8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
1/44
Investigating
discourse practices
within a company
Evan Frendo
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
2/44
Business discourse is allabout how people
communicate using talk or
writing in commercialorganisations in order to get
their work done.
Bargiela-Chiappini et al, 2007:3
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
3/44
IT companythese materials
were developed for a group
of German programmersworking on software for a
steel mill in Korea.
Here are some in-housematerials I designedcan you guess the type
of company thestudents came from?
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
4/44
Teaching the language of meetings
Imagine you are going to teach the language of
meetings in the same IT company. The training
manager tells you they are just normal
internal meetings. What sort of things would
you do in the lessons?
Write down some ideas in
the chat box.
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
5/44
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
6/44
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
7/44
Often too specific
Need to fit in with trainingobjectives
They might not know
Focus should be on
training, not analysing
needs
Difficult to access
Often very academic
Not specific enoughAre normally not based on
research findings
Possible sources of information
Published materials
The learners
Research
Authentic materials
Other
trainers
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
8/44
Corpus analysis techniques
Interviews / discussionsObservations / field notes /
recordings
Stakeholder feedback
Discourse community
Community of practice
Outline
Theoretical
frameworks
Gatheringevidence
L
E
S
S
O
N
S
L
E
A
R
N
E
D
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
9/44
Discourse communities
Common goals
Mechanisms of
communication Requires
participation
Genres
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
10/44
Koester, 2006: 33-34
Unidirectional
Briefing
Service encounters
Procedural and directivediscourse
Requesting
Reporting
Collaborative
Arrangements
Decision-making
Discussing and evaluating
Liminal talk
Non-transactionalOffice gossip
Small talk
Spoken workplace genres
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
11/44
Written genres - emails
D
I
S
C
O
U
R
S
E
FL
O
W
intertextuality
Styler, 2011
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
12/44
Genre
linguistic
contextual
textsituationdynamic / fluid
static / stable
Flowerdew, 2011: 135
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
13/44
Discourse communities
Common goals
Mechanisms of
communication Requires
participation
Genres Specific lexis
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
14/44
Label the items in
the picture
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
15/44
There are two reason that I do not agree with their
interpretation. First, section 6.3 begins with"notwithstanding any other provision of the Plan."This indicates that any other payout methodologiesdescribed in other sections of the plan which deal
with normal distribution at termination do notapply. Second, the language in section 6.3 stating"a single sum distribution of all of the Participant'sdeferral accounts" indicates that one payment will
be made not a cash payment separate from a sharedistribution.
Styler, 2011
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
16/44
Discourse communities
Common goals
Mechanisms of
communication Requires
participation
Genres Specific lexis
Expertise required
Swales, 1990:24-27
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
17/44
Community of practice
A community of practice is an aggregate of
people who come together around mutual
engagement in an endeavour ... practices
emerge in the course of this mutual endeavour."
Eckert & McConnell-Ginet, 1992: 464
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
18/44
stories
styles
artifacts
tools
historical events
actions
discourses
negotiated enterprisemutual accountability
interpretations
rhythms
local response
Communities of practice
joint
enterprise
shared
repertoire
engaged diversity
doing things together
relationships
social complexity
community
maintenance
mutual
engagement
Wenger, 1998:73
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
19/44
Ehrenreich, 2010: 408
Learning to cope with the challengesof such diversity, in the context of
business communication, seems to
happen most effectively in business
communities of practice ratherthan in traditional English training.
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
20/44
Handford, 2010: 145
the most important issue in
business is not language ability, but
the experience and ability to
dynamically manoeuvre within the
communities of practice which
business people inhabit.
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
21/44
Questions you should be able to
answer
What lexis and structures will my students need to be able to use tooperate effectively in their chosen field?
Will they need to know very technical vocabulary, for example, inorder to understand procedures and processes?
And if they do need this language, what do they already know? Likewise, what genres will they need to be familiar with and which
of these are they already proficient at using?
What types of contexts and situations will they be using English in?
Which of these situations are most critical to the well-being of the
organisation? Where will misunderstandings in communication cause problems?
What types of activities should we be using to make sure thatmaximum learning takes place in this particular teaching context?
Frendo, 2012
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
22/44
CEF Professional Profile
A. Target profession
B. Occupational information
C. Context information
D. The most frequentsituations
E. The most demandingsituations
F. Snapshot
Huhta et al, 2013:50
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
23/44
Gathering evidence
Corpus analysis techniques
Frequency
Real language in context
Works well with written data
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
24/44
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
25/44
Spindle
Insert a new tool into the spindle.
Place tool #3 in the spindle.
Check the spindle drive fuse.Note the spindle speed.
The spindle speed can be overridden
To decrease the spindle speed or feedrate, rotate the ...With the spindle turning in reverse,
If the spindle is locked, you may have to
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
26/44
Gathering evidence
Corpus analysis techniques
Interviews / discussions
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
27/44
What differences are there between
your presentations at work and in
the English training?
As we go through the interview, make notes about how
the training materials might be improved.
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
28/44
Quite a few. For example, no-one tells me the topic
or the time I have. If I have to do a presentationthey, I mean the boss, will ask me how long I need.
Not you have ten minutes, and someone sits there
with a watch. And my presentations are normally
in a meeting. With colleagues. So I never stand
always sit. And its normally about a technical
problem, not selling something ...
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
29/44
the topic is normally technical, to do with
my job. Everyone in the room understands
what I am talking about. Good content ismore important than no grammar
mistakes. In the English class the teacher is
normally the only one who doesnt know
about the topic, so the focus is not on thecontent. The teacher says I should not use
jargon, but its the words of myjob.
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
30/44
Well, somehow not at school. Buthere, in the company, yes. I think
company training should be different
from school, and the trainer should
know more about our jobs.
Do you expect your teacher to
know about this stuff?
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
31/44
Maybe the biggest difference is there is no
rule like English only at work. We change
from language to language all the time, andwe translate for each other. Translation is a
way of helping understanding too, but the
English teacher doesnt like us doing this. Yes
we do it to learn English, but
Anything else?
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
32/44
Insights
Comment So what?
Learner normally sits during presentations
Include in trainer guidelines / discuss with
learners early on in the training
programme
Success of presentation judged on
content, not language
Presentations cover technical topics, not
sales
Learner expects trainer to know about the
context of his presentations
Translation normal in workplace context
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
33/44
Gathering evidence
Corpus analysis techniques
Interviews / discussions
Observations / field notes / recordings
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
34/44
Spoken interaction
Frendo, 2005: 20
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
35/44
A telephone call
Chinese (A) /German (B)
A call to discuss
a possiblemeeting in
Shanghai
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
36/44
A: yea thats the idea so here [phone rings] oh just moment
B: no problem
A:[Conversation in Chinese] sorry er so here now ummm [1] hello? can youhear me now?
B: yes, yes Im here perfect yep very good connectionA: so recently since the er company has been bought by the [Company Name]
B: yes
A: er you know there is the guy who names Michael Chan from the [CompanyName] er Kenneth er he has been here
B: yesA: once and another guy er remember two guy two young guy guys from[Company Name] during Shanghai meeting
B: yes
A: they will come again
B: oh ok
A: for visit in August they will like to attend to develop their business inWuhan next year as er important areas they want to devoted to
B: yes I see thats thatsDavid Simon is the one in Hong Kong? Right?
A: Yes Simon is the person in Hong Kong you met him
B: yes the tall one? in Shanghai?
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
37/44
A: not not so tall
B: and then there was a very young guy with him right? I think
A: yea, yea yea yea yea the young guy is the tall young guy thats not working in forChina the other department or something like that
B: ah ok okA: ah production or something like that
B: right ok ah ah
A: and I was told Tims office has been moved to the er [Company Name] offices
in in Singapore
B: in Singapore yea
A: and I met Sophie Cho you know Sophie Cho?B: I know Sophie Cho yea
A: yea yea yea in Singapore they will have a meeting er in the next months during thenext months
B: yes
A: they will have a meeting about talking about how combine those two groups
B: yesA: people from [Company Name] and even maybe the other people appeared in thecoming year
B: I see yes yes
Frendo, 2013, in press
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
38/44
Discussion afterwards with GermanComment So what?
Typical that business partners in
China are less competent English
speakers
Materials may need to reflect this
Accent can be a problem Materials may need to include audio /
video with Chinese speakers
Different communication style
Chinese need a lot of talking
(superfluous from Germans
perspective)
Materials may need to include
activities about communication styles
German carried on with other work
during the phone callapparently he
often does this
Materials may need to include
activities about communication styles
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
39/44
A meeting
An internal company meeting with eight people.(one American, one Spanish, one Russian, oneIndian, one British (project leader), three German).
One of the Germans has just finished presenting anew design for a jib (part of a crane). The team isnow discussing the presentation. The American isnew to the company.
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
40/44
[Laughter]
British: although then that was an insider comment I didnt understand thejoke you two had about a dog
[All talking at once]German 1: [yea well actually]
British: [yea thats fine but ]
American: what does that mean? was that a joke? a [company name] joke?
German 1: actually we we brought all the ideas of the lightweight design intoone jib when we looked at it we thought it was like a Bunte Hund which woulddirectly translated direct translate into colourful dog
American: wow
German 1: like combination of everything
British: some people understood that and some didnt you didnt understandthat Ranita?
Indian: no I didnt understand thatGerman 2: jibs internal joke
American: internal joke hehe
British: sad people who have jokes about jibs
[laughter]
Frendo, 2013, in press
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
41/44
Discussion afterwards with group
Comment So what?
Idiomsno-one had questioned or asked
about the idiom during the presentation
Materials may need to include
communication strategiesimportance of
clarifying and checking / importance of
using simple language
The explanation was not quite the
meaning of the idiom (bunte Hund
normally means to stand out rather
than to combine)
Materials could include practice in
clarifying own cultures idioms /
expressions
Useful to discuss language at the end of
the meeting
Such practice could be encouraged,
particularly with multicultural teams
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
42/44
Gathering evidence
Corpus analysis techniques
Interviews / discussions
Observations / field notes / recordings
Stakeholder feedback
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
43/44
Investigating discourse practices in a
company - lessons learned
Evidence not intuition Not language of a profession much more blurred
Written documents Intranet not internet
Documents they use, not have access to Discourse flows, not single examples
Spoken interaction Keep asking So what?
Multiple perspectives / thick description Check insights with other stakeholders
Use experts to tell you what counts as successfulcommunication
8/12/2019 Investigating Discourse Practices Within a Company (1)
44/44
ReferencesBargiela-Chiappini, F., Nickerson, C., Planken, B. (2007). Business Discourse. Basingstoke: PalgraveMacmillan.
Eckert, P., and McConnell-Ginet, S. (1992). Think practically and look locally: Language and gender ascommunity based practice. Annual Review of Anthropology, 21, 461-490.
Ehrenreich, S. (2010). English as a Business Lingua Franca in a German Multinational Corporation:Meeting the Challenge. Journal of Business Communication, 47, 408-431.
Flowerdew, J. (2011). Reconciling Contrasting Approaches to Genre Analysis: The Whole Can Equal MoreThan the Sum of the Parts. In D. Belcher, A.M. Johns and B.Paltridge. (eds.), New Directions in Englishfor Specific Purposes Research. Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 119-144.
Frendo, E. (2005). How to teach Business English. Harlow: Longman.Frendo, E. (2012). On the importance of Needs Analysis. Available online athttp://www.pearsonlongman.com/vocationalenglish/pdf/articles/On_the_importance_of_needs_analysis.pdf
Frendo, E. (2013). How to Write Company In-House Material. ELT Teacher 2 Writer (in press).
Handford, M. (2010). The Language of Business Meetings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Huhta, M., Vogt, K., Johnson, E., &Tulkki, H. (2013) Needs analysis for Language Course Design: A holisticApproach to ESP. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Koester, A. (2006). Investigating Workplace Discourse. London: Routledge.Styler, W. (2011). The EnronSent Corpus. Technical Report 01-2011, University of Colorado at BoulderInstitute of Cognitive Science, Boulder, CO.
Swales, J.M. (1990). Genre Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.
Top Related