In this chapter, the researcher will present the results of interviews and questionnaires investigating the needs of business professionals and the content of EBP curricula. The presentation of findings follows the order of the research questions.
English Needs of Business Professionals
This section reports the results of the interviews with 27 business professionals, followed by the results of questionnaires completed by 143 business professionals.
Interview findings are presented according to different fields of work: international trade, manufacturing, and finance, while questionnaire responses provide information on needs of the business sector as a whole. Both interviews and questionnaires
investigated the tasks which require English use in the workplace, the English skills involved, and the communicative functions of the target tasks.
Interviews of International Trade Professionals
The results of the interviews with six business professionals from the
international trade sector show that attending to emails is the most frequent routine task. The six interviewees indicated that on average they spent half of the time at work reading and replying to emails every day. Because most of their clients were in Europe and the United States, the time differences made emails the main
communication platform. Among the emails they received, a substantial portion asked about product specifications, prices and details of services. Thus, according to
Bachman and Palmer s (2010) language functional categories, the most frequent
communicative functions displayed in attending to English emails were mainly ideational, such as replying to clie and instrumental, such as price quotations or confirming product availability and order status.
The first two excerpts provide examples for the major English communicative task which international trade professionals perform in a typical working day.3 In the first excerpt, the interviewee Adam, an owner of an international trade company which supplies automobile components, said that the first thing he did when arriving at the office was attend to emails. Because of the time differences, his clients, who were mainly international clients, would write him emails while he was off work.
Most of the emails were written in English and were the clients inquiries about products and product prices. In the second excerpt, the interviewee Betty, a sales representative for holiday gifts, even indicated that she usually spent 99% of her working time attending to English emails.
Excerpt 1. (Interviewee Adam)
e-mail e-mail
e-mail e-mail
The first thing to do when arriving at the office is to turn on my computer and check emails.
emails and reply to urgent ones first, replying to inquiry and price quotations from clients.
Excerpt 2. (Interviewee Betty)
I usually have one phone call with my foreign client every day. I spend 99% of my time reading and replying to emails.
In addition to attending to emails, because of features of immediacy, flexibility, and economy, MSN and Skype have become major communication medium in the workplace. The six interviewees indicated that if foreign clients had urgent questions, they preferred communicating with each other via instant messaging, such as MSN and Skype. If the interviewees were busy and not at the desk, they could receive messages left by the foreign clients via these two media. Most importantly, MSN and Skype have replaced landline telephony because of cost savings. In Excerpt 3, the interviewee Cathy, another sales representative, explained the communicative purposes and functions of using instant messaging software with her international clients. She replied to the client s inquiries via MSN because of its promptness. In addition, her clients could still leave her messages when she was not in the office.
From Cathy s account, instant messaging and emailing share similar communicative functions. The most frequent communicative function displayed in instant messaging is ideational, i.e. replying to clients inquiries about product availability or price.
Excerpt 3. (Interviewee Cathy)
MSN Skype Nowadays MSN and Skype are used very
frequently... If a client asks for inventory, I can check and reply to him right away.
Even if I am not at the desk, he can leave me a message.
Moreover, the six interviewees reported that they needed to carry out the following three tasks seasonally-- attending overseas exhibitions, visiting clients overseas, or hosting foreign clients. Before the interviewees attended overseas exhibitions, they would email potential clients who had previously shown interest in business cooperation to discuss the possibilities of arranging business meetings during
the exhibition days. They would also contact established clients to arrange meetings during or after the exhibition to consolidate the business partnership. During overseas exhibitions, the interviewees had to answer inquiries on products from potential clients. For the rest of the days when the interviewees do not have overseas business trips, they may need to host their visiting international clients. According to Bachman and Palmer s (2010) categories of language functions, the oral communication tasks identified by international trade business professionals were mainly related to interactional, such as visiting or hosting international clients to establish or
consolidate the business partnership, and ideational, such as answering inquiries on products.
The following are the excerpts from two interviewees describing the necessary tasks prior to attending overseas exhibitions and the communicative tasks during the overseas exhibitions. In Excerpt 4, the interviewee Bill, as a sales manager, pointed out that before he attended overseas exhibitions, he needed to write invitation emails to his potential clients to invite them to visit his booth. In addition, the interviewee Adam, in Excerpt 5, indicated that the most frequent communicative functions demonstrated at the exhibition booth were introducing the company and products and replying to potential clients inquiries. On the contrary, the least frequent
communicative function performed was giving price quotations in case the inquirers used the chance to negotiate with other competitors.
Excerpt 4. (Interviewee Bill) emails
Before I went abroad to attend the exhibitions, I had to write emails to clients and make sure I ve contacted them. If the clients are potential clients, I will write them emails in advance and invite them to visit our booth.
Excerpt 5. (Interviewee Adam)
inquire quotation
Basically, our experience is that we uirers during the exhibitions. We will make each other understand the requirements of the transactions first. If they are still
interested, they file their inquiry and we will send them price quotations
afterwards.
Regarding the characteristics of English used in the communicative tasks, all the interviewees maintained that clarity and conciseness are the maxims for business communication. Expressing their ideas clearly and briefly to enable communication is far more important than presenting their ideas with grand vocabulary and complicated sentences with embedded clause structures. For example, in Excerpt 6, Adam pointed out that most of his clients were non-native speakers of English. They may have difficulty comprehending his emails if he used less frequent words and complicated sentences in the emails. He also shared his experiences that even though he often forgot to use the past tense verbs to describe the events he had completed in the emails, he could still get the transactions done because his clients could understand him from the time marker.
Excerpt 6. (Interviewee Adam)
If he (a client) uses too difficult words in his email, you cannot comprehend it; and vice versa. We Taiwanese emphasize English grammar very much In fact, the clients would emphasize the accuracy of product prices or if we can delivery the
business emails/correspondence must be concise.
The other interviewees also support the claims that Adam made. For instance, Betty, in Excerpt 7, reflected that she did not benefit from the business email writing techniques which she learnt at college. At college she was taught to write English business emails with formal register and strict format. However, after she started to work, she realized that a straightforward and concise email with politeness is much more desired than an email with formal register and strict format. Moreover, in Excerpt 8, the interviewee Flora, a sales assistant with a master degree in English, related that her boss often thought that there were many complicated sentences in the emails she wrote and asked her to adjust the wording and sentence structures to simplify the language.
Excerpt 7. (Interviewee Betty)
I found that business English that I learned from school was too formal Now the format for English business emails tends to be casual and informal.
All you need to remember is to show your politeness and express your ideas clearly in your emails.
Excerpt 8. (Interviewee Flora)
My boss cannot write business emails in English by himself because his English proficiency is very poor. I often write English business emails for him. He would tell me what he wants to express in Chinese, and I write it in English. Then he will read the email I write to double
check. His English is really poor, but after he read my email, he often said that my email was difficult to understand and asked me to revise it. So I am frustrated when I think that I express it in a correct and better way, but I have to change it to a lamer expression.
From the above work-related tasks mentioned by the interviewees, English reading and writing skills are more frequently needed than English listening and speaking skills. However, when asked the tasks with which they had difficulty handling, these six interviewees indicated that they had more difficulties for listening and speaking tasks than reading and writing tasks. Regarding English listening difficulties, all of the interviewees mentioned that they encountered the difficulties of comprehending various English accents and dialects. Because standard American English has been the mainstream in the English education in Taiwan, learners in Taiwan have fewer chances to become familiar with different English dialects.
Therefore, it took the interviewees a while to get used to other English accents, such as British English accents (Excerpt 9) and Australian English (Excerpt 10).
Excerpt 9. (Interviewee Bill)
? repeat
you say? .
My personal experience is that one time I went to Germany, I met a British client, whom I used to contact via emails.
When he talked to me, I couldn t understand him at all!! Because he was much older and very patient with me, he kept repeating what he said. And I kept understand you. I felt so embarrassed and very unprofessional. I realized that I
was too American-centered when studying English.
Excerpt 10. (Interviewee Adam)
yup today we are going to do the same thing
to die today
Once I contacted an Australian client, who was a local agent, I asked him what he would do later on. He said that Yes, we are going to die I couldn t understand what he meant at all. Not until I often heard the expression like
Yup to die (today) we are going to do the
same thing d
is pronounced as
English. It took me a lot of time to
understand the different pronunciation of English.
Moreover, since the interviewees had more clients who were non-native speakers of English, they had even greater difficulties in
accents, especially on the telephone. The English accents which the interviewees identified as extremely difficult to comprehend include Indian English, Singlish, Spanish English, Italian English, and Dutch English. Without the assistance of facial expression and body language, the interviewees indicated that they spent much more effort communicating with each other on the phone than face-to-face. For example, in Excerpt 11, the interviewee Debra asked her European manager, who is Dutch, to repeat what he said five times over the phone.
Excerpt 11. (Interviewee Debra) GM plastic bags
The most unforgettable experience was that once my General Manager in the European area asked me on the phone to send him a plastic bag. And I had a hard
close your eyes
time to understand what kind of plastic bag he requested as our company produced so many kinds of plastic bags He still kept repeating that word for four At the end he said,
Oh! I finally got it!!
Regarding English speaking difficulties, four interviewees indicated that they found that to maintain small talk with foreign clients was harder than to make a
oral inquiries about products. Because the interviewees were quite experienced in this field and they were very familiar with their products, they indicated that they could handle oral present
inquiries. On the contrary, when the interviewees attended overseas exhibitions and visited the cooperating partners, or hosted foreign clients in Taiwan, after work they would attend dinner with their clients. Moreover, in order to maintain the relationship with foreign clients, the interviewees would regularly contact their client via Skype.
In both situations they indicated that they had the problem of finding topics to continue small talk.
As shown in Excerpt 12, the interviewee Bill expressed his frustration of
socializing with his international clients. When he had business trips overseas, even if he could communicate with his clients in English to get work done, he had great difficulty joining casual dinner conversations with them.
Excerpt 12. (Interviewee Bill)
Although we could communicate with each other in English, it was very difficult to talk deeper and build a relationship like friends. For example, (when I visited
my overseas clients and they invited me to dinner with their colleagues or families,) when they chatted about the topics, such as domestic politics or the understand it
to say.
In addition, half of the interviewees also reflected that they sometimes had difficulties to comprehend the emails written by their clients who are non-native speakers of English because the word choice or English grammar seemed to be transferred from their native language. Although it did not influence the interviewees to understand the gist of the content, they had to spend more time guessing the meaning. Excerpt 13 shows one of the interviewees points.
Excerpt 13. (Interviewee Flora)
Sometimes when I received some emails from clients whose native language is not English, I found that some of the words they used were very strange. It seems that they translated their native language directly to English. I had to guess the meaning then.
Although English reading and writing skills are required more frequently than English listening and speaking skills in the workplace of international trade, when asked which English language skills they wanted to enhance, all the interviewees expressed their strong motivation to enhance English listening and speaking skills, especially for socializing and maintaining small talk. As mentioned previously, the interviewees were quite experienced in their own field and had no difficulty about the
products they sold or the services they provided, but they had difficulty with unpredictable tasks, such as small talk.
Excerpts 14 and 15 further explicate the occasions when English socializing skills are needed. The interviewee Debra, in Excerpt 14, indicated that English
socializing skills were needed at the very beginning of a call or an appointment before both parties talked about business. In addition, the interviewee Bill, in Excerpt 15, indicated that he needed small talk skills at dinners with his international clients.
Excerpt 14. (Interviewee Debra)
For example, when you call your clients, first of all, you need to socialize. (I want to learn) something basic like this. Also, (I want to learn) some skills of small talk with clients. Therefore, I can have interaction with clients and have closer relationships. Otherwise, it will be very awkward.
Excerpt 15. (Interviewee Bill)
In addition to the topics related to work, when I visited them overseas or they came to Taiwan to visit us, we would go out for dinner after work, we would talk about some other topics irrelevant to work.
Excerpt 16 may explain the preference for English listening skills by all the interviewees. The interviewee Betty pointed out that there were certain templates for English reading and writing tasks, such as emails and reports. For example, in an email the most frequently asked question is inquiry for price quotations. When one becomes experienced at work, he/she will find that the same amount of vocabulary is
repeated very often in the emails/reports/documents. On the contrary, English
listening and speaking tasks are relatively more unpredictable as one may deal with a wide variety of conversational topics.
Excerpt 16. (Interviewee Betty)
Listening is more important. If you cannot comprehend what your client Regarding English reading and writing skills, I have templates to learn from.
What he asks is price quotation.
Regarding English listening, you may have to listen to various topics.
The other reasons that the interviewees wanted to improve English listening and speaking skills are immediacy of response and job mobility. When writing English business emails, people can take time to plan and consider how to reply; on the contrary, when answering a phone call or having a conversation with clients, they need to reply immediately. In addition, since most of people in Taiwan do not have confidence in speaking English, those who can communicate with foreign clients fluently easily distinguish themselves from other colleagues in the workplace.
For example, in Excerpt 17, like the other interviewees, the interviewee Flora identified English written communication skills as necessary language skills because they are used most frequently in the workplace. However, she indicated that English oral communication skills play crucial roles in the workplace too. One who can interact orally with international clients increases his professional profile and has a better chance to be promoted.
Excerpt 17. (Interviewee Flora)
, ,
, ,
,
In my opinion, English speaking skill is also essential. If you receive a phone call from your client, you said you would like to reply to him with email instead of communicating with him directly. I think
According to the proportion, yes, English writing and reading are very important. But English speaking training is important too. If you can communicate orally with foreign clients, you can distinguish yourself from other colleagues.
In addition, three interviewees mentioned that they would like to enhance their cross-cultural understanding so that they could be more sensitive when doing business with their international clients and have more topics to chat during small talk with clients. For example, as shown in Excerpt 18, the interviewee Cathy, a sales
representative from a fitness facilities company, expressed her desire to enhance her English speaking ability. However, what she wanted to improve was not to acquire native-like expressions but rather to gain cultural understanding. According to her experiences, the key to a quality business conversation relies on a thorough
understanding of the culture of international clients. In Excerpt 19, the interviewee Betty, another sales representative from a car-component company, holds a very similar view to Cathy s. She maintained that having cross-cultural understanding is a key to impress clients and make transactions done because a deeper conversation can happen during small talk with clients and, thus, the gap between each other can be bridged.
Excerpt 18. (Interviewee Cathy)
close
I would like to enhance my English speaking skills.
people all over the world, some of whom are bosses And the focus of English speaking training should be the depth of conversation. For example, one can enhance knowledge about various
cultures around the world. Therefore, you
cultures around the world. Therefore, you