TEACHER DEVELOPMENT FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH INSTRUCTION

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BERECZKY KLÁRA

TEACHER DEVELOPMENT

FOR BUSINESS ENGLISH INSTRUCTION

2012

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Eötvös Loránd University

Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology

Doctoral School of Education Head of Doctoral School:

Éva Szabolcs PhD, Professor

PhD Programme in Language Pedagogy Faculty of Humanities

School of English and American Studies Programme Director:

Péter Medgyes DSc, Professor

Klára Bereczky

Teacher Development

for Business English Instruction

Supervisor: Dorottya Holló PhD, habil., Associate Professor

Dissertation Examination Committee:

Chair: Erzsébet Czachesz DSc Internal Opponent: Tímea Tiboldi PhD External Opponent: Katalin Kolláth PhD

Secretary: Réka Eszenyi PhD Members: Ildikó Lázár, PhD

Judit Sárvári PhD

Zsuzsa Kurtán PhD, habil.

2012

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Acknowledgements

This dissertation is dedicated to Magda Árva and Julianna Kovács Gémes, my first English teachers.

I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Associate Professor Dorottya Holló, for her conscientious work and professional support in writing this dissertation. I would like to express my gratitude to all the teachers of the Language Pedagogy PhD Programme for the high level education they provide.

Special thanks to the teachers and students who participated in this study for their precious time and energy both in the pilot and the final phases.

I would like to thank Hajnalka Golen and Béla Golen for technical help.

Last but not least, I wish to thank my husband, Zsolt Hufnágel for his patience, endurance and technical support, and my son Henrik, for his baby smiles that meant the biggest encouragement for this work.

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Abstract

The growing number of students studying business English in higher education or in-company circumstances makes business English an outstanding area within ESP. Based on educational statistics, the majority of ESP teachers and students seem to deal with business English. Still, compared to general English, business English is a relatively new area for teachers, which makes it a promising ground for research.

The present qualitative study intends to fill a research niche by presenting an emic perspective on the field. The insider views of a business English teacher and a business English teacher trainer have been investigated using long interviews triangulated by a thorough literature review and a questionnaire survey of business English teachers in Hungarian higher education. As the study also aims to present the nature of methodological differences between business English and general English instruction, a typical field of ESP and BE teaching, presentation skills has also been investigated using long interviews with presentation skills teachers. The methodology related part of the study is triangulated by a survey of students learning presentation skills and a discourse analysis of four business presentations.

The findings articulate the teacher’s voice in describing the process of becoming a Business English teacher. The teacher’s own perception of this process is presented respecting motivation, activities, experiences and feelings that have contributed to the transition from a general English teacher into a specialised teacher. The comparison of the views of the business English teacher and the teacher trainer revealed that they have significantly differing notions of motivation and teacher identity.

The comparison with the survey results of higher education business English teachers has proved that the case of the interviewed teacher can be regarded as typical in Hungary. Most importantly, however, the findings reinforce that the teacher’s specialisation is a second phase of learning to teach often both motivated by changes in circumstances and causing changes that might reflect an ongoing identity change process.

The investigations into the methodology of presentation skills teaching have illuminated that this typical element in business English instruction is a field of further education for teachers in its own right. The necessity of applying adult education teaching methods have also been proved. The findings illustrate that business English teachers need not only to acquire subject specific knowledge of a scientific field previously unknown to them but new skills and new teaching methods as well. The insights into the career path of specialised teachers from the insider’s point of view could be educative for both beginner and practising business English as well as ESP teachers and teacher educators.

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List of Abbreviations Used in the Text and the Table of Contents BE – Business English

BET – Business English Teacher

CLIL – Content and Language Integrated Learning EAP – English for Academic Purposes

EBE – English for Business and Economics EFL – English as a Foreign Language

EGBP – English for General Business Purposes ELT – English Language Teaching

EOP – English for Occupational Purposes ESBP – English for Specific Business Purposes ESP –English for Specific / Special Purposes EST – English for Science and Technology ESS – English for Social Sciences

EVP English for Vocational Purposes FL – Foreign Language

GE – General English

GET – General English Teacher HE – Higher Education

IT – Information Technology

L1 – First Language or Mother Tongue L2 – Second Language

LGP – Languages for General Purposes LSP – Languages for Specific Purposes MBA – Master of Business Administration NS – Native Speaker

NNS – Non-native Speaker PS – Presentation Skills

TEFL – Teaching English as a Foreign Language

TESOL – Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages VOLL – Vocational Language Learning

VOLT – Vocational Language Teaching

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Defining the key terms and concepts in a dissertation is essential. This dissertation revolves around different issues in connection with teaching Business English. As this area is in close interaction with other branches of teaching English a foreign language this section sets out to clarify the main concepts in the field. First, it is important to look at the branches of EFL.

English as a Foreign Language is traditionally divided into General English (GE) and English for Specific or Special Purposes (ESP). As there is a scarcity of literature specifically on BE, in this review several references are made to ESP and in such cases BE is meant as being inclusive. The topic of what distinguishes ESP from GE is extensively discussed in the literature. General English is defined as “language appropriate for and related to everyday situations. It is the language that allows you to converse, understand or correspond with others on topics of general interest” (Teemant, Varga, & Heltai, 1993, p. 19). Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 18) add that GE is related to humanities rather than sciences in the traditional division of education. This feature projects a problem in GE teachers’ knowledge base, a lack of knowledge concerning sciences or economics.

While General English is sometimes referred to as “learning English for fun” (Harmer, 1991, p. 3) “English for No Obvious Purpose” (Harding, 2007 p. 6), ESP is defined as “an approach to language learning which is based on learner need, […] an approach to language teaching in which all decisions as to content and method are based on the learner’s reason for learning” by Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 19). The fact that it is difficult to provide a

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tangible definition of ESP is reflected in the definition given by Frendo (2008, p. 6) as

“language that is inaccessible to people who are not members of a particular language community” without further specifying the term language community. The most concrete definition, which is perhaps the most useful for newcomers to the field, is supplied by Harding (2007, p. 6) “in ESP [...] the purpose for learning the language is paramount and relates directly to what the learner needs to do in their vocation or job” adding that “ESP teaches the language for getting things done” (Ibid.).

Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 53) point out that what differentiates ESP is „not the existence of a need as such but rather an awareness of the need. […] that awareness will have an influence on what will be acceptable as reasonable content in the language course.”

Though any course should be based on learner need “the tradition persists in general English that learner needs cannot be specified and as a result no attempt is usually made to discover learners’ true needs” (Ibid.). Authors agree (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Kurtán, 2004;

Szilágyi & Szőke, 2007) that a distinctive characteristic of ESP is the sensitivity to the target situation, which is connected to learners’ job related tasks. Also, Harding (2007, p. 6) underlines that this practical application prevails over other aspects of language learning. The extent of prevalence is reflected in the need to find and use the shortest way to reach one’s communicational goal (Szilágyi & Szőke, 2007).

Dudley-Evans (1997) also notes that ESP is often constrained by time limits and is meant for adult learners. This latter characteristic leads to the problem that ESP taught in secondary or tertiary education does not fit the adult learning category and later we will see indications that TEFL training does not usually contain adult learning considerations.

ESP is subdivided into English for Science and Technology (EST), English for Business and Economics (EBE) and English for Social Sciences (ESS). These three branches

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each are further subdivided into English for Academic Purposes (EAP), English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) or English for Vocational Purposes (EVP). The division is illustrated by Figure 1.

EFL

English as a Foreign Language / \

GE ESP

General English English for Specific / Special Purposes / | \

EST EBE ESS

Science and Business and Social Sciences Technology Economics

/ \

EAP EOP/EVP

Academic Purposes Occupational Purposes / Vocational Purposes

Figure 1. The division of English as a foreign language based on Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 17)

English for Academic Purposes (EAP) “is taught generally within educational institutions to students needing English in their studies, the language taught may be based in particular disciplines […]” (Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984, p. 4). English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) “is taught in a situation in which learners need to use English as part of their work” (Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984, p. 4). English for Vocational Purposes (EVP) is used as a synonym of English for Occupational Purposes. Similarly to the term, its teaching and learning are referred to as Vocational Language Teaching (VOLT) and Vocational Language Learning (VOLL) respectively. In surveys about various foreign languages including English, the term languages for specific purposes (LSP) is also used as an umbrella term as opposed to the term languages for general purposes (LGP).

Business English is part of English for Specific Purposes as a distinct field from General English. To differentiate Business English from other work-related varieties of

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English, Picket defines it as the language used for “communication with the public and communication within (intra) and between (inter) companies” (1986 cited in Dudley-Evans &

St John, 1998, p. 54). Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) differentiate English for General Business Purposes (EGBP) and English for Specific Business Purposes (ESBP). EGBP courses “are usually for pre-experience learners or those at the very early stages of their career. They are similar to general EFL courses with the materials set in business contexts”

(p. 55). ESBP courses “are run for job-experienced learners who bring business knowledge and skills to the language-learning situation. These courses are carefully tailored and likely to focus on one or two language skills and specific business communicative events” (p. 56).

Figure 2 illustrates the above division.

ESP

English for Specific / Special Purposes |

EOP

English for Occupational Purposes |

EBP /BE

English for Business Purposes / Business English / \

EGBP ESBP

General Business Purposes Specific Business Purposes (pre-experience learners) (job-experienced learners)

Figure 2. The division of English for Specific Purposes based on Dudley-Evans and St John (1998)

Observing Figures 1 and 2 side by side (Figure 3) reveals that there is no complete agreement as to the branches and levels contained in ESP. In the first model EBE contains EOP, and in the second, EOP contains EBP. This might seem as a small difference but it may lead to serious consequences in course planning and the interpretations of the teacher’s tasks e.g. in a BE course in higher education (HE) a teacher might refuse to include study skills in

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the curriculum on the grounds that it is not part of BE, it is part of EAP. In Bereczky’s (2005a) study the interviewed teacher trainer regarded BE teachers as basically working with experienced students. His view is reflected in the majority of literature on teaching BE. A teacher who has participated in a BE teaching in-service course with such a focus might be reluctant to teach BE in school settings feeling unprepared and lacking experience with such students, they might even establish a psychological barrier between themselves and students who need study skills.

ESP

/ | \

EST EBE ESS English for Business and Economics

/ \

EAP EOP/ EVP English for English for Academic Occupational / Purposes Vocational

Purposes

ESP | EOP

English for Occupational Purposes |

EBP / BE

English for Business Purposes / Business English

/ \

EGBP ESBP

General Business Specific Business Purposes Purposes pre-experience job-experienced learners learners Hutchinson and Waters (1987) Dudley-Evans and St John (1998)

Figure 3. Comparison of the branches of ESP given by two sources

Yet one more division can be found in Kennedy and Bolitho’s work (1984) namely that ESP can be split into EOP and EAP (Figure 4). Their notion, which expressly follows Strevens’ 1977 division, indicates that EOP has three branches: the specialist language taught before, during and after receiving training in a vocation. Interestingly, they divide EAP into the specialist language taught in HE and in secondary or primary schools. The latter can be an independent subject or a so-called “integrated ESP” (p. 5), which is nowadays often called content and language integrated learning (CLIL). The fact that they call these latter categories

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of EAP independent ESP and integrated ESP contributes to the confusion of categories. The confusion is further increased by their later adding that EST is an important branch of ESP but not specifying its relation to other earlier mentioned branches of ESP i.e. EOP and EAP. The higher education branch of the notion of EAP is discipline based and is further subdivided into in-study and pre-study branches according to the time of specialisation in a discipline.

The question arises whether the specialist language taught before training is the same as EAP.

ESP

/ \

EOP EAP

/ | \ / \

before during after higher education secondary/primary education

training / \ / \

pre-study in-study independent ESP integrated ESP

Figure 4.The division of English for Specific Purposes based on Kennedy and Bolitho (1984) More recent publications do not make the picture much clearer either. While Harding (2007) regards EAP and EBP as parts of ESP, Frendo (2008, p. 7) claims that “business English is an umbrella term for a mixture of general everyday English, general business English and ESP”. This is also reflected in his broad definition of business English as

“communication with other people within a specific context” (p. 1) without further specifying the specific context. The only area of agreement seems to be that there exist two main branches of business English. The branch relating to the school environment is called English for Academic Purposes by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), English for General Business Purposes (EGBP) by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) and general business English by Frendo (2008). The branch related to the workplace environment is called English for Occupational or Vocational Purposes by Hutchinson and Waters (1987), English for Specific Business Purposes (ESBP) by Dudley-Evans and St John (1998) and ESP by Frendo (2008).

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It is interesting to note that, like numerous sources that do not define GE, a number of sources discuss BE and even ESP without providing a definition of what they mean by them. Ellis and Johnson (1994) for instance mention that BE is a variety of ESP, nevertheless, a clear-cut definition of either is missing. Instead the authors try to clarify the concept of BE by approaching it from the types of learners and the characteristics of the language of business.

As a conclusion, it can be stated that a large number of books meant to educate would- be or practising language teachers do not supply a clear definition of what they are discussing.

This inevitably leads to misunderstandings regarding the use of the information contained in these sources. Therefore, this review cannot but try to compare sources on BE and ESP using the perspectives provided by the authors, which might be differing. The basis of consensus could be that ESP includes areas of specialised language that relate to various professions.

Among the numerous specialisations BE is the one that relates to all fields of economy such as business and economics in general, finance, banking, insurance, human resources, marketing, contract law, commerce, English for academic purposes, etc. The difference between the varieties of BE taught in educational institutions and in corporate settings will also be important.

The empirical research of this study focuses on English language teachers with TEFL degrees and the transition process from general English teacher (GET) to business English teacher (BET), therefore, another useful concept is self-definition or identity. Norton (1997, p.

410) defines identity as “how people understand their relationship to the world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future”. Norton points out the connection between identity and desire –

“the desire for recognition, the desire for affiliation, and the desire for security and safety” (p.

410). Also, as desires are linked to material resources, identity changes with economic circumstances.

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Language is regarded as part of identity (McGroarty, 1996); and Kurtán (2003) observed that as a consequence of the training, the language teacher’s personality enriches with cultural, civilization and vocational knowledge as well as specific skills such as LSP translation and interpretation. Consequently, there is ground to expect changes in the professional identity of language teachers who teach BE or other LSP.

As a basis of the research on teachers’ professional identity, Keltchterman’s (as cited in Van den Berg, 2002, p. 604) model of professional self-understanding was used, which contains teachers’ self-image, self esteem, job motivation, task perceptions, perspective on the future. This concept has been expanded to be able to observe the concept of self image more closely as someone’s image of themselves as a professional regarding their qualification, experience, skills, work circumstances, relation to colleagues and non-colleagues (clients, laypeople, in the case of teachers: parents and related decision-makers).

The final chapter deals with presentation skills instruction to illustrate an area that is a typical part of business English and ESP instruction. Presentations hardly ever appear in GE instruction, consequently GETs face difficulties when they have to teach presentation skills.

The chapter dealing with the genre of presentations and the difficulties of teachers is based on the following definition of presentation:

“a pre-planned, prepared, and structured talk which may be given in formal or informal circumstances to a small or large group of people. Its objective may be to inform or to persuade” (Ellis & Johnson, 1994, p. 222).

1.2 Relevance of study

Specialising within the field of ELT is considered a second phase of learning to teach.

As the present dissertation deals with specialising in teaching BE, this chapter looks at why it is important to deal with ESP and within that BE and business English teachers. The chapter

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describes recent changes in the role of the English language in the global business world that make BE a primary candidate for specialisation. After that, the practice of language teaching in Hungary is looked at to see if it has met the requirements set out in European Union policies on LSP teaching as well as the expectations of the business sector. Since this dissertation concentrates on teachers, the chapter will also point out why EFL teachers need to specialise in teaching BE rather than any other field within ESP in spite of the aspects that make the area a challenge. Finally, other areas of teaching that can benefit from BE teacher training are discussed.

1.2.1 Societal and technical changes

There are a number of factors that indicate the necessity of dealing with ESP and within that BE. As ESP was initiated by the technical and commercial development after World War 2, which created a need for a common language (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987) it is again a phase of unprecedented technical development that gives the significance of language used for specific purposes in society (Grétsy, 2002). The reason for the relevance of LSP is that scientific and technical development have reached the public in several forms: vocational schools, media and an increased use of technology in people’s free time. Also, a large majority of publications use technical language, i.e. LSP, not to mention the internet.

Harding (2007) lists three reasons for the growing importance of ESP in recent years.

1. The spread of vocational education throughout the world. 2. Increasing globalization and workforce mobility within the EU with English as the main common language. 3. The trend to start EFL studies at younger ages, which generated a need in students to learn something new in their further studies at secondary and tertiary level, possibly something that has some practical aim and outcome. Harding’s ideas have been confirmed by numerous studies.

English has become the language of international communication - not only in business but

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also in politics, science, technology, sport and so on (Johnson & Bartlett, 1998). Even national languages face the increase of incoming English vocabulary in scientific texts (Keresztes, 2003).

As public education has always aimed at preparing students for the world of work (Teemant et al., 1993), it seems reasonable to look for a connection between language teaching and the needs of the labour market. The growing importance of LSP has also been documented in Hungary. Even before the accession to the EU, employers in Hungary were looking for staff with strong foreign language skills (Teemant et al., 1993; Feketéné Silye, 2002; Major, 2002; Noble, 2002) without specifying the languages. Noble’s study also proved that the ability to combine general and professional language skills is a basic and real workplace requirement; in 2002, most young graduates had to use foreign languages in the day-to-day operation of the private and public sector organisations covered by the survey.

Similarly, Fóris et al. (2003) found that 79% of the surveyed 99 employees with HE degrees in the Southern Transdanubia Region of Hungary reinforced that they need to use their FL skills for work.

The results of the same survey published in 2004 by Fóris and Kozma indicate that though 93.7% of the employers, i.e. 63 companies of various sizes in the above mentioned region, find it necessary to have foreign language speaking employees, only 34.9% of them require a language examination from candidates. 77.3% of the latter group require an intermediate level examination, the rest usually check candidates’ language skills by a role play with company managers or written translation at the job interview. The required level is described as fluent without further specifying what that means, nevertheless it sounds like higher than intermediate. At the same time, the corresponding Hungarian term: tárgyalóképes nyelvtudás is ambiguous, it could mean anything from being able to communicate to advanced level. Checking writing skills was not mentioned by any company though a lot of

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the required work at the surveyed companies probably involved correspondence. It is also interesting to take a look at the positions in which foreign language speaking stuff are employed. The four emerging position categories in the survey were: “secretary, translator/interpreter, foreign language correspondent and positions in which foreign language is not the major field of the employee” (p.61) ranging from positions in management through administration to marketing and information technology. The latter two categories might reflect a change in the structure of the labour market. Earlier foreign language speaking staff represented a separate category within the company and they were employed to perform all tasks requiring foreign languages e.g. correspondence and interpreting. Nowadays, however, almost every position requires foreign language skills; therefore, all employees need to acquire them. The requirement of foreign language skills has changed the Hungarian labour market dramatically. Young graduates with both professional and foreign language skills have better chances to find good jobs than more experienced professionals without foreign language skills (Fóris and Kozma, 2004). Realising that they cannot replace all their staff, companies started to provide language courses for their employees; in the above survey, 42.9% of the companies did so. However, only 1.5% of them provided LSP courses (Ibid.).

This rate will reach 70% by 2010 as you will see later.

Just before the EU accession of the ten new member states in 2004, the mobility of workforce within the EU recreated the need for foreign language learning (Klein, 2002) and LSP (Kurtán, 2003). Indeed, Eurobarometer surveys between 2001 and 2005 pointed out that the motivation of Europeans to learn languages was related to working abroad and getting a better job in their home countries (Nikolov, 2007) i.e. a clearly instrumental motivation was identified and this kind of trend was shown to be intensifying within the examined period.

Similar trends have been found in Hungary with English as the main target language.

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Globalisation has made English a global language. Crawford Camiciottoli (2007) notes that English has emerged to the position of most often used language in international business negotiations, it functions as a lingua franca in the business world. The latest development in the process of globalisation is the change of company work languages from a local or national language to English, as this happened in the case of Alcatel and at the merger of Nissan and Renault to mention only two examples (Hidasi, 2003). The current leadership of English is reinforced by Taillefer’s study (2007); he found that recruiters in 26 large firms in France regarded mastery of English as the minimum requirement in about 60% of managerial jobs. The fact that the surveyed companies recruit economics graduates reveals that English most probably means BE in Taillefer’s study. According to Palmer and Posteguillo (1997), 58.6% of companies in the Castello region, Valencia, Spain use English most frequently. Another point where international and Hungarian trends are in line is the latest expectation of competence in minimum two foreign languages (Taillefer, 2007; Szilágyi

& Szőke, 2007) in the business sector. The European Council also promotes the concept of the so called plurilingual language user in its Common European Framework of Reference for Languages with the aim of acquiring minimum two languages beside one’s mother tongue (Hidasi, 2003). A recently emerging trend that also strengthens the dominance of English is the tendency of scientists and researchers to publish in English rather than in national or other languages due to the impact factors based on becoming quoted by subsequent publications (Keresztes, 2003).

1.2.2 The practice of language teaching

Even though the need for learning LSP was made obvious, the practice of language teaching did not react to it, which was also pointed out by Teemant et al. (1993) when they urged the promotion of LSP on the grounds that only one-third of the vocational secondary

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schools they surveyed offered VOLL courses. The most recent survey on language education in Hungary carried out by Nikolov and Öveges (2009) found an even worse ratio. Contrary to their expectation that LSP would be reasonable to be taught in foreign language classes in vocational schools, they discovered that in grades 9 and 10 no LSP classes are offered, while merely 28% of vocational schools provided LSP courses mostly in grade 13. What is even worse, they also learnt from the teachers that LSP in these schools usually means a list of specific vocabulary only; although almost a third of the schools complained about the unsuitable course books and supplementary materials they use for teaching LSP.

The students themselves also realised their needs for learning LSP. Already in 1992, secondary students wanted to improve their vocational listening and speaking skills, while tertiary students wished to develop their writing skills especially for academic purposes (Teemant et al., 1993). Three quarters of the students in comprehensive schools and half of the students in vocational schools recently surveyed by Nikolov and Öveges (2009) also indicated that they would prefer to learn LSP. Csizér and Kormos (2007) in their study of tertiary students found that HE students’ motivation to learn English was strongly connected to their perceptions as competent language users in the future in their careers and their awareness of English as a world language. Interestingly enough, students of economics and law were the most motivated to learn English, which was explained by the authors by the fact that in these careers high level FL skills and cultural knowledge are essential for success.

They also remark that in Hungarian HE the number of FL, usually LSP, classes per week is very low, which is hardly enough for success.

1.2.3 Hungarian and European Union policies on LSP education

Almost a decade after the study by Teemant et al. (1993) advocating that the needs of the labour market and language teaching should be harmonised, the European Union included

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it in its policies that there should be a direct connection between the needs of the labour market and the education system. It is a declared aim of the EU set out in the Lisbon Strategy in 2000 to create a competitive, knowledge based economy in Europe and to internationalise the workplace (Taillefer, 2007). For the above purpose, national educational systems within the EU are required from time to time to check if they meet the known expectations of users (Kézikönyv az európai nyelvoktatás-politika kidolgozásához, 2007), i.e. the students, the future employees. In Hungary, the government action plan to promote the development of language competence of students in vocational schools (Tudást mindenkinek! Cselekvési terv 2006–2010, 2006), i.e. of the students who are the most obvious target group of VOLT was published in 2006.

1.2.4 Expectations of the business sector and state administration

Regarding the expectations of the business sector, the available surveys on employers and young graduates show continuous dissatisfaction with the vocational language knowledge of employees in Hungary since 1993 (Teemant et al. 1993; Major, 2002; Noble, 2002). This seems to be an international trend as Taillefer (2007) refers to a study carried out on business graduates in 2002 which found the surveyed students inadequately prepared for the workplace concerning FL skills. Taillefer’s own survey carried out between 2002 and 2004 on economics graduates points out that the need for FL competency increased in the examined three years. However, the surveyed graduates felt they could not perform up to expectations blaming the failure on the education system.

The only exception to this trend in Hungary was the period around 2000. Feketéné Silye found proof that by 2000 LSP education was in a state that they could prepare for job market needs of young graduates. In 2000 in the British Council LSP examination project she surveyed 120 ESP teachers in eight HE institutions and 71 young graduates who had

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graduated within a five-year period before the sampling and worked in heterogeneous workplaces at the lower management level. The study compares the frequency of using various ESP skills e.g. phoning, attending meetings, translating and interpreting, presenting, etc. compared to the frequency expected by ESP teachers. Although the results are non- specific to any vocation, they show that in 2000 the surveyed employees reinforced the expectations of ESP teachers regarding the usage of skills. In other words the teachers were right when they expected that young graduates would do mostly electronic communication, write business letters, make phone calls and do more organisation tasks in English than participate in negotiations. The only area where teachers’ expectations did not meet the frequency indicated by students was making presentations; teachers expected significantly more presentations than young graduates really had to make.

Local councils were surveyed by Fóris and Kozma (2004) in the Southern Transdanubia region of Hungary. Without giving the number of local councils they report that settlements in peripheral regions rarely have any staff with at least intermediate FL knowledge, the main task of such local councils is to survive among hard economic circumstances thus they do not pay any attention to this problem. Settlements with a better socio-economic status would need more human resources with FL skills but they themselves state that they can manage without them, i.e. surprisingly, they do not recognise the advantages they could gain if they had staff with FL skills. Settlements depending on tourism find that they do not need FL speaking staff for their administration tasks but for tourist police offices and shops. Villages can only have staff with FL skills if they find a foreign partner village and the relationship provides their staff possibilities for exchange visits. Looking at the language courses the local councils organised, the authors found that the efficiency of these courses was very low due to unmotivated staff and after work lesson timing. The survey identified a huge gap between employer expectations and the real capabilities of FL speaking

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council staff. Department heads expect such staff to be able to do any kind of task in a foreign language reasoning that they receive extra pay for having a language examination. At the same time, the staff feel that their intermediate to upper-intermediate knowledge is not enough to do more than answering the phone or sending a fax. They feel inadequate for writing official letters or preparing professional translations. If they can, they pass on such tasks to outside translators or interpreters. This problem shows that general language knowledge is not sufficient for using a foreign language in a work environment. According to the survey, it is only the industrial chambers that recognize the necessity of LSP courses.

The broader objectives set out by the Lisbon strategy were to be attained by 2010. The following two surveys present the extent to which Hungary has been able to meet these objectives. In 2010, ITD Hungary surveyed six international mechanical engineering companies having a subsidiary located in Tolna county, Hungary (Rendás, 2010). They found that the management of the medium-sized companies (with 60-300 employees) were clearly dissatisfied with the foreign language skills of their employees. The average number of employees was 185.5 and 9.3% of them spoke foreign languages i.e. 17.25 people on average.

That number basically covers the management. The companies’ expectations differentiated office stuff and management, of whom they would expect an advanced level of foreign language knowledge, mainly speaking and writing skills; and shop-floor workers, of whom they would expect basic reading and speaking skills. Neither group meets the requirements.

At the same time, all the companies recognise the importance of foreign language skills to be able to keep contact with the foreign executives and business partners. Though they need more of their employees to speak foreign languages as well as to have employees to speak foreign languages at higher levels, only half of them organise language courses for the staff giving at least partial financial support to the expenses. The other half expected the educational system or the staff themselves to solve this problem. Although the expected

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language is probably German due to the German and Austrian parent companies, the survey reflects a problem in public education in Hungary.

The problem seems to be not only the low level or lack of language knowledge but also the type of knowledge i.e. LSP, which is missing. Both production workers and management- office staff groups would need LSP skills, however, different types. The companies indicated that they would like the production staff to understand the foreign maintenance manuals and to be able to communicate with the foreign executives at a minimal level. The office staff and managers would need to keep daily oral and written contact with executives of the parent company and business partners. The representative of the survey maker, an investment and trade development agency, also highlighted that their primary task when dealing with foreign investors is interpretation as Hungarian investment venue owners and employees lack foreign language skills. In their experience, the situation is the same with local councils. For instance, the agency provided a website for investors which the local councils were asked to fill with data but they were not able to provide data in English. ITD also finds that Hungarian businesses with competitive products are unable to appear at international trade fairs and in the international market due to a lack of foreign language skills. It is easy to imagine that even if some deals are made between foreign investors and such Hungarian businesses, further communication difficulties can be expected when a problem occurs or changes are needed, which might totally discourage foreign investors from further deals.

In another survey on 17 multinational and 3 Hungarian owned private sector companies of various industries operating in Budapest and Pest county, Mészárosné Kóris (2010) found that 94% of the multinational companies use English as the official language of business communication with the head office or parent company and 6% use both English and German. 70% of the surveyed companies employ foreign people with whom

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the Hungarian employees can only communicate in English making up 1-10% of the total number of employees in the majority of the companies. 90% of the companies stated that their employees communicate with English-speaking business partners weekly or more often. The surveyed companies all recognised their employees’ need for Business English, 70% of them were providing BE courses for the staff at the time of the survey, 20% had provided courses before the survey and 10% intended to provide courses in the future. This latter fact indicates that the companies were not completely satisfied with the foreign language skills of their staff. The fact that various reasons were given for providing BE courses for employees but none of the companies indicated maintaining existing foreign language knowledge seems to reinforce the need to develop LSP skills. The same author surveyed 42 business professionals as well (Ibid.) working for international (83%) and Hungarian companies (17%) in various industries. She pointed out that in spite of the fact that 56% of the companies employing the surveyed professionals had their headquarters in German-speaking countries, 83% of these companies used English as their official language of inter-company communications, 11% used English and German simultaneously, while only 6% used German only. 45% of the surveyed professionals had foreign, English speaking colleagues making up 1-10% of the total workforce at a given company. None of the employees selected from the options that they never communicate with business partners in English; 31% of them does so daily and 19% weekly. 84% of the surveyed professionals had B2 or higher level English knowledge. At the time of the survey, 43% of the surveyed employees were attending Business English courses, while 38% had participated in BE training courses in the past, the remaining 19% hoped to enter a BE course in the future. All in all, every surveyed professional was somehow involved in LSP, mostly BE skills development.

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The above surveys are not representative but tend to reveal that office staff and management are expected to have B2 or higher level language skills, mainly English and German, by employers and reinforce that secondary and higher education in Hungary has not provided the LSP skills demanded by the job market. The surveys also reflect the fact that in Hungary the capital has a special status as being remarkably different from other regions or regional towns of the country. Budapest, being a cosmopolitan city with numerous HE institutions and businesses reflects international trends much more than other regions in Hungary, which are much more dependent or connections to the neighbouring countries. Therefore, foreign language learning motivations are also significantly different (Csizér & Kormos, 2007).

1.2.5 Teaching LSP at various levels of education

Regarding the level of the educational process at which LSP should be introduced, in Hungary both employers and language teaching experts agree that LSP has a place at the tertiary level of education (Teemant et al., 1993; Kurtán, 2003) and both parties promote its introduction to the curriculum at secondary level. Nikolov and Öveges (2009) also recommend a shift to LSP and content based language teaching in vocational education.

Teemant et al. as well as Nikolov and Öveges found that secondary students would like to study LSP, and at the tertiary level students also confirmed that they prefer LSP to learning languages for general purposes (Teemant et al., 1993; Noble, 2002). A similar motivational trend preferring LSP was discovered at the University of Pécs, Institute of Adult Education and Human Resource Development by Háry (2004).

As to the level of language competence, Teemant et al. recommended introducing LSP after the intermediate level as early as 1993. “If it is assumed that foreign language teaching is going to improve in the future, starting at the primary level, it is a reasonable conclusion that

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10 to 12 years of language learning would invite, if not demand, a VOLL component no later than at the secondary level. Consequently, at the tertiary level, the role of VOLL should simply not be questioned but emphasised” (Ibid., pp. 477-478). Ironically, around 2004 a trend of abolishing foreign language departments in Hungarian tertiary education started meaning the elimination of LSP or language courses in general from the curricula simultaneously with the reinforcement of the requirement that every HE graduate must pass an intermediate level, often LSP, language examination. According to the Hungarian News Agency, in 2008 15-31% of graduates at Hungarian universities were not awarded a degree solely due to the non-fulfilment of the requirement of passing a foreign language examination (MTI, 2008) though not all the universities were surveyed. In Hungarian HE, students of Bachelor courses are required to take a FL examination, usually B2 level, to complete their degree. Out of 144 degree courses only six i.e. 4.16% require taking an LSP examination (Nemzeti Erőforrás Minisztérium, 2010) mainly courses in National Defence, Economics, Tourism and International Relations. Regarding Master’s courses, out of 267 schemes 15 i.e.

5.61% require LSP examinations in the fields of National Defence, International Administration and Economics (Nemzeti Erőforrás Minisztérium, 2011). At the same time, general foreign language examinations can be completed by taking an LSP examination (Oktatási Hivatal Nyelvvizsgáztatási Akkreditációs Központ, n.d.). In this sense, specialising has its advantage.

The above endeavours to extend the scope of LSP teaching in tertiary education and introduce it in secondary education are absolutely in line with EU policies as the European Union treats Languages for Specific Purposes education as a priority. The Bologna model of education of the EU places the acquisition of intermediate level proficiency in foreign languages in the domain of secondary education and vocationally-oriented foreign language instruction in tertiary and vocational education (Bognár, 1997). More than that the EU claims

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that language teaching is a tool for creating a common European cultural ground (Kézikönyv

… , 2007).

1.2.6 Teaching Business English

Looking at HE enrolment statistics in Hungary (Appendix A) reveals that between 2005 and 2010 the most popular subject area was Economics i.e. most students wished to study at Economics related courses and the largest number of students were admitted to such courses. A similar trend can be identified in the UK (HESA, n.d.), in the US (Crawford Camiciottoli, 2007) and probably in other countries. Crawford Camiciottoli asserts that the role of English as a lingua franca of the international business world induces the growth of non-native speaker (NNS) students striving to study in business related HE courses in English. Therefore, there is ground to believe that if language teachers need to teach ESP in HE, they will most probably teach BE. This trend is reinforced by the requirement of Economics courses for students to take LSP examinations to complete their degrees.

Considering that English has a dominant position in both language learning and the labour market, BE appears to be the best candidate for specialisation in language teaching.

1.2.7 Teaching presentation skills

Teaching presentation skills is one of the areas of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) that have made their way from in-service management training (Ellis and Johnson, 1994) to higher education within the framework of ESP courses offered by business colleges and economic and finance faculties of universities. Nowadays, graduates of business studies are expected to attend and/or make presentations on a weekly basis during their business careers.

Also, those presentations will most probably occur or need to be performed in English. At the same time, a survey on job-experienced learners of BE found that BETs are expected to be able to make a presentation (Mészárosné Kóris, 2009). Giving a business presentation is

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markedly different from presenting FL points in front of a class of students, which makes this area suitable to present the differences between GE and BE teaching.

The presentation as a typical element in both kinds of BE classes, EGBP and ESBP, as well as a course requirement in most college subjects emerges as a good point for comparison between instruction provided by a BE course teacher and instruction provided by a subject teacher. Conclusions can be drawn regarding presentation skills instruction for teacher education.

1.2.8 The role of the teacher

Since most students have acquired some general English (GE) by the end of primary or secondary education, ESP is a rapidly emerging area (Harding, 2007; Nikolov, 2007) at the international level. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) regard ESP as one of the most important parts of ELT. At the same time, as any branch of ESP, BE is a challenge for teachers to teach (Szilágyi & Szőke, 2007), therefore, BE and ESP teachers are worthy of attention.

The extent of the challenge can be illustrated by the expression used by perhaps the most well-known experts of the profession, Hutchinson and Waters term ESP “the Wild West of ELT” (1987, p.158). For GETs teaching ESP and within that BE seems to be in one word problematic. Hutchinson and Waters even speak about fear and hostility towards the ESP subject matter which have a negative effect on teaching. Several factors contribute to the above attitude. There seems to be a general agreement in both Hungarian and international studies (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Kennedy & Bolitho, 1984; Palmer & Posteguillo, 1997; Teemant et al., 1993) that GE teachers find it difficult to understand ESP subject matter probably due to their humanities based education that provided very little or no education in science, they are not trained to teach ESP, find science and technology boring

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and incomprehensible, have little motivation to invest energy in ESP, prefer general language, and often fail to cope with the diversity of expectations in spite of in-service training or retraining courses. There is though one point of disagreement. The general attitude is “to expect teachers to conform to the requirements of the target situation”, which is termed “unreasonable” by Hutchinson and Waters (1987, p. 163). However, they provide no alternative. More recent data also refer to GETs’ attitude problems and their need for a

“vocational consultant” to be able to teach ESP (Kurtán, 2003, p. 260) and to the lack of proper training in TEFL degree courses in the case of teaching BE (Donna, 2000;

Bereczky, 2005a). Regarding Hungary, Fóris and Kozma (2004) found that 17.32% of the secondary school teachers they surveyed from the Southern Transdanubia region were teaching LSP in 2004 mostly in the fields of economics and trade and 42.07% of the teachers were willing to take part in LSP course material development thus recognising the need of society for LSP teaching. The authors concluded that there is a huge possibility to modernize public education in Hungary because, as they hypothesised, it is easy for language teachers to contact owners of professional knowledge at high levels i.e. subject teachers in a natural way. The research described in the following chapters will reveal details of this relationship in reality.

Few studies have surveyed teachers’ qualifications concerning LSP teaching. Fóris et al.

(2003) found that LSP teachers in the Southern Transdanubia Region, Hungary usually started teaching LSP incidentally through self-training i.e. they had not been provided any organised training. They also note that in Hungary there is a lack of general training for teachers of languages that would turn out teachers with a high level of LSP teaching skills.

They urge introducing teaching courses combining specialisation in a language plus another subject or introducing a new type of training in HE as well as improving the quantity of available LSP teaching materials. Nikolov and Öveges’ (2009) study looking at

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vocational education found that every third teacher lacked the appropriate training to teach LSP in spite of the fact that the majority of them had a positive disposition to teaching it.

At the same time, the surveyed teachers did not consider their students, most of whom came to the secondary school with false beginner level foreign language skills, able to learn LSP.

The teacher has been considered the main educational factor since the beginning of time (Mocanu, 1996). One of the earliest examples of that approach comes from Diesterweg in 1865: “A school is worth as much as its teacher” (as cited in Tarrou, 1996, p. 14). Freeman and Johnson (1998, p. 413) go as far as calling teachers the “protagonists” of teaching.

They outline a revised model of the knowledge-base of language teaching: the new knowledge-base must focus on the teacher. The new model gives a central role to the teacher in understanding and improving English language teaching. It encourages the incorporation of insider accounts of teachers as learners of teaching and their professional development over time into the knowledge-base of teaching. The central role of the teacher is also considered to be true in the ESP classroom. As Teemant et al. put it “Although VOLL requires a learner -centred approach, teachers will always remain the key figures in the classroom” (1993, p. 491).

Several authors have pointed out the significance of focusing on teachers in the educational process (Csizér & Kormos, 2007). At the time when scientific methods were given a more and more prominent role in second and foreign language teaching, the role of the individual teacher started to lose significance until the point when following a given method was much more important than the teacher (Woods, 1996). In that tradition, even untrained or undertrained persons could function as teachers, which is economical for several interested parties in language teaching. However, as Woods pointed out, the participants’ views of classroom events such as success or failure might be remarkably

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different, even the characteristics used to define these concepts might differ. Therefore, Woods urges “research on participants’ understanding of events in context” (p.15), which could complement outside observers interpretations based on hypotheses of a given theory.

“Students achievements and teachers’ self perception are directly related” that is the opinion of the language teachers participating in an international survey (Rádai, 2003, p.

25). Therefore, it is worth looking at teachers’ own descriptions about their ESP teacher identity. Richards identified a lack of “references to the person who is responsible for the teaching”, the ESP teacher in accounts of ESP teacher education (1997, p.115), and there are hardly any studies on BE teachers at the research level. Richards underlines that an in- depth perspective on teachers’ professional lives is essential for planning ESP teacher education courses. Another benefit of dealing with teachers’ self-descriptions is that methods used in discovering teacher thinking are also useful in developing future teachers’

thinking. They are actually already used in teacher training (Szivák, 2002, p. 8).

An important task of teacher training is to enable future teachers to work in rapidly changing circumstances (Kotschy, 1996). The globalising and info-communicational world of the society of knowledge in the 21st century has changed and is changing teachers’ roles (Kraiciné Szokoly, 2006). The changing role of teachers requires changes in teacher education (Tarrou, 1996).

1.2.9 Subject integration

Language teachers have long been urging interdisciplinary integration, so that cultural and other subject specific content could be handled more easily during language lessons and language examinations (Kotschy, 1996; Kontra, 2002). The integrated treatment of language studies is also a European Union priority and is supported through treating parts of international literature, history, geography, etc. in other than the official language of the