ENHANCING BUSINESS ENGLISH TERMINOLOGY THROUGH CONCEPT MAPPING Ana Balula 1,2 , Ciro Martins 1 , Fábio Marques 1 1 Águeda School of Technology and Management – University of Aveiro (PORTUGAL) 2 Research Centre “Didactics and Technology in Education of Trainers” – University of Aveiro (PORTUGAL) Abstract Given the need of a growing internationalization of business, to have a good command of English is, most of the times important for the development of technical (specific) competences. It is, thus, critical that professionals use accurate terminology to set grounds for a well-succeeded communication. Furthermore, business communication is increasingly moving to ICT-mediated sets and professionals have to be able to promptly adjust to these needs, resorting to trustworthy online information sources, but also using technologies that better serve their business purposes. In this scenario, the main objective of this study is to find evidence as to the utility of concept mapping as a teaching and learning strategy for the appropriation of business English terminology, enabling students to use English more efficiently as language of communication in business context. This study was based on a case study methodology, mainly of exploratory nature. Participants were students (n= 30) enrolled in the subject English Applied to Management II at Águeda School of Technology and Management – University of Aveiro (2013/14 edition). They were asked to create and peer review two concept maps (cmaps), one individually and another in pairs. The data gathered were treated and analysed resorting qualitative (content analysis) and to quantitative (descriptive statistical analysis) techniques. Results of the data analysis unveil that the use of a collaborative concept mapping tool promotes the development of linguistic competences as to the use of business terminology, but also of communication and collaboration competences. Besides, it was also a very important motivation element in the students’ engagement with the subject content. Keywords: concept mapping, business English terminology, teaching and learning strategies, ICT use. 1 INTRODUCTION Technologies are increasingly assuming an important role as a means to prepare students for the challenges they will have to face, as future professionals, in an information- and communication-based society. In this scenario, to have a good command of languages is seen as a systemic competence, most of the times crucial for the development of more technical (specific) competences. Additionally, the development of language fluency can also be seen as an inmost part of the development of other transversal competences, such as intercultural communication and collaboration, negotiation, critical thinking, etc. – identified by the European Union as core, higher-order competences to be developed in Higher Education sets. Thus, some authors defend that English (as lingua franca) should not be seen as a menace, by making a distinction between ‘language for identification’ and ‘language for communication’ [1]. The former relates mostly and directly to a person’s nationality; the latter, as Firth [2] states, serves as “contact language between persons who share neither a common native tongue nor a common native culture”. Given the need of a growing internationalization of business, it is decisive that professionals use adequate and specific terminology to guarantee a well-succeeded communication flow. Furthermore, business communication is increasingly moving to ICT-mediated sets and professionals have to able to adjust and adapt to these changes, based on reliable information sources and using technologies that better serve their purposes. Nevertheless, many students still tend to communicate using general English and have difficulties not only to understand and/or use specific terminology, but also to use ICT to have a better performance. In fact, several authors have been focused on different experiences as to computer assisted language learning [3]. However, as to second language acquisition, some authors point out “the desirability of dual-coding” [3]. It seems to be important to bring together source and target language, through translation and/or definition, sometimes even resorting to multimedia solutions to provide context and/or visual representation [4][5]. Following this reasoning, concept mapping was the infographic Proceedings of EDULEARN14 Conference 7th-9th July 2014, Barcelona, Spain ISBN: 978-84-617-0557-3 2355