Multimodal, Multidisciplinary and Multicultural Business Chinese Teaching in the UK and Ireland

The Chinese economy demonstrated remarkable resilience in 2022, providing certainty and vitality to a world facing economic challenges and geopolitical tensions. China’s total foreign trade reached 39.1 trillion yuan in 2021, driving momentum for business Chinese language education. With China’s economic growth and increasing international business interaction, there is a notable demand for professionals equipped with international business knowledge and strong business communication skills. This study explores a multimodal, multicultural, and multidisciplinary approach to teaching business Chinese, aiming to foster university students’ intercultural awareness, global perspective, and intercultural communication competence as they prepare to become future international business practitioners. Through a systematic and critical analysis of multimodal international business discourse, this study examines the constructed meanings and semiotic resources utilized in classroom instruction across three UK universities and one in Ireland. Research materials include recorded synchronous online lessons, textbooks and presentation slides, with case studies on TikTok, SHEIN, Gengshin Impact (原神), e-commerce, and livestreaming. These cases highlight how language educators integrate multimodality into international business pedagogy. By being one of the first studies to examine international business teaching through multimodal (inter)action analysis, this research addresses significant gaps in the field. Its findings are relevant to educational systems worldwide as they adopt multimodal learning and assessment, a key trend for the future.