Revision Concepts and Questions

1. Do you believe that most people are prepared to engage in intercultural communication? Explain.

2. How often do you find yourself in situations where an increased facility in intercultural communication would be useful? What are some of these occasions?

3. How can knowledge of the basic principles of communication be useful in daily life?

4. How do the authors define culture? Can you think of other definitions of culture that might help you understand intercultural communication better?

5. What is the purpose of culture?

6. What do the authors mean by the statement, “culture is learned”?

7. What are some instances in your life that demonstrate how culture is learned?

8. What are cultural values? How do they relate to individual values?

9. Would you highlight a few ways in which verbal behavior might differ between cultures?

10. What role does context play in communication? How does context affect intercultural communication?

11. Think of five different situations where an understanding of culture and communication behaviors would be beneficial.

 

MODULE 2-3. ESP IN TRANSNATIONAL EDUCATION

Unit 2-13. ENGLISH AS THE LINGUA FRANCA OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION

Guidelines for extensive reading of ESP texts on the use of English for European education

Beyza Björkman’s paper investigates the use of spoken lingua franca English (ELF) by lecturers and students at a Swedish technical university where English is increasingly used as a medium of instruction and as a vehicular language for speakers from a wide range of first languages.

Beyza Björkman’s project has investigated the language skills of the teachers and students in this setting, namely non-native-like usage of spoken lingua franca English. The main aim has been to find out what aspects of language cause communication failure. The material comprises 76 hours of digital recordings, of naturally occurring, authentic high-stakes speech from content courses.

Beyza Björkman’s results show a clear tendency by engineers to reduce redundancy and to focus on function, thus disregarding standard forms. There is little communication failure considering the relatively high frequency of non-standard forms. Her account of the round-table discussion is based on the results of her investigation and is meant to be a starting point for a larger study.

Text 2-13. ENGLISH AS THE LINGUA FRANCA OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION

(After Beyza Björkman, Royal Institute of Technology, Unit for Language and Communication, Stockholm University, Department of English)

Introduction

English is now the overwhelmingly dominant language in academia since academic communities use English as the default language, and there is a consequent development towards an increase in English-medium teaching in Europe, in general. The number of programs offered in English has tripled in the last five years in continental Europe (Wächter and Maiworm, 2008). Most countries have chosen to participate in the Bologna process, which has led to increased academic mobility and a number of student exchange programs. With visiting scholars and exchange students, European universities are becoming increasingly diverse linguistically. There are parts of academic communities in Europe now which operate predominantly in English, so English serves as a lingua franca (ELF), i.e. “a vehicular language spoken by people who do not share a native language” (Mauranen, 2003). Across Europe, the subject area in which English-taught programs are most frequently offered is engineering with 27 % (Wächter and Maiworn, 2008).

The Swedish academy is now international by nature and thus linguistically diverse as a consequence of increased academic mobility and student exchange programs, both aims of the Bologna Declaration. The transformation of the Swedish university from mostly monolingual to highly multilingual has required a common language for all involved. English has become that common language, being the most widely studied and the best known second language. So it is now the lingua franca of engineering education, i.e. the common language through which people from a large spectrum of first languages can communicate.