This thesis reports on the use of active and passive voice in the workplace and classroom through analysis of surveys completed by 37 employees and 66 students. The surveys offered six categories of business writing with ten sets of two sentences each, written in active and passive voice. Participants selected one sentence from each set and gave a reason for each selection. The participants preferred active over passive 47 to 46 percent of opportunities, but they preferred mixed voice over both, 49 percent. The participants preferred active only for memos to supervisors; in the other five categories they preferred passive or mixed voice. Both males and females preferred mixed voice, and age appeared to influence the choices. They cited context as the most common reason for using passive.

Reconceptualization is needed for English language teaching as a response to English-as-an-international language (EIL) contexts. Correspondingly this will lead to what is called “an ecological approach” that invites accommodation of language-learning instruction to the local needs within discourse communities. In this research, the researcher will investigate the English for specific purposes (ESP) needs of business students to explore how best to address their expressed needs through subsequent tutoring. The ecological approach along with vocabulary teaching approach may look deeply into students’ needs. To assess their needs, a questionnaire was developed and administrated to international students in the College of Business and Public Administration (CBPA) at California State University, San Bernardino to investigate what students feel are their strengths as well as needs, in order to succeed in their business studies.

英語在貿易、科技等領域為當今國際交流的主要語言，更是學術界之主要溝通媒介，在台灣高等教育亦是如此。本研究旨在探討企業管理碩士班學術英文課程規劃之現況，以台灣某科技大學之企業管理所及國際企業管理所為對象，採問卷、課室觀察、訪談之研究方式，從教師及學生的觀點深入評析97、98學年度兩所的學術英文課程規劃、實施現況、學生的學術英文需求、及學生自評之學術英文能力。從兩所學生回收的有效問卷共98份，篩選後的學生訪談者共14位。兩位授課教師的訪談則分別於97、98學年度各進行一次。問卷結果採描述性統計加以敘述分析，課室觀察及訪談結果則以持續比較法（constant comparison method）進行分析。研究結果顯示兩所之課程規劃均注重培養教師及學生的學術英文能力；雖教師方面含海外師訓、定期教學研討會，然全英授課課程之師資來源為一困難。學生方面則從招生至畢業規定，均將促進語文能力納入整體課程規劃中。教師在教學、教材選擇、評量方面均致力培養學生的學術英文能力。學生的學術英文需求特別注重術語、讀、口語溝通、上台報告之能力，然本土文化之知識極待加強。學生普遍自評學術英文能力普通或不佳。本研究結果為商管學術英文課程規劃者及研究者提供了一個全面性的參考資料。 / English is the main lingua franca for international communication in fields such as business and technology; it is also the major medium in teaching and learning. This phenomenon has a significant impact on higher education in Taiwan. This study aimed to probe into the status quo of EAP (English for Academic Purposes) curriculum design in graduate business administration programs. An MBA and an IMBA program at a national university of science and technology in Taiwan was targeted. Questionnaires, classroom observation, and semi-structured interviews were adopted as research instruments. Teachers’ and students’ perspectives of the curriculum design, implementation, students’ EAP needs, and students’ self-evaluated EAP abilities in the academic years of 2008 and 2009 were investigated. A total of 98 valid questionnaires were collected, and 14 student interviewees were selected. Two teachers were first interviewed in the academic year of 2008, and again in 2009, respectively. The analysis of questionnaires was conducted through descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data was analyzed by constant comparison method. Results of this study indicated that the two programs included nurturing teachers’ and students’ EAP abilities in the curriculum design. For teachers, overseas teacher training and regular teaching seminars were provided. However, finding teachers to teach English-medium courses presented a difficulty. Developing students’ language abilities was included in the overall curriculum design, from admission to graduation regulations. Teachers were committed to cultivating students’ EAP abilities in instructional practices, material selection, and evaluation. The EAP needs of terminology, reading, oral communication, and presentation abilities were particularly valued. Nonetheless, students’ knowledge of local culture needed to be strengthened. Students generally rated their EAP abilities average or below average. In sum, this study may be of importance in improving EAP curriculum design in graduate business programs in future.

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This study is threefold: 1) To investigate the needs of English for Academic Purposes at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (SA), and the needs of English for Job Purposes in the Saudi private sector; 2) To establish goals based on the needs found; and 3) To propose an alternate design for the current English Language Center at the IPA in SA. The researcher used multi-modal approach to data collection that included questionnaires, focus groups, and interviews with different populations: managers, employees, human resource managers, students, and teachers. In business settings, the results showed that English is often used in the private sector for the following reasons: existence of non-native speakers of Arabic expatriates in the private sector in SA, nature of the company, dealing with international companies, agents of some international companies, and the company itself is not Saudi. In academic settings, students faced difficulties mainly in three skill area: reading, writing, and speaking. Based on the needs found, the researcher suggested teaching two business courses: Business Correspondence and Business Communication. In addition, the researcher proposed an alternate design for the current program at the English Language Center which should focus on General English, rather than English for Specific Purposes. / Department of English

As a result of globalisation, the number of companies working globally is increasing at an unprecedented pace. Consequently, the need to communicate with people from other countries is getting bigger. In such intercultural communication, a common language must be used to interact. The language of choice is most often English, which is the business lingua franca (BELF) today. Furthermore, email has become the obvious choice of medium when interacting with foreign business associates. The present study was conducted through intensive and extensive analyses, investigating BELF emails written by 21 individuals with 14 different native languages. The data consists of 209 emails. The study follows Bjørge’s (2007) work on formality in emails written in academic settings. The aim of the study was to determine how formal the participants were in greetings and closings and whether they accommodated their language to the respondent. The results suggest that the level of formality mainly depends on the purpose of the email and, to some extent, how formal the correspondent is. The accommodation to the correspondent seems to be individual. The present study wishes to extend knowledge on email communication in BELF settings. The results are likely to be relevant for teachers and students of Business Communication and English as a Second or Foreign Language along with managers in internationally functioning companies, especially as regards what should be considered in BELF communication.

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This is a case study on the communication between Nordic and Chinese business people using English as a lingua franca in their business communication. The aim of this paper is to establish if misunderstandings in communication occur between Chinese and Nordic language speakers (Finnish and Swedish) in a business environment and, if they do, what the nature of these misunderstandings is. In this paper, recorded conversations are analysed to establish if there are misunderstandings between the parties. The recordings were made at a global industrial company in Sweden and in China. Interviews with the participants were also carried out in order to establish their own ideas concerning the communication flow and to find out if the participants are themselves aware of using any particular communication strategies when interacting with one another. The results of the case study show that there were some misunderstandings in the communication between Nordic and Chinese business people; however, there were not any particularly serious misunderstandings with respect to the company’s business aims and objectives. The results indicate that the parties use communication strategies to enhance their messages and to determine if a message has been conveyed successfully. The strategies that were commonly used were confirmations in the form of follow-up questions and speaking slowly. Written or non-verbal communication were found to be used as a supplement to verbal communication. A strategy that the participants themselves noted as successful was keeping their messages short and simple. This is also known as the KISS-principle. The result of the study indicates potential misunderstandings caused by the Chinese using Yes as an act of active listening rather than agreement and it is suggested that an awareness of this cultural difference may help improve the intercultural communication between the parties.