The Management of Language Issues of Organizers
This part is about how the language issues are managed in volunteer management of sport events. In recruiting and selecting, the methods and standards of language volunteers are presented.
For recruiting and selecting in these events, World Games has more stages and methods to recruit and select language volunteers because of the great language demands. They set more complicated standards for language volunteers. The individual sport events are more simplified. They merely have one stage recruiting and selecting. The demand of language is less so the standard is not as complicated as World Games. Besides, individual sport events are often specified by the main international unions. Generally, how these events set the language policies is according to the diversity of language and the tasks of volunteers which are related to the three dimensions in language management: language diversity, language penetration and language sophistication.
In training, the contents of training are presented. In World Games, there are central training, leadership training, sites internship and special training. In the figure skating championships, there are one to two days training. To all of them, language and culture training are merely at the preliminary stage. World Games focused on language courses and international etiquettes. Individual sport events do not have these courses. Overall there are similarities and differences between business and sport events, many concepts in organizations can be applied in international sport events.
The Difficulties and Feedback of Language Management of Organizers
In this part, the difficulties and feedback from organizers are presented. The difficulties include six sections: individual application or group application; the affairs in schools;
76
interview is necessary or not; the excellent volunteers and limited quota; the limited human resource in sport associations and the difficulties in implementation. Overall, for recruiting and selecting, organizers want to make lots of efforts on recruiting and training; however, the human resource in association is so limited. As for training, they mentioned it is hard to give language training and cultural training. These abilities are hard to learn in a short time. As for feedback, there are three sections: the recruiting system and talent pool; the demands characteristics of volunteers and the international trend in sport industry. Overall, they mentioned that although volunteers are not formal employees, the talent pool is crucial for finding the volunteer leaders. Besides, volunteers should be extroverted, active and easy-going. The English ability is basic but not the only concern.
The Experiences of Language Management of Volunteers
This part is about how volunteers experience the language management in the sport events. There are five sections for recruiting and selecting, including the language factor in motivation; simple application; the different methods in schools; simple interview process;
interview is necessary or not. The volunteers all indicated that the recruiting and selecting process should be more precise. In training, the findings have three sections, including technical and functional help or actual help; the language training is necessary or not;
understanding more about cultures beforehand. Most volunteers indicated that the language is difficult to train but more cultural training could be provided. Others include three sections, the internal and external communication for organization; the role of language factor in international sport events; what have been learned after the international sport events. They thought language management is important to events but not the most important. It is like a foundation or tool to international sport events. Some of volunteers thought although they join the events for practicing English, they experienced more about cultures. Other than language in communication, volunteers mentioned the communication in organization is also important. Organization can support volunteers more.
77
The Language Barriers in Communication of Volunteers
This part is about how volunteers manage language barriers in communication. The researcher emphasizes on types and solution of the language barriers. There are verbal and silent language barriers. In verbal language barriers, there are technical term, accent and other languages. The solutions are about attitude, translation tool, context, simplified English, the third person, repeating, body language, guessing and speaking slowly. Within these, attitude is viewed as the most important factor for volunteers. Body language and context also helped a lot. The silent language barriers are related to national cultures, there are international etiquette, jokes in conversation, religion and diet. The solutions are about the supports from association and active attitude of volunteers.
Recommendations
There are six parts, including recommendation to volunteers, organizers, government, education institute, future research and the Educational Testing Service, ETS.
Recommendation to Volunteers
In Taiwan, there are more and more volunteers participating international sport events.
There are four suggestions for volunteers. First, although the motivations of the volunteers are different, the volunteering spirit cannot be ignored. Volunteers aim to serve the
international participants and support the events. The situation of the events should be the first priority. Second, because there are different cultures, cross-culture competence is important for being volunteers in an international environment. Other than communication skills, the respect of other cultures and flexible characteristics are also important. Third, when volunteers have communication with international participants, English ability is important but not the only factor. Although some volunteers’ English ability is not good, they found many ways to solve the barriers. The most important factors are the courage to speak English and the active attitude. Forth, learning a second foreign language becomes more and more
78
important. Other than English, volunteers should start to learn other languages that interest them.
Recommendation to Organizers
The language management in international sport events.
There are four suggestions for organizers. First, the recruiting and selecting for language volunteers can be more precise; especially setting the language standards based on volunteer tasks. For mega-events, cooperating with universities in World Games is appropriate;
however, when transferring the responsibility to other institutions, the selecting quality should be noticed. For individual sport events, because the number of volunteers is less, the interview is necessary to select the right person. Second, culture training and technical-terms training should be emphasized more. Many interviewees indicated it is not easy to have effectiveness language training; however, the technical term for the sport can be delivered.
Besides, they thought culture training can be increased. The more understanding of volunteers to the target culture with the international etiquette, the documents of international participants and the culture of the involved sport, the more they can be prepared to the events.
For mega- events, because there are too many countries, volunteers can merely research and understand their responsible culture. For individual sport event, because the countries are less, they can understand more whole pictures and understand the culture of the individual sport especially. Third, although this research does not emphasize on other work contents of volunteer management, they are still important to the language management, such as organizing and relationship development. For organizing, it is important to deploy the suitable language volunteers on the right position. For relationship development, it is important to give support for volunteers when facing different cultures. The forth one is for individual sport events. Because of the limited human resource in associations, association can outsource major work contents to trusted and qualified organizations, such as recruiting, selecting and training.
79
The international trend in sport affairs.
There are two recommendations in this part. First, facing the globalized world, the sport affairs need more international talents. The organizers should change from “heart”, not from
“system” or “method.” The international trend in some countries is more matured and Taiwan can learn from them. Second, it is important to have volunteer talent pool and understand the related application in prior international events, especially 2009 Kaohsiung World Games and 2009 The 21st Summer Deaflympics in Taipei. Facing the more opportunities of holding international sport events, Taiwan needs more excellent volunteers. In 2017, Taipei is going to hold Universiade. At that time a large numbers of volunteers will be needed.
Recommendation to Government
There are two recommendations in this part. First, because the international trend in sport affairs, the sport association may face more international sport events. Sport associations generally have limited human resource, when facing the international sport events, the work loading is very heavy. Government should support associations to hold successful international sport events. The second one is internationalization of the host cities.
Although the sites of the events are internationalized, the cities seem not so friendly to foreigners. For example, the road signs may be different in translation on the same road.
Government should make more efforts on internationalization of cities.
Recommendation to Education Institute
There are three recommendations for the education institutes. The first one is language ability. English is still important because it is always be the main language in the international affairs. Other than English, many volunteers suggest that Taiwan can have more people who are skilled at the rare languages. Schools can emphasize on the trend in the future. The second one is about cross cultural competence. Not only language ability, but also the cross cultural communication is very important in the international sport events. The silent language, high and low context should be addressed when schools deliver their courses. The
80
third one is encouraging students to participate the international affairs. School is an appropriate channel for promoting the international activities. The global view can be built from the early stages.
Recommendations to Future Research
During the research, there were five suggestions. The first one is limited literatures. The literatures of language management were mainly discussed on business and provided limited reference for researching language management in international sport events, such as research methods. In this research, the qualitative methods were adopted; it is suggested that the future research can adopt quantitative methods as well to confirm the reliability and validity. Second, as for collecting and analyzing data, there are many differences between international sport events and business in many ways, such as the structure, scale and pattern. The differences affect the research content and contribution. About time, the time of language management for corporation is long-termed; however, the language management for international sport events is short-termed. About people, corporations involve kinds of positions and levels, like manager, employee, clients, suppliers, etc. In sport events, people was simpler; the volunteers, medium, participants, judges, audiences are involved. About the structure, corporations are more complicated; contain more data and conservation. The sport events have fewer levels but contain more conservation. Therefore, the future researches can emphasize on the differences and similarities between business and international sport events more. Third, this research was explored from the perspectives of organizers and volunteers. The future can be explored from different point of views, such as the vendors, international participants and audiences. Forth, this study is concentrated on language management in volunteer management of international sport events. Other process and elements of language management in sport events could also be explored, including bidding process of the international events and international environment setting throughout the whole sport events.
Fifth, language management can be explored in other industries, like NPOs, education and
81
government institutes. Overall, there are few researches on language management and other industries; researchers can emphasize more on the combination of language management and other potential fields.
Recommendation to Educational Testing Service, ETS
Through the research, the researcher found that many sport events adopt the services from the language assessment centers, especially ETS. ETS develops, administers and scores various tests annually, including the TOEFL® and TOEIC® tests, the GRE® General and Subject Tests and The Praxis Series™ assessments in more than 180 countries worldwide. In addition to assessments, they conduct educational research, analysis and policy studies and develop customized services and products for many institutes, such as teacher certification, English language learning and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education. Overall there are four suggestions for ETS. First, in recruiting of the international sport events, the resources of language volunteers play an important role for language management. ETS can pay attention to these sources, such as international clubs, associations; especially schools.
Second, language standards of selection are also crucial for the language management. ETS can make more costumed standards for the international affairs. For example, the listening and speaking ability are especially important for a sport event. Third, several volunteers indicated that language is not the most important; it does not mean language training is not necessary. It means they want more expanded language training, including verbal language training, silent language training, technical-term training. Besides, the term, simplified English is mentioned frequently. For people who are not good at English, the training of simplified English can be delivered. Third, to confirm language ability in the international activities and cultivate international talents in Taiwan, ETS can strategic alliance with different fields, not only sport events, but also international conferences, the activities of international NPOs, international exhibition, governments, and also corporations. The concepts are presented in figure 5.1.
82
Figure 5.1. The suggestions of language management to ETS
Language management can be applied to various fields. In the international world, it is the key to the door of qualified communication and then creates the high-standard events.
83
REFERENCES
Brubaker, R. (2002). Ethnicity without groups. European Journal of Sociology, 43(2), 163-189.
Blommaert, J. (2003). Commentary: a sociolinguistics of globalization. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(4), 607-23.
Beamer, L., & Varner, I. (2001). Intercultural communication in global workplace.
Brannen, M.Y. (2004). When Mickey loses face: recontextualization, semantic fit, and the semiotics of foreignness. Academy of Management Review, 29(4), 593–616.
Billis, D. & Harris, M. (1996). Voluntary Agencies：Challenges of Organization and Management. London：Macmillan Press LED.
Charles, M., & Marschan-Piekkari R. (2002). Language Training for Enhanced Horizontal Communication: A Challenge for MNC. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(2), 9-29.
Chiang, J.C., & Huang, F.C. (2006). Exploring City Competitiveness Index under
Globalization. Bimonthly of Research development and evaluation commission, 30(5) 27-41. [text in Chinese]
Chaney, L., & Martin. J. (2007). Intercultural business communication.New Jersey:
Prentice-Hall.
Chen, Y. C. (2010). Sport event volunteer motivation and commitment. Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No.3415072)
Cheng, L. L. & Kuo C. T. (2010). A Training Model for Sporting Event Volunteers. Sports Research Review, 110, 15-22. [text in Chinese]
Cheng, L. L., & Kuo, C. T. (2010). The research on recruitment sources and service behaviors of volunteers in 2009 Taipei Deaflympics. Jia Da Ti Yu Jian Kang Xiu Xian Qi Kan, 9(3), 66-76. [text in Chinese]
Chen, S. M. (2010). Social science: the qualitative research. Taipei: 1 Wu-Nan Book Inc.
[text in Chinese]
Chaudhry, S. & Crick, D. (2008). An exploratory investigation into the practices of "leading"
Asian entrepreneurs in the UK. Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, 21(3).
Dhir, K.S. (2005). The value of language: concept, perspectives, and policies.
Corporate Communications: An international Journal, 10(4) 358- 382. doi:
10.1108/13563280510630151
Dhir, K.S. and Savage, T. (2002). The Value of a Working Language. International Journal of the Sociology of language, 158, 1-35.
Dhir, K.S., & Abíódún, G. P. (2002). The case for language policies in multinational
corporations. Corporate Communication: An International Journal, 7(4), 241-251. doi:
10.1108/13563280210449822
84
Duranti, A. (1997). Linguistic Anthopology. Cambrige: Cambrige University Press.
Duranti, A., & Goodwin, C. (1992) (edx.), Rethinking Context: Language as an Interactive Phenomenon. Cambrige: Cambrige University Press.
Edward T Hall, The Hidden Dimension, (New York: Anchor Press/Doubleday,1966).
Feely, A. J., & Harzing, A. W. (2003). Language Management in Multinational Companies.
Cross Cultural Management, 10(2), 37-52. doi: 10.1108/13527600310797586
Fisher, J. C., & Cole, K. M. (1993). Leadership and management of volunteer programs: A guide for volunteer administrators. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Fredriksson R., Wilhelm B.R.& Piekkari R. (2006). The multinational corporation as a multilingual organization: The notion of a common corporate language. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(4), 406-423.
doi:10.1108/13563280610713879
Gumperz, J. (1972). The speech community. In P. Giglioli (Ed.), Language and social context, (pp.219-31). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Goldblatt, J. (2002). Special events, 4th Edition. Chichester: John Wiley &Sons.
Hsu, H.F., Li T. H., & Chen, C. C. (2009). Qualitative research on exploration of motivation and leisure involvement in international volunteers. Journal of Sport and Recreation Research, 3(4), 15-34. [text in Chinese]
Huseyin, K., Argan, M. T., & Metin, A. (2011). Special event management and event marketing: a case study of TKBL all star 2011 in Turkey. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 8,1-11.
Huang, S. F., & Tsai, T. J. (2009). Social Capital Orientated Health City Development– The Volunteer Program for 2009 Kaohsiung World Games. 2009 Southern Taiwan Social development academic conference
Jenkins, R. (2000). Categorization: identity, social process and epistemology. Current Sociology, 48(3), 7-25.
Jandt, F. E. (2004). An introduction to intercultural communication. London: SAGE Publications, Inc.
John, R., Ietto-Gillies, G., Cox, H., & Grimwade, N. (1997). Global Business Strategy.
London: International Thomson Press.
Kemp, S. (2002). The hidden workforce: Volunteers' learning in the Olympics, Journal of European Industrial Training, 26.2-4, 109-116.
Kan, Y. C. (2008). Sporting event to recruitment volunteers study-- 2009 Deaflympics in Taipei sport volunteer operation as an example. Journal of Physical Education Fu Jen Catholic University, 7, 183-196. [text in Chinese]
Luo, Y., & Shenkar, O. (2006). The multinational corporation as a multilingual community:
Language and organization in a global context. Journal of International Business Studies, 37, 321–339. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.840019
85
Lu, C. H. (2002). Reflection and Insight on Reflection and Volunteer Law in Taiwan:
Perspectives on Citizen Participation and Civil Society. NTU Social Work Review, 7, 203-241. [text in Chinese]
Lester, T. (1994). Pulling down the language barrier. international management, 42-22 Lu, C. (2003). The training and management of volunteers in sport events. Quarterly of
National Sport,139, 41-49.[text in Chinese ]
Lin H. L. (2009). The moment of 2009 Deaflympics because of your participation. Taipei Reading, 501, 13-17. [text in Chinese]
Lagerström K. & Andersson M. (2003). Creating and sharing knowledge within a
transnational team—the development of a global business system. Journal of World Business, 38, 84–95
Lincoln, Y. S. & Guba E. E. (1986). Research, evaluation, and policy analysis: heuristics for disciplined inquiry. Review of policy research, 5(3), 546–565.
doi: 10.1111/j.1541-1338.1986.tb00429.x
Morgan, M. (2004). Speech community. In A. Duranti (Ed.), A Companion to Linguistic Anthropology (pp. 3-22). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Marshall, C.& Rossman, G. B. (2006). Designing qualitative research,(4th ed). Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Norman, K. D., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1998). Collecting and interpreting qualitative material.
Sage Publications
Pauline, G., & Pauline, J.S. (2009). Volunteer motivation and demographic influences at a professional tennis event. Team Performance Management, 15(3), 172-184.
Phillips, N., Lawrence, T. B., & Hardy, C. (2004). Discourse and institutions. Academy of Management Review, 29(4), 635–652.
Perterson, B. (2004). Cultural intelligence: A guide to working with people from other cultures. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
Spolsky, B. (2004). Language policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Siemens speaks several languages – despite what the management says. (2007).
Human Resource Management International Digest, 15(6) 16-17.
doi: 10.1108/09670730710820154
Spinks, N., & Wells, B. (1997). Intercultural Communication: A key element in global strategies. Career Development International, 2(6), 287-292.
Silvers, JR. (2004). Professional Event Coordination. New Jersey: John Wiley &Sons Inc.
Tange, H., & Lauring J. (2009). Language management and social interaction within the multilingual workplace, Corporate Communications: An international Journal, 13(3), 218-232. doi: 10.1108/13632540910976671
Tange, H. (2009). Language workers and the practice of language management. Corporate Communications: An international Journal, 14(2), 131-143.
86
doi:10.1108/13563280910953825
Tassiopoulos, D. (2005). Event Management: A Professional and Developmental Approach, 2nd Ed. Lansdowne: Juta Academic.
Von Glinow, M. A., Shapiro, D., & Brett, J. M. (2004). Can we talk, and should we?
Managing emotional conflict in multicultural teams. Academy of Management Review, 29(4), 578–592.
Welch, C. & Piekkari, R. (2006). Crossing Language Boundaries: Qualitative interviewing in international business. Management international review(mir),46(4) , 417- 437.
Wu, H. C. (2005). A study of motivation and consideration criteria for sport volunteers among college students in Taiwan, Physical Education Journal, 38(4), 93-107. [text in Chinese]
Yen R. S. (2010). Increasing competiveness of nations with the English soft power: the records of English power and competiveness of nations conference. Bimonthly of
Research development and evaluation commission, 34(1), 100-102. [text in Chinese]
Yin, R. K. (1993). Case study research: design and methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
United Nations Volunteers. Retrieved from http://www.unv.org/
2009 World Game. Retrieved from http://www.worldgames2009.tw/wg2009/eng/index.php 2011 ISU Four Continents Figure Skating Championships. Retrieved from
http://www.figureskating.com.tw/2011FCC/eng/skate_e_tickets.php 2011 Tour de Taiwan. Retrieved from
http://tourdetaiwan.org.tw/cycling/TourdeTaiwan2012_eng/index.php
87
APPENDIX A: The 1st ROUND INTERVIEW QUESTIONS I (THE EVENT PLANNING)
您好：
敝人為臺灣師範大學之國際人力資源發展所研究生。本研究之 主題為從國際賽事看語言管理 ( Language Management in International Games – The Research from Three Case
Studies)，乃透過訪談的方式，了解語言管理在國際賽事中之運用，
供參考依據之原則。
本訪談以深度訪談之方式進行，目的為了解賽事情況，時間約 為五十分鐘。為便於後續之資料分析，希望能在訪談期間全程錄音。
此外，研究者將於訪談結束後，將資料整理成文字檔，請您查核以 確認陳述內涵的正確性。在此，非常感謝您撥冗接受訪談並提供指 導，您的參與將使本研究的結果更具價值。
敬祝 愉 快
台灣師範大學國際人力發展研究所 研究生 洪小惠
指導教授: 張媁雯
敬上 Mobile：0929-031-650
E-Mail: zmillieshe@gmail.com
88
<賽事規劃>
1. 請問此場賽事主要規劃者為何?
1. 請問此場賽事主要規劃者為何?