equipping classrooms with multimedia projectors, sound systems and the internet.

Keywords: Business Communication, Large class size, Lecture, Teaching