RECENT TRENDS IN ENGLISH TEACHING: THE CASE OF THE FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MURCIA

The Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Murcia has been teaching subjects in English since the 2005/6 academic year. In particular, a total of seven subjects have been offering: four of the Bachelor Degree in Business Administration (from now on: Licenciado en ADE or LADE): International Accounting, Marketing Channels, Advertising and Marketing Communications and Consumer Behavior, and three of the Bachelor Degree in Economics (from now on: Licenciado en Econom a or LECO): Forecasting Techniques, International Macroeconomics and Monetary and Financial Economics. In all cases the number of students who were enrolled on these subjects was reduced. In the 2011/12 academic year we have made a risky bet by implementing a set of subjects in English on the first year of the new Bologna-inspired Business Administration degree (from now on: Grado en ADE, or GADE), which will be followed by the implementation of subjects in English on the following levels in successive academic years. It has been observed that the number of alumni studying subjects in English on the first year of the GADE group is substantially higher than the figures that could be deduced from the old English courses demand until this year. In this paper we present the most significant data and attempts to explain the reason why the trend has changed.