JALT Business Communication

Business Communication SIG Pecha Kucha Forum

JALT International Conference, Nagoya, November 26th 2016

The pechakucha BizCom Forum was very successful, with eleven speakers in 90minutes (Alan Simpson, Aaron Dods, Ryan Hagglund, Alexander Sheffrin, Richard Miller, Bill Burns, Curtis Kelly, Saeko Ujiie, Ellen Rettig-Miki, Jo Williamson & James Yellowlees) . The theme was the transformation in Business English practices, and topics included: Backchanneling, flexible language and integrated projects; idioms in business; public speaking skills and using authentic advertisements and resumes; the business of running and expanding a private English schools; promoting the use of dopamine by stimulating the brain with active and fun business activities; implementing a business training program within a university faculty; transforming an EFL class into a business English class; English as a corporate language; tailoring occupational training courses; transforming from a native speaker teacher into an ELF teacher; the benefits of MBA programs.

Discourse strategies in ELF: Project-based learning in Transylvania

Hiromasa Tanaka. October 14th 2016, NYU, Tokyo

On the evening of 14th October, in conjunction with the Tokyo Chapter and the Pragmatics SIG, the Business Communication SIG hosted a talk by Dr. Hiromasa Tanaka on the development of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) strategies in Intercultural Communication (IC). Dr. Tanaka believes that competence in IC develops best organically, through observing and emulating various discourse strategies in authentic collaborative environments. He demonstrated this process by introducing the audience to a student project he devised and conducted in Romania during the summer of 2016.

Students from Japan and Europe were given the authentic task of producing a promotional package (videos and other materials) to sell a particular Romanian liquor to the Japanese market. The multicultural team held strategy meetings, performed fieldwork and worked together to produce a final product. Dr. Tanaka reported how experienced and more capable IC communicators used strategies focused on both messages and relationships and how they made efforts to include less capable and experienced colleagues. Through this kind of discourse leadership and by acting as role models, IC competence spread through the group. Based on this and similar studies, Dr. Tanaka concluded that when it comes to IC, the acquisition of strategies and learning-while-doing seems to be most effective. While accepting that not every Business English teacher can afford to send her/his students to Romania for the summer, he believes that explicit teaching of strategies and task-based learning (TBL) in the classroom can provide a similar learning experience.

The Evolution of Business Language Training in Japan

Michael Handford, Andrew Vaughan, Hiromasa Tanaka. Fukuoka - June 25th & 26th 2016

Andrew Vaughan looked at how corporate language training programs in Japan provide professionals with the language and communication skills necessary to be successful in the workplace. He said that the American perspective of Japanese business people is that they are untrustworthy because they are generally uncommunicative, and it’s difficult to build a relationship. So it’s important that Japanese students are more assertive in the global workforce, they can express their ideas logically, and concisely in presentations, meetings and while drinking beer. Furthermore, it’s not good enough just to measure students’ reactions, and customer feedback, but their learning, new behaviors, and the results must also be evaluated.

Professor Mike Handford started by asking the question “How is professional discourse different from ‘everyday language’?” And his answer was that: 1. It is goal-oriented and has power differences 2. The use and frequency of lexis, collocation and phraseology is distinctive 3. It is structured and carried out through genre-based activities 4. Though largely transactional, relational concerns (e.g. solidarity, power, identity) are also expressed/negotiated through relational talk and politeness features 5. Problem-solving is a key activity in the workplace. He then explained the three keys areas which show how problem solving is represented in discourse. He broke it down into the Stage, Function & Language. The first stage was to identify the problem, then clarify, define and evaluate, and using his corpus, he showed the typical language used to do so. Similarly for the second stage, generating ideas, are realized by hypothesizing, and supporting, or evaluating, and the third stage was deciding the best option, by evaluating, agreeing and rejecting. The nature of the problem and interpersonal negotiation are the most important factors for determining the kind of language used, even though people may have different national, organizational and professional backgrounds & cultures. So be careful of stereotypes!

Professor Hiromasa Tanaka discussed a management approach to language also starting with the return on investment: student satisfaction; learning outcomes; behavioral changes; business results; social impact. He then discussed managers’ behavior involves many communicative factors including politeness, strategies for making an impression, metaphors, and storytelling. There are three styles of management, directive, cooperative and collaborative, depending on knowledge, authority and language. These leadership styles are revealed through the act of social construction, similar to how identities are revealed in communicative events. The main theme was that English (and management) is an active practice, negotiated between people, rather than a static language or set of principles.

Simon Humphries used an example of a student trying to solve a banking problem using emails to highlight the often messy process of communication that is far from what is prescribed in textbooks. His data revealed misunderstandings, no or delayed responses, and generally bad customer care from a UK bank. This highlighted the need for leaners to be able to negotiate a successful conclusion to a problem, involving various stages of the interaction and individual moves.

Luc Gougeon, gave lots of tips about how to use Information Communication Technology in Business English classrooms, such as Google for Education, Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter, Google Space, Vlogging, Google Classroom, doing online testing using Google form and Flubaroo, Start-up - the business podcast, Elsa - the pronunciation app, and Duolingo. He emphasized that enabling students to use interactive technologies helps them to engage and interact using the language, and produces successful learning outcomes.

Saeko Ujiie discussed how Japanese and foreign owned companies based in Japan, use English as their corporate/common language. Her conclusions were that it is more practical to have two or more working languages, to serve companies domestic and international needs, and be able to switch language use between genres or contexts.

Makiko Asaba & Yoshiko Aiba, discussed English speaking proficiency tests, and specifically Pearson’s Versant English test in corporate training contexts. Fluency and pronunciation are the most common weak skill areas among employees, who have a good TOEIC ability. Speaking with uneven pacing and frequent obvious pauses, incorrect accents or stress has a negative impact on fast-paced real business communication. So the Versant test gives quick test results, and assesses decontextualized speaking ability. However it doesn’t use Business content, nor tests opinions. So for more content based Business English tests, then maybe BULATS, or TOEIC Speaking and writing tests would be more appropriate.

Six MA candidates from Meisei university presented poster talks on range of themes surrounding intercultural workplace and business interaction. Nanami Ito’s research was about how women managers talk and act in business settings in America. Li Meng studied how topic selection and development in initial encounters is different between Japanese Native Speakers and Chinese Learners of Japanese. Japanese speakers tend to prefer to use fixed patterns, whereas Chinese adopt a freer format. Zhong Xiaohui discussed problems caused by cultural differences between China and Japan, for example, how disparity in language, actions, modes, values and beliefs result in communication failures. Li Zhen Ya presented about politeness theory and service encounters in Japanese restaurants. This showed that word choice, timing and intonation are carefully determined by restaurant management and employees to generate specific types of hospitality. Long Wan Ying discussed how automotive companies build consumer trust by the kind of language and strategies that they use in their English and Chinese websites. May Ouma discussed the importance of relational communication within business environments.

PanSIG Business Communication SIG Forum

Okinawa - May 21st 2016

Saeko Ujiie, from SBF Consulting, described the problems and implications for Japanese companies who adopt English as their corporate language policy.

Rebekka Eckhaus from New York University School of Professional Studies, described how to scaffold a 3-lesson unit for an intermediate to advanced EFL class using a business case study, moving from comprehension of the case study, to simulating a business meeting, and finally offering solutions and recommendations. The aim was to foster learner autonomy and problem solving skills while providing an business case study teaching framework.

Yin Ling {Carly} Lui、from the University of Hong Kong examined student job interview questions, from student, lecturer and employer perspectives.

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