Transcript Accountant

NESB accountants, professional
communication and implications for
ESP pedagogy
Anne Burns
Stephen Moore
Applied Linguistics and Language in Education
(ALLE) Research Centre
Macquarie University~Sydney
1
Background



Real and growing concern about the
quality of communication skills of recently
graduated accountants in Australia
(Birrell, 2006)
High proportion of non-English speaking
background (NESB) overseas students
training as accountants in Australia
Industry and academic concern about
how their communication skills are best
developed to meet needs and
expectations of their future workplaces
2
Introduction



Our focus in this research is on the
discourse community of professional
accountants.
This is an under-researched profession in
studies of workplace communication.
Apart from our own research (reported at
earlier USyd TESOL Research Colloquia)
there are virtually no reports analysing
spoken interactions between accountants
and clients.
3
Three phases of our
research
An examination of the spoken discourse of
postgraduate accounting students in simulated
role plays (Burns & Moore, 2007)
1.

Focus on power relations; advice initiation and
termination; repair.
An investigation of the role of questioning in
these same role plays (Burns & Moore, 2008)
An investigation of the spoken discourse of
undergraduate accounting students in
simulated role plays (Moore & Burns, in press)
2.
3.

Comparing the discourse of an undergraduate intraining NESB accountant with a practising NESB
accountant
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Current study’s research
questions
1.
2.
In what ways does the performance of
an NESB in-training accountant differ
from that of an NESB practising
accountant?
What implications, if any, can be drawn
from these findings in terms of
professional accounting communication
training and support?
5
The study
Task involving undergraduate
accounting students as professional
advisers with non-accounting
‘clients’
 ‘Role play’ simulation, scaffolded by
role play card and 8-page Australian
Income Tax Return

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Data collection





10 role plays audio-recorded on digital recorders
in researcher’s office in May/June 2007 (+ one in
August 2007)
Recordings transcribed for content
Transcriptions examined for evidence of
technical competence in accounting
2 role plays selected are similar in terms of (i)
duration; (ii) NESB accountants; and (iii) their
knowledge of the tax return form.
Comparisons made using Seedhouse & Richards’
(2007) tri-dimensional model of context
7
Seedhouse & Richards 2007
8
Seedhouse & Richards
2007: 25
“When LSP researchers collect data, they need to
employ the concepts of variety, sub-variety and
micro-contexts. Any instance collected needs to
be characterised as: a) belonging to a particular
variety of institutional discourse which has
particular characteristics, b) belonging to a
particular sub-variety of institutional discourse
which has distinctive characteristics, c) [being] a
unique instance. By relating instances to
varieties and sub-varieties in this way,
researchers can build up a description of the
characteristics of interaction in the institutional
variety as a whole and in its sub-varieties”.
9
Applying S & R (2007)

Institutional
context
 Variety
encompasses
overarching
institutional aims

Professional
accounting context
 Overarching aim
of providing
financial advice to
a wide range of
clients
10
Applying S & R (2007)

Sub-variety
context
 Achieving typical
professional tasks

Sub-variety aim

Providing
appropriate tax
advice
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Applying S & R (2007)

Micro-context
 Unique
instantiations of
specific encounters
between/among
individuals

Micro-level aim
 Providing
appropriate tax
advice in specific
and unique
accountant-client
interactions
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Importance of sub-variety
“[A] sub-variety of institutional interaction
is understood…as combining an
institutional sub-aim with an interactional
organisation appropriate to that aim.
A sub-variety has certain common,
distinguishing features and may also have
its own unique fingerprint”.
(Seedhouse & Richards, 2007: 18-19)
13
Analysis
The sub-variety of accountant-client
tax consultation reveals two key
institutional sub-aims:
1. Informing the client of relevant tax
regulations;
2. Completing the tax-return form.
14
Informing the client of
relevant tax regulations
Both practising and in-training accountant
informed clients by:
1. Referring to specific figures (e.g., tax
brackets; allowances etc.)
2. Referring to situational information
(e.g., expense is paid by client, but is
work-related, therefore a legitimate
deduction before taxable income is
calculated)
15
Completing the tax return
form: Practising accountant
Practising accountant continually refers
back to the task of completing the tax
return form
 Institutionally relevant artefacts
“constitute an essential link to the
institutional context and are an integral
part of a key move” (ie, one directly
linked to the sub-aims of the subvariety). Seedhouse & Richards 2007: 29

16
Practising accountant’s use
of tax return form
Accountant:
 2a How about we following the tax-return form, following
the pattern. Shall we look at income first? What kind of
income do you have? Do you just earn salaries? Do you
have, for example, shares or interest?
 2b Alright. We’re going to have a look at deductions…
 2c Okay, and there we move on to the tax offsets part …
 2d Okay. Alright. Fine. Very good. Well we are
progressed very well.
 2e So, very good. We more or less complete the form
now.
 2e Okay, that’s very good. We’re more or less … I’m
more or less asked you all the questions about all that all
the things we need.
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Completing the tax return
form: Trainee accountant
The accountant-in-training also regularly
refers to the tax return form, but as an
object or source of information, rather
than as something to be completed with
reference to the client.
 Accountant’s orientation is to his own
agenda of displaying knowledge about
the tax return form

18
In-training accountant’s use
of tax return form
Accountant:
 4a So firstly … I will explain the form, the
formats of income tax return for you. The first
page is normally about your personal
information, is include your tax file number and
your status, your sex.
 4b So is automatically have off … when fill this
form, in this form, says several situation like you
claim spouse tax offset, you might needs to fill
the spou detail, this mean, your husband …
yeah. So why … and you must fill the form in the
pages six or seven, here, for any situation
relating.
19
Other interactional
differences
Practising accountant:
 Initiates consultation by
listening to client’s needs
 Refers continually to
client’s specific
circumstances
 Asks 38 questions
 Short Q & A sequences
 When leave-taking, the
accountant summarises
the way forward as a plan
for action to be taken
In-training accountant:
 Initiates consultation by
telling client that he will
“explain” the tax return
 Refers to tax return form
generically
 Asks 7 questions
 No short Q & A sequences
 When leave-taking, the
consultation ends abruptly
without evidence of any
interpersonal rapport
between accountant and
client.
20
Pedagogical implications for
developing communication skills
1. Accountants must understand what
it means to be client- and not selforiented or knowledge-oriented in
their professional encounters.
2. This means fine-tuning their advice
to the micro-context of the client’s
knowledge and needs.
21
Pedagogical implications for
developing communication skills
3. At the sub-variety level, institutional
artefacts such as a tax-return form play
an important role in modulating
professional discourse in relation to
client-specific needs.
4. At the micro-level, an extensive use of
questioning is used to construct the
interactional architecture that enables the
client to provide relevant personal
information.
22
Relevance of this research for LSP
or professional training programs
1. Communication trainers or LSP
teachers can deepen their own
knowledge of particular types of
interaction in effective and less
effective encounters.
2. Practitioners can share this
knowledge with their students.
23
Relevance of this research for LSP
or Professional training programs
3. Students can be alerted to the
need to use a variety of questioning
techniques to draw out clientspecific information.
4. Trainees can be given training in
generating and responding to
questions of client-specified type, ie,
relating to specific personal
situations.
24
Concluding remarks

Evidence of clear differences in accomplishing a
professional task were presented:



In-training accountant used expertise to orient to self,
global and decontextualised content knowledge.
Practising accountant applied expertise to specific,
localised and individualised client interaction.
Communication skills development programs
need to address and bridge these types of
differences if they are to truly address the
communication needs of the accounting
profession.
25
References
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Birrell, R. 2006. The changing face of the accounting profession
in Australia. Melbourne: CPA Australia.
Burns, A. and Moore, S. 2008. Questioning in simulated
accountant-client consultations: Exploring implications for ESP
teaching. English for Specific Purposes 27: 322-337.
Burns, A. and Moore, S. 2007. Conversation analysis and the
accounting classroom: Exploring implications for LSP teaching. In
H. Bowles and P. Seedhouse (Eds.) Conversation Analysis and
LSP (pp.183-215) Bern: Peter Lang.
Moore, S. and Burns, A. (2008). Non-English speaking
background accountants and professional communication.
Prospect: An Australian journal of TESOL, 23(2), 47-59 .
Seedhouse, P. and Richards, K. 2007. Describing and analysing
institutional varieties of interaction. In H. Bowles and P.
Seedhouse (Eds.) Conversation Analysis and LSP (pp.17-36)
Bern: Peter Lang.
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www.ling.mq.edu.au/centres/alle/index.htm
Thank you!
[email protected]
[email protected]
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