The Big Idea: A Party Card Game for a Problem-Based Learning Course of Business English

Party Card Games (PCG), though not originally developed for language teaching purposes, can be creatively re-purposed for teaching language. This paper demonstrates the creative use of a party card game, called The Big Idea, to suit the needs of an in-company training course for Business English. This course was designed based on the Problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy, which has been shown in literature to benefit learners in many aspects, including improving creative and critical thinking, problem solving skills, as well as verbal ability, in addition to the most important dimension of content knowledge acquisition. In language classrooms, the PBL design of a course has also been shown to be effective in enhancing students’ communicative skills and in sustaining their motivation to learn. In this paper, we will showcase an innovative integration of a PBL design into a workplace training course for Business English through the utilization of a party card game that is highly relevant to the context of business.