ACCA-aligned EAP syllabus for mixed-ability financial management undergraduates (CEFR B1 entry, B2–C1 target). Designed to satisfy accreditation audit requirements while scaffolding discipline-specific oral communication through client advising, risk briefings, and FX negotiation simulations.

1. Problem: I was assigned to teach an “Advanced Speaking” course to financial management majors whose actual proficiency ranged from CEFR B1 to B2. The course catalog specified advanced-level outcomes, but the cohort needed significant linguistic scaffolding to engage with ACCA Financial Management concepts in English. Simultaneously, the program faced accreditation audit requirements that demanded rigorous standards alignment and documented student learning outcomes.

2. Constraints: The challenge was tripartite: (a) students needed to master discipline-specific terminology and oral genres (client advising, risk briefings, FX negotiation) while still building foundational academic speaking structures; (b) the syllabus needed to align explicitly with ACCA Financial Management Certification benchmarks to satisfy external accreditation expectations for advanced practice; and (c) assessments needed to be authentic enough to motivate engagement while valid enough to measure both linguistic and disciplinary growth.

3. Action: I designed a dual-objective syllabus architecture pairing CEFR-leveled communicative tasks with the ACCA’s conceptual framework. Each unit targets specific linguistic structures (modals for advice, passive voice for market processes, conditionals for risk scenarios) embedded within authentic financial contexts. The capstone assessment—a Financial Advisory Pitch—required students to apply technical terminology, prosody, and pragmatic register to a real-world investment recommendation, evaluated through a genre-specific rubric.

4. Result: The syllabus satisfied program accreditation requirements without compromising student access. Students progressed from structured drills to independent financial briefings, using high-frequency discipline-specific terminology accurately in spoken interaction. Students demonstrated significant language and schema development in their work over the term and course ratings were highly positive.