УДК 378

Business English teaching in Tertiary Education

Чижова Алла Олеговна – старший преподаватель кафедры «Деловой Английский» Банковско-финансовой академии (г. Ташкент, Республика Узбекистан) 

Abstract: The article is devoted to considering the specificity of ESP teaching in Tertiary Education, highlighting specific features of language in crucial field, such as Business. For this reason, proposing topics related to specific fields has become a necessity, to satisfy both universities’ requirements and students’ needs, supporting their motivation and providing useful tools for future careers. Modern labor market is very complex: the scenario is no longer a local one but is increasingly characterized by an international exchange of goods, knowledge, and people, even in the conditions of BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Non-liner, Incomprehensible) world today.

Keywords: Tertiary Education, Higher education teachers, labor market, language skills, employer needs, the political-economic context of reference, awareness.

During the past few decades, Languages for Specific Purposes teaching has gained a central role in the international debate about Modern Languages teaching. This attention is due to the new awareness that university students need paths that highlight specific features of languages in crucial fields, such as Business, Engineering, and Medicine. It has also to be considered that, it was pointed out not once or twice but constantly, students who decide to come into higher education have prior knowledge of the language. For this reason, proposing topics related to specific fields has become a necessity, to satisfy both universities’ requirements and students’ needs, supporting their motivation and providing useful tools for future careers. In fact, even if teachers according to needs analysis structure syllabuses, students themselves are able to appreciate the importance of linguistic competence as a key to success, to achieve a satisfying professional position, not only in the academic field. Nowadays, in order to train students not only from the point of view of content transferral, but also from the point of view of the development of soft skills, which are pivotal to enhance theoretical knowledge, a teacher has to work as a manager. In fact, it is ultimately to analyze the following factors: contexts; audience; available resources; objectives to be achieved.

I am a teacher of Business English (ESP) at the Banking and Finance Academy in the capital of Uzbekistan – Tashkent, for about 26 years. Recently I need to get a TEFL certificate in accordance and compliance with new requirements of our president decree on language teachers’ proficiency level adequacy with the C1 grade in IELTS or APTIS exam, or some certificate like TEFL/TESOL. I would like the opportunity to develop my language skills and to get more chances to upgrade my theoretical and practical knowledge and experience for further teaching activity.

Why not to start learning something updated, not the theoretical study but practical approach, gaining professional knowledge through personal experience and analyzing your individual progress just teaching the real students in some challenging class, measuring their progress from day to day? 

To state all pros and contras hear we need to write a lot, but for more the important reasons to gain some theoretical background is not to make mistakes already done and to choose and develop the methods that already exist and known as contemporary and quite efficient by main-stream authorities and professionals.

English has evolved over hundreds of years and likely to evolve even more; therefore, historical practices and theories are important to be understood. There will always be room for improvement because of multiple Intelligences of different people. 

I would be proud if my practices can be used to teach future generations, but would love it, if a future generation can improve on it.

Understanding the past is integral in understanding the present. By learning what was done previously and why we have evolved in our practices, we are empowered to make the most of the current methods and not fall back on outdated ways of working that do not allow the best outcomes for our students.

Higher education teachers have to assess opportunities for students once they have a degree, considering the fields where they will work, and what skills will be required, in order to find a suitable job. Furthermore, today’s labor market is very complex: the scenario is no longer a local one but is increasingly characterized by an international exchange of goods, knowledge, and people. Firms can no longer focus on a single territory: even small firms have to deal with a global dimension since, for example, e-commerce implies a constant comparison with different countries.

In identifying the political-economic context of reference, states frequently offer cutting-edge educational policies with efficient reforms of school systems and universities. For example, former members of the post- soviet countries faced a great challenge due to the necessity of communicating with new economic partners so many of them decided to replace Russian from their school systems, introducing Western languages.

Potential answers to the question “To what extent are companies aware of the need to invest in languages, intercultural and interpreting skills, and the management of linguistic diversity?” In 2007, Paolo Citterio [4] (founder of the Association of Human resources directors) stated that, in order to become part of major business undertakings, new graduates have to speak at least two languages, thus recalling what was stated in the Bologna Declaration in 1999. One of these languages is English, and the other is the language of the group that will hire them.

On the other hand, in a piece of research by ADIP (Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities) of 2020, it was found that a positive factor for being employed was a “perfect knowledge of a foreign language” [1] since the importance attributed to the knowledge of several languages does not influence hiring process criteria.

If we consider the ELAN report about the “Effects on the European Economy of Shortages of Foreign Languages skills in Enterprises”, it emerges that “a significant amount of business is being lost to European enterprises as a result of lack of language skills”, which are perceived as communication barriers. A similar result was found by Bargiela F.Chiappini and C. Nickerson in 2014 [3], several years ago, thus demonstrating that the adopted language learning policies are not effective. Furthermore, in terms of strategies used by firms, ‘staff with language skills’ is one of the five identified elements of ‘language management’, while the others are: native speakers, local agents and/or distributors, external translator/interpreters, adaptation of websites. Within this perspective, the choices of firms are quite interesting, both from the point of view of awareness and strategies adopted. In fact, firms has a “formal language strategy”, since this kind of awareness allows for the adoption of effective strategies according to market’s needs.

One question arises: is English a Lingua Franca or a Tyrannosaurus rex? Tardy suggests the existence of two main roles played by English: One is that of a common language, a lingua franca, which allows for ease of information storage and retrieval that may be more efficient than translation and provides a means for knowledge advancement. At the same time, English may be seen more nefariously, acting as something of a Tyrannosaurus Rex – ‘‘a powerful carnivore gobbling up the other denizens of the academic linguistic grazing grounds’’ [5].

We argue that for the vast majority of firms, it is not possible to consider these hypotheses, because the use of English is due to the fact that it is the only “available”, language, both in terms of workers’ knowledge and training courses.

This is the status questions, but if we consider the section of the report that deals with recommendations, we read that the acquisition of a second foreign language is an additional value, since it is seen as a medium to foster communication opportunities between different countries, different cultures. In fact, to improve matching employer needs, it is necessary: to diversify the range of languages taught, particularly in tertiary and vocationally oriented education; improve the contextualization of courses and qualifications to the business context; embed periods of work experience abroad, with explicit opportunities to use the target language, within courses which combine languages with other subject areas relevant to business; improve flexibility to meet changing employer needs.

The importance of this issue has increased during the last few years, and several business journals, such as Forbes or Il Sole 24, have started to create specific sections related to recruitment and foreign languages, to highlight the importance of language skills. Forbes’ ‘verdict’, in particular, is: In global, multicultural organizations, simply expecting all employees to speak one common language, such as English, marginalizes the potential impact of international talent and leaves monolingual staff ill-equipped to help the organization compete effectively in a globalized environment. [2]

“To what extent are companies aware of the need to invest in languages?” This was one of our initial questions. We argue that firms are aware of their needs to be competitive thanks to enhanced language knowledge, but there is a gap between their needs and what universities offer.

We tried to analyze the local situation, underlining the results we have achieved, but this is only the beginning. Our proposal is: to refer to a sort of Didactic marketing, an adaptation of the four Ps rule for tertiary education teachers, who want to design effective courses, sustaining students’ motivation and taking into account firms’ needs: the Product is represented by English and Place is related to the resources provided by the Universities and its territory, to foster a synergy between University and firms. Concerning Promotion, it is possible to say that a good teacher has to enhance students’ awareness through an effective advertising campaign, in order to help students to decide why they want to study language or, and this is the winning approach, to study more than one language: this is our mission. Finally, Price can be considered as students’ efforts in the learning process, how much they are willing to invest in their future: and we think this is the additional value of this approach.

Conclusion

In light of all these considerations, we can conclude by stating that the results of the proposed work in our department are more than satisfactory, in terms of:

1. Awareness: students are aware of what the market requires and they know that they would be cut off without language knowledge.
2. Advancement: students have improved their language competences, and the number of students who pass languages exams has increased.
3. Synergies: especially among teaching staff, and between experts and students. This allows everyone to work with greater enthusiasm and better results.
4. Job opportunities: our students begin to be employed thanks to their language competence.

References

1. https://www.researchgate.net/journal/International-Journal-of-Language-Translation-and-Intercultural-Communication-2241-4304.
2. Rosetta Stone, Language Study: Reducing the Impact of Language Barriers, Forbes Insights, September 2011.
3. Bargiela-Chiappini, F., Nickerson, C. and Planken, B. (2014) Business Discourse. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230627710.
4. Paolo Citterio https://ejournals.epublishing.ekt.gr/index.php/latic/article/
5. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lisa-Mcgrath.