ENGLISH - NEW TRENDS IN BUSINESS ENGLISH

NEW TRENDS IN BUSINESS ENGLISH ::

A Study On English Skills In Business Management

J. Hanumantha Rao,

98482 08007

hanumantarao_j@yahoo.com

Asst. Professor,

Bomma Institute of Technology and Science,

Allipuram [Vill.]

Khammam [Dist.] 507318

The world has become Global village today. The business empires are fast expanding. In every sector rapid changes are taking place. The rapid changes that are coming into various sectors have meant that business people are now very likely to be dealing with a wide range of different countries. This has had a major impact on the teaching of business English.  The new words coined must be of international standard. The words must be universally understood in the same meaning. So the teachers now need to have more than just the knowledge of grammar and basic business vocabulary. In order to ensure effective communication, we now need to have an awareness of how people from different countries and with varying levels of English communicate globally, and how business practices have changed on the international stage due to globalisation.

English is the international language. English is of mainly four types. They are British English, American English, Canadian English, and Australian English. As England ruled nearly 54 countries they introduced English education wherever they ruled. Thus English spread far and wide among countries. In course of time English has become Englishes. In each subject there are divisions, sub-divisions and sub-sub-divisions. If we take business world there are

Business words in sports,  Business words in industries, Business words in ad, Business words in hotels, Business words in computer world, Business words in transport, Business words in shipping, Business words in aircrafts, Business words in internet and so on.

Firstly in India there 1652 languages. People who learn English use it in the accent of their own mother tongue. Tamils speak English in Tamil accent; and Punjabis speak English in Punjabi accent. Thus we have many types of Englishes.

Secondly English, a language of imperialists, has become a language of survival. Its importance is growing day by day. Every research is taking place in the west. They are naming any invention, policy or anything that is new. We are a member of Common Wealth countries. We follow the British English. Our dialect is South Asian dialect. 11% of Indian population speaks English.

            Our English pronunciation is dominated by our own mother tongues. Our accent of English is clearly seen in our mother tongue dialect. We use our own words of mother tongue as common words of English. Some examples of Hindi;

            Eg.       “ what I mean is, ki, we should adopt this plan.        [ ki ]

                        Let us go and have chai-vai.   [chai-vai]

            Similarly business-bazi, dadagiri,  dandagiri, fighting-witing,   cheating giri,   tax wallah,  dubba wallah,   maane,

We use “actually”  more number of times. “Actually I am not feeling well.”

Idioms :- yar!    Your good name please? [ there is nothing like good name or bad name. It is Hindi copy]  

The movie is deadly yar! [ in our words deadly means intense, high-tech, stylish, sexy]  [yar is our pet word]

Please call a taxi for Gupta-ji. [we use – ji, sri, smt, tiru, tirumati, sahib,… to show respect]

Evolution of a language is faster if the need is so high. 21^st century is the century of business. It is occupying more than 50% of world’s space. Any field, any branch of science, or anything of this world either an invention or discovery or an introduction is made known to the world through business circles only. That is why the need to develop vocabulary has become mandatory.  It seems that there are new expressions coming out every day at the moment. It will be interesting to see how many of these will still be used 5 years from now and how many will seem like relics from another, turbulent, age.

As more and more usage has been developing, more and more words are being coined. For example;

toxic assets, mortgage-backed securities, sensex, hi-fi, forex, palmtop, and so on. The coining is unlimited.

Casual interjections of Hindi used in English -- arey, yaar, bhai, accha, oof, waah, re, amma,

In Indian English we use words from Bengali, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Urdu.---jungle, bungalow, bandana, pajama, pundit, guru, idly, sambar, chutney,

This is called Indianization of English. It won’t pose any problem because we have our own mother tongues to explain further if the other man does not understand and ask.

English is an evergreen language. Every year at least 1000 words join English. Its vocabulary is enriched. Old words are deleted or given new meaning.

Eg.       1. Once “Comrade” meant roommate. Today ‘comrade’ means a member of  the communist party.

2. “Broadcast” meant a shoot coming out of a seed. Today “broadcast” means radiating electromagnetic energy into space.

Old words of those days, that is when East India Company was ruling India, or of the time of Akbar, are mostly not found in today’s dictionaries. English dictionary is the only dictionary which is revised. As on 16-06-2009 there were 10,00,000 English words. Again the incorporation of new words is in progress. This process is continuing at the rate of 15 new words per day. Why it is so. It is because every research and development is in progress in the west. As more and more specialization is going the need for more words has become highly essential. This need further divided English into many subjects. Today we find subject wise dictionaries. How many subjects are there in the world today, those many dictionaries are available in the market. Every subject has further sub-branches and sub sub branches.

Eg. Physics – atomic physics is one branch. Now atomic physics is further divided into nuclear physics, charm particle physics, ….

English for medicine, English for engineering, English for Business Management, English for Mass Communication, English for science and technology, and so on.  The words used in a subject are not used in another subject. A medical word many not have value in stock market and a scientific word may not have value in management. Each subject is different. Each subject’s vocabulary is different.

Teaching English today needs teacher’s regular updating of vocabulary. Unless there is passion to teach business justice cannot be done to the subject. It is because every subject has its limitations. Even if it is evolving, it can evolve only within its domain. But business is such a subject it always reaches a common man through business circles such as advertisement, news papers, journals, etc.  Day by day learning English is becoming a fashion and passion. New words are given to students in the form of iPods, cds, etc. indicate how the importance is developing.

There are a lot of opportunities for growth and innovation in the English learning market.  Mobile English learning should be a huge industry in the coming years.  The reasons are quite obvious.

1.  Ipod touch, Iphone, Ipad, and Android sales are going through the roof.

2.  The Language learning market is very well suited for apps.

3.  The market size is enormous so a good business model is offering cheap apps for a huge and growing international audience.  Millions of people have smart phone AND want to learn English.

4.  People have a lot of time they don’t know how to utilize.  Think about commuting to work, walking, and shopping.  If you have a smart phone, you can turn this usually boring and unproductive time to a fun and interesting power learning session.

5.  Internet speeds and storage space on small mobile technology will continue to improve.

This market is still in it’s infancy but expect it to grow like a weed in the coming years.  Learning business English or common spoken English is going to be really easy to do with the touch of a button.  No more audio tapes, boring books, and terrible lessons.  The best ESL podcast and most interesting and innovative lessons are at:

Some of the business words are used as great interjections. Business jargon is enriching. New vocabulary is interesting, and many students do find it fascinating. However, at lower levels, we have to make a decision as to how much, potentially transitory, vocabulary we should load in the minds of students with. Keeping this in view, we have to conduct faculty development programmes so that they can bring students to the abreast of the world in business knowledge.

The world of business changes rapidly, and this has never been truer than within the last ten years. With recent developments in communications and technology, the world has become smaller and business is done on a global scale more quickly, easily and effectively. Economic bases have shifted, new markets have opened and new economic powerhouses have emerged. The world has globalised, and the face of international business has a completely new complexion.

Business English students now have Debates, seminars, presentations etc., to meet different needs and expectations of what and how they learn. Globalisation has had a different impact on each society, so these needs and expectations vary from country to country. Therefore, in Japan, business English teachers need to have an acute awareness of the specific needs of Japanese business people in an international context in order to deliver effective courses that will allow Japanese business people to perform confidently and effectively on the international stage.

International business has had four major influences over the last ten years that have had an impact on the teaching and learning of business English.  

Changing technology.  The first is technology, and in particular the field of communications which now allow us to connect with people globally in a matter of seconds. This has meant that international business now moves far more frequently as people are able to communicate quickly and easily, and financial transactions take place at the push of a button. Whether positive or negative, the world is now more closely joined together through the international exchange of financial goods and services. Vocabulary is constantly changing.

The first and most obvious area is vocabulary. Changes in the modern business world throw up new words on an almost daily basis and it is often difficult for teachers and textbook writers to keep up. Perhaps the biggest area of change is in technology and particularly the Internet. Marketing departments now look for increased web traffic, and worry about the number of hits on their website, and many companies now uses official networking sites and Twitter to promote their products. The recent world financial crises have also brought previously subject-specific words into the public domain – who knew what sub-prime mortgages or toxic assets were until a year ago? As such, the business English teacher needs to constantly update his or her business vocabulary knowledge.

The second area to look at it is the shift in emphasis from a grammar-based methodology to a lexical one. It is said that these days more than half the English spoken at any time is between two non-native speakers, so we cannot claim that there is one, homogenous and ‘correct’ English. Rather, there are many ‘Englishes’, spoken by people of different countries. Of course, it may be argued that this was always the case as American, British, and Australian English have slight differences. However, we can now add to that list any number of Englishes including Singaporean English, Chinese English, Japanese English, Indian English, Russian English, Nigerian English and so on.
When we add to this the increased need for speed in modern business, the emphasis of teaching necessarily shifts towards fast and effective communication and away from complex and grammar-heavy ideas of ‘correctness’. Therefore, rather than teaching straight grammar, business English teachers now focus on a more lexical approach, teaching easily and widely understood standard phrases. We call these phrases ‘functional’ – that is to say, they serve a function of business or of communication. To give an example, let’s take a sentence that is commonly found in email or business letters:

Of course, this does not mean that grammar is completely absent from the modern business English classroom. It simply means that teachers are required to have a deeper awareness of the needs of the students. An elementary student who communicates with international clients on a daily basis through email has vastly different needs, for example, from an advanced student who needs to write complex business reports for his or her native speaker boss.

The shift to business skills is based approach. Connected with this shift in focus from a grammatical notion of language to a lexical/functional one, is the change in emphasis to a more skills-based approach. Of course, we have always taught the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing, but these days English teachers are expected to be able to train business students in the soft skills necessary to perform work functions like meetings, negotiations, presentations, telephoning etc. To use the example of presentations, a teacher will now not only have to equip the student with the necessary language for giving the presentation, but will also need to give advice on using PowerPoint, structuring the presentation, body language etc. These are regarded as ‘extra-linguistic’ skills, but as with the shift towards functional/lexical language, the emphasis is on fast and effective communication. Using PowerPoint correctly with the right presentation structure and body language means your message will be understood more quickly and easily.

Another important aspect to notice is an increased emphasis on cultural awareness. As business people are dealing with a wider range of nationalities, they need to learn how to behave and what to expect. While English is undoubtedly the international language of business, there is as yet no standardised international business etiquette. To reflect this, no modern business English course would be complete without some reference to cultural differences. It is interesting to note that while Asian students of business English are learning how to give a firm handshake, in other parts of the world their counterparts are probably learning how to exchange wishes in  their way  properly.

All of these changes in teaching approaches can be found by looking at how business English textbooks have developed over the past ten years. The topics these books use have changed, and we now see far more references to emerging economies like China, and the issue of globalisation is omnipresent. All textbooks deal in some way with cultural differences, and there is more recognition of the variety of Englishes spoken around the world. Moreover, alongside the traditional grammar and standard skills which are highly essential, new trends are to be updated to students.

SYNOPSIS

NEW TRENDS IN BUSINESS ENGLISH ::

A Study On English Skills In Business Management

J. Hanumantha Rao,

98482 08007

hanumantarao_j@yahoo.com

Asst. Professor,

Bomma Institute of Technology and Science,

Allipuram [Vill.]

Khammam [Dist.] 507318

The world has become Global village today. The business empires are fast expanding. In every sector rapid changes are taking place. The rapid changes that are coming into various sectors have meant that business people are now very likely to be dealing with a wide range of different countries. This has had a major impact on the teaching of business English.  The new words coined must be of international standard. The words must be universally understood in the same meaning. So the teachers now need to have more than just the knowledge of grammar and basic business vocabulary. In order to ensure effective communication, we now need to have an awareness of how people from different countries and with varying levels of English communicate globally, and how business practices have changed on the international stage due to globalisation. If we take business world there are Business words in sports,  Business words in industries, Business words in ad, Business words in hotels, Business words in computer world, Business words in transport, Business words in shipping, Business words in aircrafts, Business words in internet and so on. As business people are dealing with a wider range of nationalities, they need to learn how to behave and what to expect.

While English is undoubtedly the international language of business, there is as yet no standardised international business etiquette. To reflect this, no modern business English course would be complete without some reference to cultural differences.

These days English teachers are expected to be able to train business students in the soft skills necessary to perform work functions like meetings, negotiations, presentations, telephoning, group discussions etc. Prior to going to these new trends conventional grammar is a must. It ;is because conventional grammar is the base on which new trends can be built.