Reconceptualizing English for International Business Contexts

Vildana Dubravac, Elma Dedović-Atilla

Description

Assesses whether traditional English language teaching with emphasis on grammar and accuracy is necessary in business contexts

This book presents a critique of current English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) practices using research conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The authors identify English communication behaviors that hinder or promote success in the workplace, and trace these back to curricula and teaching practices. The authors suggest which skills employers need and expect from employees, and question whether English courses concerned with general academic English skills and business vocabulary are sufficient training for linguistically-complex workplaces. The book also examines whether the focus on achieving native-like proficiency with high grammatical standards and a strong emphasis on form are adequately preparing students who aspire to use English in professional contexts as a means to ‘get their job done’.

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 The Role of English in the Global Community

2 BELF

3 The Use of English in the Bosnian Context

4 Business Communication in B&H from the BELF Perspective

5 Conclusions and Implications

Appendices

References

Index

Sujets

• Communication Studies
• Business Communication
• Marketing et communication
• Idioma inglés
• Business English
• Southern Europe
• Professional
• Postgraduate education
• General officer
• Sociolinguistics
• ELF
• English
• Economics
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Business
• General
• Research
• Postgraduate
• Anglais

Informations

• Publié par: Channel View Publications
• Date de parution: 05 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781800416017
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Reconceptualizing English for International Business Contexts

LANGUAGE AT WORK

Series Editors: Jo Angouri,University of Warwick, UKandRebecca Piekkari,Aalto University Business School, Finland

Language at Workis a new series designed to bring together scholars interested in workplace research. The modern workplace has changed significantly in recent years. The international nature of business activities and the increasing rate of mobility around the world create a new challenging environment for individuals and organisations alike. The advancements in technology have reshaped the ways employees collaborate at the interface of linguistic, national and professional borders. The complex linguistic landscape also results in new challenges for health care systems and legal settings. This and other phenomena around the world of work have attracted significant interest; it is still common however for relevant research to remain within clear disciplinary and methodological boundaries.

The series aims to create space for exchange of ideas and dialogue and seeks to explore issues related to power, leadership, politics, teamwork, culture, ideology, identity, decision making and motivation across a diverse range of contexts, including corporate, health care and institutional settings.Language at Work welcomes mixed methods research and it will be of interest to researchers in linguistics, international management, organisation studies, sociology, medical sociology and decision sciences.

All books in this series are externally peer-reviewed.

Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK.

Reconceptualizing English for International Business Contexts

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.21832/DEDOVI5997 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Dedovic-Atilla, Elma, author. | Dubravac, Vildana, author. ́ Title: Reconceptualizing English for International Business Contexts: A BELF Approach and its Educational Implications/Elma Dedovic-Atilla and Vildana Dubravac. ́ Description: Bristol; Jackson: Multilingual Matters, [2022] | Series: Language at Work: 7 | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “This book presents a critique of current English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) practices using research conducted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The authors identify English communication behaviours that hinder or promote success in the workplace, and trace these back to curricula and teaching practices”—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2022016329 (print) | LCCN 2022016330 (ebook) | ISBN 9781800415997 (hardback) | ISBN 9781800416017 (epub) | ISBN 9781800416024 (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: English language—Globalization. | English language—Business English—Study and teaching. | English language—Study and teaching—Bosnia and Herzegovina. | Business communication —Bosnia and Herzegovina. Classification: LCC PE1073.4 .D43 2022 (print) | LCC PE1073.4 (ebook) | DDC 306.442/21— dc23/eng/20220425 LC record available athttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022016329 LC ebook record available athttps://lccn.loc.gov/2022016330

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-1-80041-599-7 (hbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol, BS1 2AW, UK. USA: Ingram, Jackson, TN, USA. Website:www.multilingual-matters.com Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters Blog:www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com Copyright © 2022 Elma Dedović-Atilla and Vildana Dubravac. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India. Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd.

Contents

1

2

3

4

5

Abbreviations

Introduction

The Role of English in the Global Community Theoretical Perspectives on the Spread of English World Englishes English as a Lingua Franca BELF Conceptual Background From the Research Perspective Defining Features of BELF Global Communicative Competence Summary The Use of English in the Bosnian Context A Historical Overview English in B&H Today Bosnian Business Context and the Role of English Research on Business and English in B&H and Neighboring Countries Summary Business Communication in B&H from the BELF Perspective Rationale of the Study and Research Questions Addressed Research Design Sampling and Participants Research Instruments, Procedures and Administration Data Analysis Research Findings Interpretation of the Results Conclusions and Implications Conclusions and Implications for Business Practitioners Conclusions and Implications for Educators Suggestions for Researchers Final Remarks

Appendix References Index

Abbreviations

BE BELF B&H CA CAT CC CEFR CLIL CoP EBC EC EFA EFL ELF ELT ENL ESL ESP FTA GCC IC IELTS IICS KMO LEC L1 L2 MNC NS NNS OC PCA RS QSI TEFL TOEFL SAT SLA SPSS SS TIGs

Business English English as the business lingua franca Bosnia and Herzegovina Conversation analysis Communication accommodation theory Communicative competence Common European Framework of Reference Content and language integrated learning Community of practice English business communication The expanding circle Exploratory factor analysis English as a foreign language English as a lingua franca English language teaching English as a native language English as a second language English for specific purposes Face-threatening acts Global communicative competence The inner circle International English language testing system Intercultural and interactional communication skills Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy Linguistic and extralinguistic competence First language Second language Multinational company Native speaker Non-native speaker The outer circle Principal component analysis Reading skills Quality School International Teaching English as a foreign language Test of English as a foreign language Speech accommodation theory Second language acquisition Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Speaking skills Transient international groups

UAE UK US

WS

United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States of America

Writing skills

Introduction

The Scope of the Book For a long time, there has been heated discussion in academic linguistic circles concerning the current role and place of English in the global community. Some scholars perceive the omnipresence of English as cultural and linguistic supremacy (Canagarajah, 1999; Phillipson, 1992), while others take a more pragmatic view and highlight all the benefits of the world sharing a common language (Crystal, 2003; Davies, 1996; Seidlhofer & Hulmbauer, 2013; Widdowson, 1998). Regardless of all the theoretical bookish clashes and disputes, the reality unfolds its own story in which English has taken the leading language role on the global stage, acquiring the status oftheglobal language used internationally across different walks of life and for different purposes (Crystal, 2003). It has been increasingly used in education, science, academia, media, sports, entertainment, politics, diplomacy, travel and business. The magnitude of the importance of English proficiency today is reflected in the fact that it has become one of the essential literacy skills that every individual striving to make progress in the global world in any sphere is bound to possess (Carmichael, 2000). A large body of research is exploring the nature and features of the English language and its usage in various fields worldwide, including the business field, presenting the domain this book has set out to explore. Globalization has definitely contributed to the deterritorialization of this field, the concept ofmulti replacing the earlier one ofmono, workplaces no longer characterized by one nation, one culture, one language, but rather by more than one nation, more than one culture and more than one language. To describe this, scholars use the termtransnational when referring to current workplace communication (e.g. Kingsley, 2013; Räisänen, 2018), pointing out the increasing ‘fluidity of work spaces and mobility of workers’ (Canagarajah, 2020: 5). To stay competitive in such a changing job market, one needs to rely on multilingual competence, i.e. a satisfactory level of proficiency in more than one language and developed communication skills required for meaning negotiation. The COVID-19pandemic has created even greater diversity in the field of work (Canagarajah, 2020), with online communication more prevalent than ever before and borders less relevant. The aforementioned concept ofmulti now also includes competence in the use of different applications, different modes of communication and different registers. However, although the focus is on competence in more than one language, English still occupies the most prominent place in addition to the speaker’s first language. It remains a dominant lingua franca used for general business communication involving international participants (Canagarajah, 2020). A number of theoretical concepts and studies investigating various aspects and modes of business communication in English have been carried out, providing valuable insights and findings on the topic. This book has attempted to make its own contribution to the research on business English (BE) communication, by narrowing it down to the exploration of one particular business setting: Bosnia and Herzegovina’s (B&H) business context, the context belonging to the under-researched Global South (Pennycook & Makoni, 2020; Rudwick & Makoni, 2021). While the Global North has addressed this issue through studies mainly conducted in Nordic, Central European and Asian contexts, until now there has not been a comprehensive study that actually identifies English language needs in this part of Europe within a business context nor an attempt to specify particular genres of business communication that really exist and matter in the job market, drawing upon the business English as a lingua franca (BELF) perspective. Hence, raising awareness about this concept and conducting a study that would explore and pinpoint the exact nature, role, importance and features of English used in different contexts within this specific job environment seem critical. Therefore, this study aims to expand our knowledge of global business communication, providing us with novel findings from the Global South, which are to complement those from the Global North, making the overall picture more balanced and comprehensive. A number of issues regarding the topic need to be raised, shedding more light on many unanswered questions. First of all, an important question to be answered is what kind of English is needed within different business contexts, having also in mind the interaction with two different groups: native speakers (NSs)

and non-native speakers (NNSs). Furthermore, an exploration of the significance of different English skills and genres in different settings seems to be necessary. In addition, investigating what English communication behaviors hinder or bring about success in a workplace, i.e. what parts of the curriculum and teaching practices and modes seem to contribute to success in a workplace and which ones seem redundant in a specific business setting, should certainly be one of the many questions to be answered. Another important issue to be resolved is whether English courses concerned with general academic English skills and business vocabulary are sufficient to prepare individuals to adequately employ English communication skills in the workplace and communicate successfully in all international business settings. In addition, it is crucial to identify which literacy qualifications workplaces and employers really need and expect from novices and what business genres and content areas should be included or removed from these courses. Another important issue to be considered is the ways that classroom activities and teaching materials and methods should be revised and adapted to better suit the needs of a particular workplace. To be more specific, the question is what modifications should be executed in teaching English to all students in elementary schools and to those who choose business careers in their high schools or universities. Finally, an important query is whether the focus on achieving native-like proficiency with high grammatical standards and a strong emphasis on form is adequately preparingallstudents, some of them aspiring to use English in professional contexts simply as a means to ‘get their job done’. Even though the book is primarily concerned with the use of English in one specific aspect, before providing a more thorough account of the significance and role of English in business settings, in order to gain a broader insight into the topic it addresses the phenomenon of English and its use across the globe on a more general note. Thus,Chapter 1provides a macro view on the place and spread of the English language, tackling theoretical and historical perspectives and offering an account of different standpoints and definitions of English as a world language.Chapter 2narrows down the discussion to the field of BE and its application, inspecting both traditional and more novel definitions and attitudes. The primary focus is on the concept of BELF, its conceptual background and main features. The historical account of the role and rise of English in B&H is investigated inChapter 3, followed by a portrayal of the status of English in the Bosnian setting today and by an examination of the interrelation of business and English in B&H, including a review of the studies tackling the issue in B&H and its immediate surroundings.Chapter 4 provides an overview of a detailed inquiry based on informed perspectives from business professionals in B&H, both employees and employers/supervisors. The book is expected to contribute to the current understanding of the BELF concept in various ways: ‘The Role of English in the Global Community’ (Chapter 1) and ‘BELF’ (Chapter 2) elaborate on and point out the global trends in comprehending today’s English role(s) worldwide; the conducted research study sheds light on the (non)presence and nature of those trends within Bosnian and other comparable societies; finally, the analysis and interpretation of the obtained research data provide general suggestions and guidelines, paving the way for the contextualized, authentic and adequate use of English within different aspects of B&H and similar contexts. This book might also be an important contribution to English education on multiple levels: individual, organizational and even national and international. Firstly, it might suggest which basic business communication skills are critical in building careers in the international and intercultural world, within different contexts. Therefore, the book is of considerable importance to individuals in helping them recognize specific and varying workplace needs before entering the job market, because proficiency in a variety of skills is necessary to build a career and climb the professional ladder. As an illustration, to work efficiently and make progress in their jobs, individuals are expected to apply the knowledge acquired in schools/courses, and are expected to continue learning and improving while on the job. Moreover, this book can aid in designing English business communication (EBC) curriculums that prepare students to better adapt to both different types of workplaces and different types of positions and genres within one workplace by branching corporate English language teaching/learning into two general distinct fields: one focused solely on English as the official language, i.e. preparation for prominent job positions and discursive formats and genres requiring native-like proficiency, and another one focused on English as a working language, i.e. preparation for less prominent professional roles and discursive formats that could be utilized in a more flexible and hybrid manner, within a lingua franca business environment. Therefore, it can greatly contribute to reconceptualizing English for the international business context adopting a BELF approach and reshaping the current curriculums in order to create more adequate and effective business communication course content,