Transcript English as a lingua franca ELF in the business context

A holistic framework for evaluating
Intercultural Communicative
Competence in BE textbooks
Ian Baecht
San Diego State University
CATESOL Annual Conference, November 2016
Research focus:
Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) and
Business English (BE)
Chan’s holistic framework for evaluating business
English materials
(English as a lingua franca ELF in the business context)
“Culture can be defined as membership in a discourse
community that shares a common social space and
history,
a common system of standards for perceiving, believing,
evaluating, and acting.”
- Claire Kramsch
“Language and Culture”
The intercultural component in Business English textbooks
- M. Carmen Lario de Oñate and María Vázquez Amador
Ibérica 26 (2013)
• 63 BE textbooks – 1963-2009
• 1960s-1970s – monocultural Anglo-centered focus
• 1980s-1990s – introduction and increasing relevance of intercultural communication
• 2000s on – focus on cultural awareness and “your country”
• Listening, reading, and discussion activities most common means of introducing
intercultural aspects
• 21st century focus on culture as a variable concept, with the development of
respect and cultural sensitivity replacing prior strategies of giving advice for
successful business communication within international contexts
Forging a link between research and pedagogy:
A holistic framework for evaluating business English materials
- Clarice S. C. Chan
English for Specific Purposes 28 (2009)
Gaps (prior to the holistic anaysis)
• Business English materials and applied linguistics research
• Existing evaluative checklists for materials and the need for suitable, authentic,
and credible frameworks for more specific BE contexts
• English as a lingua franca creates additional communication issues to be addressed
Conclusions (post-holistic analysis)
• Gaps found related to discourse features can assist in the adaption/adoption of
source materials
• Topic-specific checklists can serve as references for materials writers
Type
Textbook
Textbooks with explicit
ICC
content/instruction
English for Business
Communication
Textbooks with implicit
relevance to ICC in
business settings
Author(s) and years of
publication
Sweeney (2003)
Publisher
Activities/Tasks examined
Cambridge University
Press
Cultural profiles, role
plays, case studies,
discussion
Intelligent Business
Johnson & Barrall (2006)
Pearson Education Ltd.
Explicit, non-essentialist
paradigm
Company to Company: A
task-based approach to
business emails, letters
and faxes
Littlejohn (2005)
Cambridge University
Press
Business writing genres
English for Business
Studies (3rd. Ed.)
MacKenzie (2010)
Cambridge University
Press
Case studies, role plays,
presentations – authentic
listening – business
writing genres
Market Leader (New
Edition)
Cotton, Falvey & Kent
(2008)
Pearson ELT
Case studies, role play –
business writing genres
Cambridge University
Press
Cooperative learning
strategies – cultural
awareness-raising reading
and discussion activities
Skills for Success: Working Price-Machado (1998)
and Studying in English
Table 1A
A checklist for evaluating business English textbooks for ICC – Pedagogical considerations
• Needs analysis
Does the material suit the target learners’ needs in terms of prior intercultural experience and ICC?
Is the content relevant to the context?
•
Learning objectives
What is/are the main learning objective(s)? General communication skills, professional
communication skills, or a combination of both?
• Methodological approach
Do the exercises and activities help learners practice the language and strategies of ICC?
Do the exercises and activities mirror real-life situations?
• Naturalness of the language models
Are authentic materials or examples of authentic language used?
Does the material cover features of spoken grammar and natural speech?
• Contextualization of language
Does the material provide contextualized examples?
Does the material use a discourse approach to teaching ICC?
Using checklist 1A
• All of the textbooks provided some kind of communicative writing task.
• Only half of the textbooks provided experience-sharing and/or reflection (self and peer evaluation)
on one’s own culture or the notion of interacting with other cultures.
• Most of the role plays include a business context, but some are not specifically business related.
• The learning objectives of all of the books combine general communication skills with
professional communication skills.
• Only two of the books are explicitly grounded in ICC theory, and have practice exercises in the
language and strategies of ICC. One book does address and explore a reflective attitude towards
one’s own and others’ culture(s).
• Many of the target readings and case studies, and some of the listening activities, are derived from
authentic texts. There is an effort in one case to address the lingua franca reality of English(es) in the
inner, outer, and expanding circles, however, the material does not cover issues of spoken grammar
and natural speech in practice.
• None of the material provides samples from corpora to illustrate language use in authentic situations.
Johnson, C., & Barrall, I. (2008). Intelligent
Business: Skills Book: Upper Intermediate
Business English. Pearson Education
Limited.
Sweeney, S. (2003).
English for Business
Communication
Teacher's Book.
Cambridge University
Press.
Table 1B
A checklist for evaluating business English textbooks for ICC – Discourse of ICC
• Socio-cultural information
Which cultures are mentioned?
What countries and national stereotypes are discussed, if any?
• Business contexts
Are topics such as negotiations, business meetings, socializing, and traveling developed?
Are topics such as working hours, clothing, and punctuality discussed?
Are concepts of corporate culture, department culture, and organizational culture addressed?
• Register/formality
Does the material sensitize learners to different levels of formality in various business contexts?
Does the material provide practice in using different levels of formality in different scenarios?
• Verbal and nonverbal interactions
Are functions such as greetings, addressing, and agreeing and disagreeing discussed?
Are nonverbal functions such as eye-contact, physical distance, gestures, and silence addressed?
• Cultural differences
Does the material sensitize learners to cultural differences? Does it attempt to address this in an
ELF context?
Is culture viewed from an essentialist perspective, or is culture seen as a concept which is used by individuals
for purposes of identity/affiliation?
Using checklist 1B
• Although some materials address multiple cultures, and nowhere is there blatant stereotyping,
the is an Anglo-American focus to half of these textbooks, and only one addresses the possibility
of communication between two non-Western business interactants.
• Although standard BE textbook concerns such as negotiations, meetings, socializing, and traveling are
addressed in almost all materials, business contexts such as specific corporate, departmental
and organizational culture are not addressed.
• The importance of punctuality and cultural differences in time is only addressed in one book.
• Formality, register, and power relations are touched on in all books, although often only in the context of
written business genres.
• Spoken formality and register as interpersonal strategies are explicitly addressed in only one book.
• Greetings, addressing, and agreeing and disagreeing are addressed in all materials, but non-verbal
functions such as eye-contact, physical distance, and silence are only addressed in two textbooks.
• Culture is viewed and valued as a concept which is used by individuals for purposes of
identity/affiliation explicitly in 3 of the textbooks.
Sweeney, S. (2003).
English for Business
Communication Teacher's
Book. Cambridge
University Press.
Price-Machado, D. (1998). Skills for Success
Student's Book: Working and Studying in
English (Vol. 1). Cambridge University
Press.
further research concerns ---
Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF)
and
International Business English (IBE)
Nickerson, C. (2015). The death of the non-native speaker? English as a Lingua Franca
in business communication: A research agenda. Language Teaching, 48(03), 390-404.
English as an International Language (EIL)
Kachru’s model (1992) of the three circles
of world Englishes
“Glocal” focus, blending of the local and
global in ELT frameworks
Monfared, A., Mozaheb, M. A., & Shahiditabar, M. (2016). Where the difference lies:
Teachers’ perceptions toward cultural content of ELT books
in three circles of world Englishes. Cogent Education, 3(1), 1125334.