Facebook Instagram Linkedin Youtube
CL logo
Facebook Instagram Linkedin Youtube
CL logo

Building Linguacultural Competence into a Business English Textbook

In his presentation delivered on 28 January 2023, Lucas Peltonen started off by putting forward some interesting questions:

  • How can we improve the linguacultural competency of Business English speakers?
  • How we can adjust materials to reflect the reality of BELF communication, particularly focusing on linguacultural competencies?

 

In order to attempt at providing a solution, he used theory-based criteria to analyze the Market Leader textbook to determine how it could be adapted to help develop linguacultural competence.

To begin, he defined the concepts of BELF and Linguaculture.

Business English as a Lingua Franca (BELF) is a shared language used in the business domain by speakers with different mother tongues (Du-Babcock & Yao, 2020). Linguaculture refers to the meeting point of language and culture (Agar, 2002; Risager, 2006).

He then went on to flesh out the concept of Linguacultural Competency. For a speaker to be considered competent from a linguacultural perspective, they should have knowledge of Business English in terms of language; possess skills to adjust to communication with those of different linguacultural backgrounds, and have strategies at their disposal so as to negotiate meaning in today’s changing circumstances in the business domain. (Risager, 2006).

After defining BELF and Linguaculture, he gave a brief overview of the state of English in today’s world. Below you can see some facts and figures he showed us to make his point:

  • English is the global lingua franca (Du-Babcock & Yao, 2020; Hu, 2018, 2019)
  • Estimated 70%+ of English interactions in the world are between non-native speakers (NNS) (Bayyurt & Dewey, 2020; Hu & McKay, 2014)
  • Worldwide English usage is likely only to increase with globalization, travel, the internet, and more speakers in places like India and China (Jenkins, 2015, 2018; Hu, 2018; Barroso, 2020)

 

He then concluded that as a consequence of the above and because the nature of English in the world is in a constant state of flux, teaching and learning should change to reflect the new realities of international communication (Cameron & Galloway, 2019).

Once the global situation was described, he proceeded to characterize English in China today. What follows are some facts mentioned by Lucas in his insightful report about China:

  • China likely has the most English language learners in the world (He, 2020; Jenkins, 2015).
  • In the 2019, 2020, and 2021 English First English Proficiency Indexes (EFEPI, 2019, 2020, 2021), China was ranked 40th, 38th, and 49th respectively out of 100+ countries, even though English is mandatory in school curricula, and enormous resources have been devoted to it since the 1970s (He, 2020; Hu, 2001).
  • The majority of Business English training happens in 1) universities, 2) private training centers, or 3) in-house (He, 2020).
  • COVID and policy changes have greatly affected the previously large private training industry (Li et al., 2022; Ding & Du, 2022).
  • Textbooks are widely used in Chinese Business English teaching and learning, though many reflect Anglo-American perspectives and cultural orientations (Hu & McKay, 2014).
  • Beliefs in the importance of “native speaker” competence are pervasive and integral to Chinese language (He, 2020).

 

As far as his study goes, these are the different steps he followed:

  • Develop a conceptual framework from research.
  • Create criteria – “can do’s” from the research framework.
  • Quantitative and Qualitative analysis and evaluation according to the criteria.
  • Adapt Market Leader based on the materials analysis and evaluation.

 

The BELF context involves professionals communicating with professionals to “get the job done” (Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2018).

As far as the different contexts found in BELF interactions, we could name the transactional situation (directly related to business function), and the relational one, typically related to rapport and relationship-building for business purposes

The third most often cited competency required for BELF) (Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2018; Pullin, 2010) is Transcultural competence.

Culture in BELF is complex, ranging from levels (regional, organizational, team or CoP, individual), to orientations (home culture, target culture, universal understanding of culture).

See below the Linguacultural Competency Framework (LCC) shared by Lucas during his presentation.

blog BELF 2023 January Lucas LCC framework

He then presented the criteria he developed deriving from the LCC framework. Interviews with professionals and business teachers were carried out and the information obtained was later used to suggest possible adaptations to Unit 9 in Market Leader to better reflect the linguacultural background of his students in China interacting with foreign colleagues from different cultural settings.

Once the talk was over, the attendees were assigned to break-out rooms for around 30 minutes to discuss the main Issues put forward by Lucas. Find below some of the ideas shared in the whole-group discussion:

  • The value of textbooks in different contexts: useful, but hard to generalize. Context is everything. Do global textbooks still have a place? With regard to Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions Theory, there was agreement as to its usefulness, though it looks today a bit too simplistic and essentialist as a tool for thinking about intercultural communication.
  • Which criteria could we add to the ones proposed by Lucas given the diverse contexts we all teach in?
  • How do we even begin to address the issue of assessment, especially knowing how lingua franca communication works? And how do you assess “linguacultural competencies”?
  • How do we integrate this vast framework into the curriculum? – language games in short sessions?
  • How does technology now mediate most of our conversations, and how it interacts with cultural norms, such as interaction, turn taking, body language, etc.
  • In some contexts, there are well-defined language constructs (e.g., in aviation), but students still need to be trained on cultural aspects for interactions outside their workday (e.g., small talk, informal conversations)
  • The price of Business English books is an issue in many countries
  • Book content is pre-pandemic and is getting outdated much quicker.
  • Lots of materials are free and easy to access, such as online videos and articles.
  • Time-consuming to adapt for every group or class.
  • The Business Result series could be analyzed, and its two separate editions could be compared.
  • Intellectual property rules matter and technology is changing so quickly and this is influencing course content for different target groups.
  • The idea of integrating reflection in Business English classrooms and whether it is productive for students with no experience with cultural groups from other countries.
  • Asking critical questions at different junctures of teaching/during classroom activities might be a good way to get students to think in greater depth about linguacultural issues in their own contexts.
  • Many English language teachers are not well trained in intercultural competence to acquire the knowledge and skills needed to help students acquire the Business English required in international and multicultural environments.
  • Teachers would need to start paying attention to the contexts, the impact of their own training principles, participant backgrounds and other factors which may affect effective communication in business-related events when teaching Business English.
  • the need to bring more representation of different levels of corporate hierarchy (including interactions involving lower job positions)
blog 2023 January Lucas talk participants

References

Agar, M. (2002). Language shock: Understanding the culture of conversation (1st ed.). Perennial.

Baker, W. (2022). From intercultural to transcultural communication. Language and Intercultural Communication, 22(3), 280-293.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2021.2001477

Bargiela-Chiappini, F., & Zhang, Z. (2013). Business English. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Eds.), The Handbook of English for Specific Purposes (pp. 193-211). John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Barroso, P. M. (2020). Contemporary world-society: From the globalization of communication to the communication globalization of the world. International Journal of Philosophy and Social Values, 3(1), 55-80.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.34632/philosophyandsocialvalues.2020.9991

Bayyurt, Y., & Dewey, M. (2020). Locating ELF in ELT. ELT Journal, 74(4), 369-376.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccaa048

Bennett, M. J. (2004). Becoming interculturally competent. Toward Multiculturalism: A reader in multicultural education, 2, 62-77.

Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Longman. Cameron, A., & Galloway, N. (2019). Local thoughts on global ideas: Pre- and in-service.

TESOL practitioners’ attitudes to the pedagogical implications of the globalization of English. RELC Journal, 50(1), 149-163.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0033688218822853

Cotton, D., Falvey, D., & Kent, S. (2010). Market Leader Intermediate 3rd Edition Extra. Pearson.

Davies, B., & HarrÉ, R. O. M. (1990). Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves. Journal for the theory of social behaviour, 20(1), 43-63.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468- 5914.1990.tb00174.x

Ding, Z., & Du, W. (2022, June 13). The decline of English training giants: Recruiting students in the name of blind date. Every Chapter.

Du-Babcock, B., & Yao, Y. (2020). English as a lingua franca in China-based workplace communication: A mixed approach to a comparison of perceived communicative needs. Ibérica, 39(39), 345-370.

Eggins, S. (2004). An introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics (2nd ed.). Continuum. Eggins, S., & Slade, D. (2006). Analysing casual conversation. Equinox.
English First. (2019). EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI).

English First. https://ef.com/epi English First. (2020). EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI).

English First. https://ef.com/epi English First. (2021). EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI).

English First. https://ef.com/epi Frendo, E. (2005). How to teach business English. Pearson Longman.

He, D. (2020). China English in World Englishes: Education and use in the professional world. Springer Singapore.

Hu, G. (2001). English Language Teaching in the People’s Republic of China (Country report for the six-nation education research project on pedagogical practices in English language education, Issue. National Institute of Education Nanyang Technological University.

Hu, G. (2018). The challenges of World Englishes for assessing English proficiency. In E. L. Low & A. Pakir (Eds.), World Englishes: Rethinking paradigms (pp. 118-135). Routledge.

Hu, G. (2019). Culture and peer feedback. In K. Hyland & F. Hyland (Eds.), Feedback in second language writing: Contexts and issues (2nd ed.) (pp. 45-63). Cambridge University Press.

Hu, G., & McKay, S. L. (2014). Multilingualism as portrayed in a Chinese English textbook. In J. Conteh & G. Meier (Eds.), The multilingual turn in languages education: Opportunities and challenges (pp. 64-88). Multilingual Matters.

Jenkins, J. (2015). Global Englishes: A resource book for students (3rd ed.). Routledge.

Jenkins, J. (2018). The future of English as a lingua franca? In J. Jenkins, W. Baker, & M. Dewey (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca (pp. 594-605). Routledge.

Jiao, J., Xu, D., & Zhao, X. (2020). The development and validation of an intercultural business communication competence scale: Evidence from mainland China. SAGE open, 10(4), 1-14.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020971614

Kankaanranta, A., & Louhiala-Salminen, L. (2018). ELF in the domain of business – BELF: What does the B stand for? In J. Jenkins, W. Baker, & M. Dewey (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of Engish as a lingua franca (pp. 309-320). Routledge.

Kankaanranta, A., Louhiala-Salminen, L., & Karhunen, P. (2015). English in multinational companies: Implications for teaching “English” at an international business school. Journal of English as a Lingua Franca, 4(1), 125-148.

https://doi.org/10.1515/jelf- 2015-0010

Kirkpatrick, A. (2018). The development of English as a lingua franca in ASEAN. In J. Jenkins, W. Baker, & M. Dewey (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca (pp. 138-150). Routledge.

Law, K. K., & Du-Babcock, B. (2017). How hierarchal positions affect employees. Knowledge sharing behaviors? An exploratory study. Journal of Organizational Psychology, 17(5), 129-138.

Li, J., Li, X., Shi, A., & Yang, Q. (2022). The impact of the double reduction policy. 2021 International Conference on Education, Language, and Art (ICELA 2021),

Louhiala-Salminen, L., & Kankaanranta, A. (2011). Professional communication in a global business context: The notion of global communicative competence. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 45(3), 244-262.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2011.2161844

Macalister, J., & Nation, I. S. P. (2020). Language curriculum design (2nd ed.).Routledge.

Madsen, H. S., & Bowen, J. D. (1978). Adaptation in language teaching. Newbury House.

Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2008). Genre relations: Mapping culture. Equinox.

McDonough, J., Shaw, C., & Masuhara, H. (2013). Materials and methods in ELT: A teacher’s guide (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell.

Motteram, G. (2011). Developing language-learning materials with technology. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (2nd ed.) (pp. 303- 349). Cambridge University Press.

Nunan, D. (1986). Learner centred curriculum innovation: A case study. RELC Journal, 17(1), 40-70.

https://doi.org/10.1177/003368828601700103

Pearson. (2022). Market Leader 3rd Edition Extra. Pearson. Retrieved October 21 from https://www.pearson.com/english/catalogue/business-english/market-leader.html

Peltonen, L. (2022, March/April 2022). Strategy charts for small talk. IATEFL Voices, (285), 8- 9.

Pullin, P. (2010). Small talk, rapport, and international communicative competence: Lessons to learn from BELF. Journal of Business Communication, 47(4), 455-476.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943610377307

Rai, L., & Deng, C. (2016). Glocalisation and English language education in Chinese context. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 14(1), 127-144.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2014.980226

Reppen, R. (2011). Using corpora in the language classroom. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Materials development in language teaching (2nd ed.) (pp. 35-50). Cambridge University Press.

Risager, K. (2006). Language and culture: Global flows and local complexity. Multilingual Matters.

Rose, H., & Galloway, N. (2019). Global Englishes for language teaching. Cambridge University Press.

Rose, H., McKinley, J., & Galloway, N. (2021). Global Englishes and language teaching: A review of pedagogical research. Language Teaching, 54, 157-189.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444820000518

Shaules, J. P. (2007). Deep culture: The hidden challenges of global living. Multilingual Matters.

The Douglas Fir Group, Atkinson, D., Byrnes, H., Doran, M., Duff, P., Ellis, N. C., Hall, J. K., Johnson, K. E., Lantolf, J. P., Larsen-Freeman, D., Negueruela, E., Norton, B., Ortega, L., Schumann, J., Swain, M., & Tarone, E. (2016). A transdisciplinary framework for SLA in a multilingual world. The Modern Language Journal, 100(S1), 19-47.

https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12301

Tomlinson, B. (2012). Materials development for language learning and teaching. Language Teaching, 45(2), 143-179.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000528

Tomlinson, B. (2013a). Developing principled frameworks for materials development. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials for language teaching (2nd ed.) (pp. 95-118). Bloomsbury.

Tomlinson, B. (2013b). Materials evaluation. In B. Tomlinson (Ed.), Developing materials for language teaching (2nd ed.) (pp. 21-48). Bloomsbury.

Wang, H., Smyth, R., & Cheng, Z. (2017). The economic returns to proficiency in English in China. China Economic Review, 43, 91-104.

https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chieco.2017.01.004

*Please find further references in our “Resources”

One Response

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *