Masaryk University

Faculty of Education

Department of English Language and Literature

English as a Corporate Language

Bachelor thesis

Adela Pilátová

Brno, April 2012 Supervisor: Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph.D.

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Declaration:

I declare that I wrote this thesis by myself and that I used only the sources listed in the

bibliography section.

Brno, April 2012 Adela Pilátová

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mgr. Radek Vogel, Ph.D. for his guidance and professional advice he

provided to me during my work on this bachelor thesis.

Brno, April 2012 Adela Pilátová

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 5

2 English as a lingua franca ........................................................................................................ 6

2.1 What is a lingua franca? ................................................................................................... 6

2.2 History of lingua franca .................................................................................................... 6

2.3 What is a global language ................................................................................................ 7

3 Why English as a Global Language ........................................................................................ 9

3.1 Spread of English around the world ................................................................................. 9

3.2 Speakers of English language ........................................................................................ 11

3.3 Facts that can make English a Global Language ............................................................ 13

3.4 The Future of a Global English ...................................................................................... 15

4 English language in business ................................................................................................. 17

4.1 English in Global Business ............................................................................................ 17

4.2 English language in European business ......................................................................... 18

4.3 Aspects of Business English .......................................................................................... 20

4.4 Writing in Global Business English ............................................................................... 22

5 English language in the Czech Republic ............................................................................... 25

6 English language in corporations .......................................................................................... 27

6.1 Introduction to research .................................................................................................. 27

6.2 The Questionnaire .......................................................................................................... 28

6.3 Obtained data .................................................................................................................. 29

6.4 Expressions used at work – “corporate speak” .............................................................. 39

7 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 45

Résumé:......................................................................................................................................... 47

List of references: ......................................................................................................................... 48

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List of charts ................................................................................................................................. 52

Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 53

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1 Introduction

Lack of knowledge of language can be one of the greatest barriers to communication

between people. As business becomes global, there is a need to communicate with people all

around the world. With no doubt English has become the language of global world and

inevitably plays a key role in today‟s business. People need to be able communicate in English,

particularly if they are looking for a job in “white collar” positions. Other languages are always

an advantage, but in most of the cases knowledge of English language is must. The dominance of

English language is obvious. English has become a language communicated everywhere in the

world.

Corporate companies, though not only American or British origin, made English their

company language, such as Philips (Dutch company by origin) or Nissan (Japanese company).

Employees of such companies are expected to be able to communicate efficiently in English.

Having experience in working in such companies, made me write this bachelor thesis. The aim

of this work is to prove the actual knowledge of English language of people working in these

companies. The communication level varies. Some employees are able to speak explicitly about

their work, while others have higher level of language and can speak even about more familiar

topics. Grammatical structure of language is not so strictly controlled in these companies when

communicating internally but what are the expectations about grammar when sending emails to

customers or third parties. Are grammatical features expected to be kept? Is there any difference

from Standard English? The term Global English was introduced a few years ago. Global

English is simplified to be understandable for wider audience with different levels of language,

the evidence and aspects are further explained in the work.

The theoretical part of this thesis is devoted to research and summary of English becoming a

lingua franca, spread of the language over the centuries and also what is expected from the

language in future. Further work deals with aspects of English in business.

The practical part is focused on the Czech Republic and people working in corporations. The

expectation of employers compared to real knowledge of the people, the ability to communicate

and frequency of using the language at their work. Research was conducted by questionnaire

distributed to different companies and different fields of work to get a general idea. A short part

of the research is devoted to specific vocabularies used in these companies and similarities

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among them although they all come from different companies. These similarities may help to

prove the term Corporate English.

2 English as a lingua franca

2.1 What is a lingua franca?

A lingua franca is a language used by different nations to communicate with each other,

when they do not share common language. Originally the lingua franca is supposed to be the

second language based on the native language of two or more parties. The language may spread

and the native populations will speak the lingua franca among themselves as well. The most

common example of contemporary lingua franca is English. It is the language of international

business, science, technology and aviation (“Lingua Franca”).

2.2 History of lingua franca

The term lingua franca was first time used in the Middle Ages. It was language created as a

combination of Italian and French languages. This new language was used mainly by tradesman

and crusaders. The language simplified nouns, verbs and adjectives from both languages.

Jennifer Jenkins writes in her book that there used to be earlier languages that played role of

lingua franca. However, the language in Mediterranean area was first language named lingua

franca. Before that, languages should be referred to as „contact language‟, „auxiliary language‟ or

„trade language/jargon‟ (Jenkins, 1). Other researchers found other languages that served as a

lingua franca, for example Arabic as a consequence of spread Islamic Empire in the 7th

century.

Arabic language played an important role also in 13th

century as a language of science and

diplomacy, because at that time vast majority of books were written in Arabic. Throughout the

history different languages played the role of lingua franca, for example until the 18th

century,

Latin became the lingua franca of European scholars. It allowed communication among people

especially whose native languages were for example Italian and French. In the Age of

Exploration lingua franca played very important role in allowing European explorers to make the

trade easier and communicate in the various countries with ease. Portuguese used to be a trade as

well as diplomatic language for some areas in Africa, India and Japan. Malay served as a

language of the area of Southeast Asia, when first Europeans arrived they acquired the language

to enable them to communicate with native people. The 20th

and 21st centuries are ages of

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technology and the trade has been replaced by business. Growing of these two things English is

becoming the lingua franca (Briney, “Lingua Franca”).

2.3 What is a global language

David Crystal says that language will gain its global status once it has been recognized in all

countries in the world (“Global language”, 3). Although there has not been officially defined

what a global language means. The definition can be derived from the status of geographical

spread of language, frequency of use on the international field, such as international

organization, and also in frequency of use as a diplomatic language. (“Issues Global”)

Apparently the status of Global language cannot be defined by number of native speakers1. As

Crystal claims, if the global status would be set up only by number of native speakers, English

would not be the one. To achieve status of Global language must influence other factors

especially those that give a certain language special attention in other countries than countries of

native speakers. The countries may either make a language official of a country. Then the

language would serve as means of communication with government, law courts or educational

system. Or the language can obtain a priority to be taught as a foreign language more often than

others. The language will obtain a priority for learners, although it may never achieve an official

status. Crystal also stated few reasons why some language can become the favoured one. It

includes many factors among them there is historical tradition, commercial or technology contact

but it also influences the economic factors such as financial support. The support influence a

quality of language teaching, access to learn some language, materials to support the teaching

and many more factors may play important role (Crystal “Global language” 4).

What makes one language global and not the other? Crystal says: „Why a language becomes

a global language has little to do with the number of people who speak it. It is much more to do

with who those speakers are (“Global language” 7).

Crystal also stated that language is living organism. It cannot stand on its own and the

language lives along with the people. If the people become successful, the language will be

successful as well. If people fail, the language will most likely fail as well. The military or

political power has huge impact on the status of international language. We must include the

economic power as the military power establishes the language, the economic power is the one

1 The terms native, second or foreign language speakers are further defined in chapter 3.2. Speakers of language

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that helps maintain and spread the language where it was brought to (Crystal “Global language”

7).

Do we need a global language? Crystal argues that translation, as a solution, can be

applicable only to certain level of need of communication. Although translation has had very

important role ever since, nowadays when in some countries you may meet with more than 3 or 4

languages at the same time and at the same place, translation becomes meaningless. To enable

people to communicate with each other there is a need to establish one single language. Actually,

the rule of enabling people to communicate is needed even on international field. (Crystal

“Global language” 11-13) International organizations, such as the United Nations, where at one

meeting can meet up to 193 states (“About UN”), and adopting one language can be very

essential. It would save the costs for multi-way translations. The United Nations have nowadays

six official languages2 (“Languages”) and although there are thoughts to reduce it, the practical

part is demanding as no country likes the idea of giving away its language to reduce costs.

However, the changes towards one language can be seen when the committee is not present at

certain meeting, the participants may use one language to communicate and at that point English

is usually the choice. The profit of single language is not obvious only in International

organizations but also within the business community. The growth of international business

contacts is the impact of two other aspects. Firstly, it is the communication technology and

secondly the air transportation. As these two aspects enable people to hold several meetings in

different countries within one day, the need for single language grows. The translation costs and

costs for interpretation would grow enormously, if a businessman would need to arrange all of

them (Crystal “Global language” 11-13). Crystal looked back in history and says:

There has never been a time when so many nations were needing to talk to each other so much.

There has never been a time when so many people wished to travel to so many places. There has

never been such a strain place on the conventional resources of translating and interpreting. Never

has the need for more widespread bilingualism been greater, to ease the burden placed on the

professional few. And never has there been a more urgent need for a global language (“Global

language” 14).

2 David Crystal in his book mentioned that the United Nations were established with five official languages –

English, French, Spanish, Russian and Chinese. However, on the web page of the United Nations is written that

originally the United Nations were established with English and French as working languages and later were added

Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish.

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3 Why English as a Global Language

3.1 Spread of English around the world

English is a West Germanic language; it is originated from dialects brought by Germanic

invaders into Britain. The original old English language was influenced by two waves of

invasion: invasion of Scandinavian nations in the 8th

and 9th

centuries, their language was a part

of the Germanic language family and invasion of Normans, who spoke Old Norman. Educated

people in England became the trilingual; they had to be able to speak French, Latin and English.

First books were written in English, such as Geoffrey Chaucer‟s Canterbury Tales. English

became the national language in Renaissance period as a part of patriotic feeling of that time.

There were two main waves of spreading English language: the first spread happened in the 17th

when English was transported to the „new world‟. The spread continued in the 19th

century as a

result of colonization (Graddol “Future of English” 7). As Graddol quoted, English got the world

position as a “language on which the sun never sets (“Future of English” 6). However,

according to another researcher Dick Leith, the spread had one stage before the language went

overseas. The spread began first within the British Isles when English was established as a main

language in territories, such as Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These territories used to speak

Celtic languages (Irish, Gaelic and Welsh). In other words we may say that the spread of English

has been significant since 12th

century and it continued to 20th

and 21st century (Graddol, Leith,

Swann, 180-181). Leith also claims, as an aftermath of the colonization, either within the Isles or

beyond the Isles, is the appearance of new varieties of English. In overseas, such as North

America or Australia, was the impact on language being in contact with native or pre-colonial

population. Their „Englishes‟ had to acquire new words due to the influence of local languages.

Words were usually related to geographical features or animals (Graddol, Leith, Swann, 184).

The most significant features of this influence bear American English and Australian English.

Leith in the book argues that English in North America is the one of the early modern period, it

is said that the language of North America is more „conservative‟ than the one in England. As an

example, the most significant difference between British and American English is the

pronunciation /r/. The /r/ was widely pronounced in England in Elizabethan era, later the English

omitted this feature but it was too late to bring it to „new world‟. Interesting idea is that the

Native Americans had just little influence on language. Leith cited Carver that it is same relation

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like with the influence of Celtic languages on Old English (qtd. in Graddol, Leith, Swann 196).

Leith says: “the language of a conquered people has little effect on that of the conquerors (196).”

This quotation can be further applicable on the impact on English in Australia as well. The

settlement in Australia appeared two centuries later than the one in America. Most of the settlers

were convicts, especially from London area. Therefore the pronunciation in Australian English is

close to Cockney3(Graddol, Leith, Swann, 201).

English was brought to South Africa in the 19th

century, when British control was

established. Crystal says English as an official language was set up in 1822 and the Afrikaans

speaking population was forced to start speaking English. English was the language of education,

law and public affairs. Afrikaans was the first language of most of the population, English was

always considered as the second language. The influence Afrikaans on English was developed as

the English was spoken by black population who learned English only at mission schools.

Afrikaners are mostly bilingual nowadays (Crystal “Global language” 44-46).

South Asia is another area where English was spread in colonial time and has a special role

due to the number of English speakers. The speakers outnumbered the USA and the UK.

According to Crystal, English received the status of official language at the beginning of colonial

period (1765) until the independence (1947). At 1960 Hindi became the official language and

English received the status of associated language. Due to the language diversification in India,

English plays an important role to unify it (Crystal “Global language” 45-49).

Crystal claims that in today‟s perspective the status of English as a Global language was

gained due to two factors - the spread in colonial time and the economic power of the United

States in the 20th

century (Crystal “Global language” 59). Crystal also says the impact on

English on international field had the League of Nations. It was formed as part of the Treaty of

Versailles, the first treaty ever that was written in two official languages, English and French

(Crystal “Global language” 87). Graddol, on the other side, claims that the milestone in the

history of spread of English language in the 20th

century is an aftermath of the World War II, the

establishment of the United Nations and other especially financial institutions, World Bank and

International Monetary Fund. Marshall Plan helped the US immerse more deeply into European

affairs. American influence in Asia is the consequence of two wars, the Korean and the

3 Cockney is a London dialect, used mostly by working class (“Cockney”)

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Vietnamese. Graddol also mentioned that English became the language of science and

technology. Most of the scientific journals are published in English. Books are mostly published

in English. Most of the intellectual property is produced in English (Graddol “Future of

English” 9). Crystal in his book also mentioned that the development of technology, such as

computers was fully in hands of the USA. All computers‟ programs mother tongue is English.

One of the most important event towards the spread of language in „new era‟ happened in

Anglophone part of the world, the USA (Crystal “Global language” 121). To sum up the spread

of English language in history David Crystal says: “It [English language] is a language which

has repeatedly found itself in the right place at the right time.“ (Crystal “Global language” 122)

3.2 Speakers of English language

Joan Swann claims that nowadays there are 750 million of people who speaks English.

However, only one half of those people have English as their mother tongue. There is also

mentioned that others thinks this number is closer to 1 billion. However, it does not matter what

number it is, the truth is that English language has been recently spoken and written by as many

people as it has any other language never before (Graddol, Leith, Swann 12). How big the

spread among speakers has been in last centuries can be proved by the time frame quoted in the

book of David Crystal, at the end of the reign of Elizabeth I (1603) the number of people who

spoke English was between five to seven million, at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth II

(1952) the number increased to 250 million (Crystal “Global language” 30). Who the speakers

of English language really are and how they can be divided according to the spread and their

approach to the language? David Graddol divided the speakers into three categories; if the

language is for them the mother tongue or it can be called first language or whether the language

is second or additional language or the language is acquired as a foreign language (“Future of

English” 10). This division has been applied according to Kachru‟s 4 three circles of English. .

Originally, it is a model of the spread of English in the terms of three concentric circles of the

language: the inner circle, the outer circle and the expanding circle.

The Inner Circle (the first-language countries): is classified as first spread. Speakers from

England carried the language to Australia, New Zealand and North America. The inner circle

4 Braj Kachru is Jubilee Professor Emeritus of Liberal Arts and Science at the University of Illinois. He introduces

the term World Englishes. (“Braj Kachru”)

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represents the traditional historical bases of English. English is native language or mother tongue

of most people in these countries. The total number of English speakers is as high as 380 million

people. The Outer Circle (the second language areas) represents the second spread of English

throughout the colonization by Great Britain and the US in Asia and Africa. In this case the

language is not the native language but serves as a lingua franca between ethnic groups. The

language is classified as a second language. The trade, national institution, higher education uses

English predominantly. This circle is represented by India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Pakistan,

Tanzania, Kenya and others. The number of people is in the range between 150 million and 300

million people. The Expanding Circle (the foreign-language areas): in this circle we find

countries where English has no historical or governmental role but it is used for international

communication. In these countries the language is taught as a foreign language. This includes

much of the rest of the world‟s population. It is mainly used for business purpose therefore it is

very difficult to estimate number of English speaking people. It ranges between 100 million to

one billion people (Graddol “Future of English” 11; Crystal “Global language” 60).

The status of English language keeps changing in many parts of the world, says David

Graddol. These changes, although they have not been documented yet, will have the impact on

who the speakers will be in the future. In countries, such as Belgium, Denmark, Lebanon,

Ethiopia or the United Arab Emirates grows the number of using English language in the

intranational (internal) communication, therefore these countries can be considered to be shifted

towards the second language areas. The growth of population in other countries, like India,

Pakistan or Nigeria will again have an impact on the number of people who speaks English as a

second language. However, nowadays in the second language area is a tendency to use English

in middle class or professional communication; therefore people coming from the middle class

society are becoming bilingual. There is a new trend when the English is becoming the first

language outside the traditional territories. The number of people for whom the language is first,

second or foreign will change rapidly in near future (Graddol “Future of English”11).

Some changes, especially the attitude towards the English language, are slowly seen even

today. At the beginning of the 21st century one-fourth of the world‟s population is able to

communicate in English to certain degree. Although there is more native speakers of other

languages (Chinese, Spanish or Hindi), English is the language these speakers use when

speaking across cultures, moreover their children are taught English to enable them better future.

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Almost in every part of the world is believed that be educated also means speak English. At the

workplaces around the world can be heard English as a dominant language; pop-music is mostly

broadcasted in English everywhere in the world. How much English is influenced by non-native

speakers as a vast majority of those who uses the language can be demonstrated by the idea of

Jean Paul Nerriér, a retired vice president of IBM USA, who comes originally from France. He

said: “You have too many words in English. We [non-native speakers] are majority, so our way

of speaking English should be the official way of speaking.” (qtd. in Mydans) Then he came up

with an idea to reduce a version of English language that would use only 15 000 simple words.

Simplifying of English may cause that native speakers will be forced to also know this Global

English along their own to enable them to communicate with non-native speakers. Globalization

provokes the need of Global language. The process of English as a Global language started with

the rise of two English speaking countries, the Great Britain and the USA, this has been

nowadays followed by the rise of another virtual community Internet (Mydans). Although there

are few reasons stated above, why English gains such a unique position in the world, further can

be thought if English is the language that is easily acquirable by anyone in the world and why it

is so.

3.3 Facts that can make English a Global Language

Crystal claims people often think that English language must have some essential feature of

structure that makes the language easy to be learned. The thoughts are that it has less grammar,

it has just few endings of words or there is no difference between masculine, feminine or neutral

gender. Crystal also opposes these thoughts that how easily the language is learned do not have

anything common with the idea of Global language. Latin used to be an international language

and it has the inflectional endings and gender differences. French also has the gender differences

and the language played an important role at the international field as well (Crystal “Global

language” 7-8).

Below should be suggested and further investigated some of these thoughts and ideas of

English as an easy language to be studied, therefore it is a language that easily reached its global

status. Speaking about grammar, it is true that English is simpler than other languages. No

differences in gender, familiar or formal addresses or case forms. Cases are applicable only to

some personal pronouns, therefore verbs has mostly only 5 different forms, quite often it requires

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only 3 different forms whilst in German verbs may have 16 different forms and in Latin in some

cases even 120. Another statement is that English is a very flexible language. When the word

order is kept, the sentence can be changed to active or passive. Flexibility can also be proven that

the same word can be treated as a noun as well as a verb and vice versa. New words are formed

only by adding suffixes or prefixes or by compounding of existing words. Speaking about words,

English is one of the richest languages in terms of vocabulary. Official the world‟s largest

dictionary is Oxford English Dictionary. It contains about 615 000 words. It is believed that

every year almost 8 500 words are newly added to the list of dictionary. 200 000 words are in

everyday use, in German this number is not higher than 184 000 and in French only 100 000. In

comparison with other languages it is thought to be simple even with spelling and pronunciation.

This statement is quite disputable, compare to Mandarin, Welsh or Gaelic this can be true.

However, in comparison with languages as Italian where are 26 sounds or Hawaiian (13 sounds

only), English has about 44 to 52 sounds. When the English is compared to Slavic languages

where the words are spelled as heard, it also proves that English will not be so simple in this

language feature. Few more things can be added, such as difficult pronunciation of some nouns

for foreigners, such as „th‟, makes English even more against this suggestion. Disadvantages are

stated above, advantage that speaks for the language, are borrowings of foreign words. They are

usually kept in their original spelling. This is the reason that many learners feel some kind of

familiarity of English vocabulary (“Issues Global”). As it is seen the language has never become

a global language only because of some linguistic features, amount of vocabulary or it is known

for great literature, culture or reign. Language has always become an international language

because of political, military or economic power (Crystal “Global language” 9). The power that

English has nowadays due to the historical circumstances mentioned above in this work, can be

best seen in numbers that were provided by the British Council. English language has a special

status in 75 countries. One-third of books are published in English. Two-thirds of all scientists

read in English. Three-quarters of the world‟s mail is written in English. Four-fifths of all e-

mails are in English. People are spending 2 billion dollars a year for learning English; it consists

only of those coming to Great Britain to study English (Reynolds).

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3.4 The Future of a Global English

It is very difficult to predict what will happen with language in few years whether the

growth will remain and English will spread even more. David Crystal says that any prediction

about language in future is very difficult. In the middle Ages no one would believe that Latin

will be death language in few centuries later, same as in the 18th

century that there is other

language that would play as important role as French did (Crystal “Global language” 123). Few

options will be defined below what may endanger English as a world or global language. Firstly,

if language was always spread with the support of political, military or economic power as

mentioned by Crystal (“Global language” 9), then the shift of economic power in the 21st

century will have inevitably impact on English. No one really thinks that some other language

will replace English in its role of a global language in few years. However, when the economy

will be more divided between neighbouring countries we may predict that there will be an

increase of local or regional languages. There is no doubt that the economic power in Asia grows

enormously and probably this grow will remain for some period of time. The need of Mandarin

language, as a predominant language of China, therefore may increase to be able to communicate

with Asia. The question is whether local people who already invested a lot of money to be

educated in English will want to throw this money away or the benefit of knowing English will

be still granted as an advantage and English language will keep the privileged position (Graddol

“Future of English” 58). Whatever happens with English in future, there is no doubt that it is not

the only language that plays an important role in today society and probably will not play it in

the future as the only language. David Graddol in his research stated English is challenged

especially by aforementioned Mandarin and Spanish in some countries. Mandarin is becoming

very popular language to be learned not only in Asia but also in Europe and the USA. Chinese

Government supports all activities that lead towards teaching Mandarin as a foreign or second

language. This support is actively done through Confucius Institutes which is similar to British

Council. Graddol about Mandarin language also said:

The attractiveness of Mandarin to learners across the world is growing, and language schools in

many countries are expanding their provision to include it. Unlike the enthusiasm for learning

Japanese which was prompted by the economic rise of Japan, there are reasons why interest in

Mandarin may remain a long-term trend (“English Next” 64).

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Spanish has been actively competing English not only in South America but also in the

USA. Brazilian5 students may nowadays choose between Spanish and English as a compulsory

foreign language to study. In the USA is growing population that has Spanish their native

language. In some towns Spanish speaking population outnumbered the English speaking

(Graddol “English Next” 61-64).

If the political and military power used to play an important role as mentioned above, the

technology will play the role in future. Prediction what will happen with English can be done

when we look what happened with Internet as the fastest means of spread of English language.

David Crystal says: "When the internet started it was of course 100 percent English because of

where it came from, but since the 1980s that status has started to fall away. By 1995, it was down

to about 80 percent present of English on the internet, and the current figures for 2001 are that it

is hovering somewhere between 60 percent and 70 percent, with a significant drop likely over the

next four or five years (Crystal “Language and the Internet” 58). This shows that English may

keep its predominance but will have to share the space with other language same way as it

happens on the Internet.

5 Brazil is one of the most important economies, outside India and China.

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4 English language in business

4.1 English in global business

David Graddol suggested: “Global trade is no longer a matter of bilateral arrangement

between nations states, or between organizations economically rooted in nation states.“ (“Future

of English” 32). Global business has transformed to „complex structure of business ownership‟.

The complex structure means joint ventures, holding companies and corporations. Most of these

companies are not even multinational but rather transnational6. The growth of these companies

provoked global distribution of workforce. Once a company has production costs too high in one

country, production is usually shifted to another country where the costs get lower. These shifts

have impact on spread of English language. Graddol further explains what impact the economic

development has on English language. The company may not have headquarters in English-

speaking country but such a company usually has English as its company language therefore new

workforce also adapts the language. Legal documents and agreements will be written in English.

International unanimity for terms, obligations and rights is already in English. Law English

comes on stage at this phase. Skills in English will be required from back-office employees in

order to keep international trade running. Establishing company at one place and transfer of

technology also require lots of internal visitors. Visitors require supporting facilities – hotels,

restaurants and tourist office. Vast majority of visitors will speak English therefore staff in these

facilities needs to speak English as well. Although people do not need English directly for their

work as the language itself is the company language, the knowledge of language is required in

most of the cases (Graddol “Future of English” 32).

More people are required to use English language at work; according to Graddol working

language has been distinguished to two types. The first type of working language is the one used

6 According to article of Andrew Hinse, the difference among international, multinational, global and transnational

is as follows.

International companies – they are exporters and importers without investments outside their national border.

Products and services are made exclusively in their home country.

Multinational companies – they have investments in foreign countries. They adapt their products to local markets in

which they operate in.

Global companies – their investments are spread in several countries. However, they have one headquarter that lead

the business strategy. Their products are about the same or similar but keep the market requirements and low costs at

the same time.

Transnational – complex companies that are difficult to be managed. They invest in different countries. The

companies have either one headquarter or delegate power to manage the company at national levels. Research and

Development is also delegated to national markets. (Hinse “Get Your International Business Terms Right”)

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in communication between people that are at the same level. They usually use vocabulary and

language that is specialized to their field. Although they do not create special dialect or variety of

English but their language forms the same type of „discourse community‟. The difference is

usually at the level of formality or in different style. The second type of working English

language is used when communicating with people outside of this community, usually when

speaking to customers or public. This type of language occurs in service industry. The language

follows certain pattern when speaking to clients (Graddol “Future of English” 43).

Employers‟ expectations about variety of styles that their employees are able to use rise,

English is language of corporate identity as well as means of communication with customers.

4.2 English language in European business

According to David Graddol, currently English language is the first foreign language

studied in the European Union. There is a dominance of studying English against any other

foreign language. It is obvious that this dominance will remain for some time. As the education

changes the foreign language started to be taught in earlier ages, it starts usually in primary

education. French language as thought to be the second language of Europe seems to be stable,

however one-third of all students studying French are those coming from English speaking

countries therefore it is very difficult to believe that this might overtook the English dominance.

German as language of the largest country of the EU is mostly studied in Northern and Eastern

Europe but along with English (Graddol “Future of English” 44). The predominance of English

in Europe is seen even in European organizations. As Graddol mentioned 99 percent of European

organizations declared that their working language is English, 63 percent stated French and only

40 percent mentioned German (“Future of English” 8). Another example of acquiring English as

the “main” language in Europe is when few years ago, states like France, Germany and Spain put

together their aerospace industries into one company. The company was named EADS – the

European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company, the name is exclusively only in English and

working language in the company is English as well. Few more examples are German companies

such as Deutsche Post World Net, Deutsche Bank or Finnish Kone, some Italian companies,

Swiss company Credit Suisse, all of these company have their company language English

although none of them have their origin in any of the English-speaking country. The reason to

use the English lies on the impact of the United States as a dominant country of finance,

19

commerce and industry. The states are seen as a key market to producers as well as consumers,

as for producers it seems to be easier to go on market once they use the English language. Airbus

Company, although it is settled in France the English language is the official language from its

founding. It eased the communication between workers despite the fact that first experience was

not the best due to the fact of Anglo-French relationship. However, as most of the manuals were

written in English and had the American origin it ends up as the best solution (Tagliabue).

In practice employees in European companies speak English fluently during the official

meetings but it is natural they tend to switch to their native languages once they talk to each

other on corridors and cafeteria. For many people seems to be absurd if company purely, for

example, German origin has a tendency to show up its global status just by forcing the

employees conduct their business in English. A recent study in France has shown to those who

fear English as a cultural threat of today Europe as inappropriate. Most of the people take and

adapt English but in the end they make it of their own (Carvajal).

There is no doubt that English has become the international language of business, finance,

and in technology. However, in Europe the spread of English went even beyond that and it is

becoming the language that puts together the whole continent. Due to the integration of labor

market of the European Union the need for one common language is crucial. The language links

people from all parts of Europe. When Finnish needs to speak to someone from Portugal, their

common language will be English, same as for many other nations. In European business this

prevails even more. Knowledge of English language is needed almost for everyone who works in

corporate environment, the pressure for learning the language increased. English is no longer the

language of just top management of companies, lower management, engineers and even leading

blue-collars must be able to communicate with colleagues and customers all over the world and

English language is the most obvious means of communication. According to research conducted

by European commission 41 percent of the people speak English but only 29 percent are able to

speak well enough to carry on conversation. This result reports that there is a tendency that those

who are not able to follow the trend of international language may fall behind – either just

individuals or companies or even whole countries. Those workers who are able to speak English

have salaries about 25 percent to 35 percent higher than those who do not speak the language.

This gap was not so obvious few years ago when most of the business was done on local level

and knowledge of English languages was required only from those who were supposed to do

20

business at international level. Nowadays, in Europe are hundreds of multinational companies.

The spread of the companies started at the end of 80‟s and the beginning of 90‟s when the

European countries released their economy borders, it allows companies growth to other

countries. Europe is pushed toward one language also because of spread of new technology. In

the company KPNQwest is set up a rule where all e-mail communication must be written in

English, even between people of the same mother tongue. The CEO of the company explains this

rule that the communication often spreads through the corporate and you cannot omit anyone

from this string.

Europe can be divided according to knowledge of English language. Job applicants who do

not speak English have less opportunities to find job, some companies do not even consider

hiring these people, in certain positions such as secretary people may expect lower salary if they

find the job. As for the higher position English is not an option it is a requirement. The division,

according to English language, is seen in Europe economy. Sweden, the Netherlands, western

German and big cities such as Paris, Milan are considered to be the wealthy parts of Europe and

people who are living in these areas are able to speak English fluently. Regions such as

Mediterranean and Eastern Europe are considered as poorer part and they also have less people

who speak fluent English. These regions cannot gain the profit of foreign investments and jobs.

It has been proved that only 5-10 percent of workforces in Italian banks speak English. In case of

any of these banks merge with French or German banks very likely the language of these banks

will become English. Those people who do not speak English will get in risk to keep their jobs.

The English division is also age-division. Based on the research of the European Union, 67

percent Europeans in age 15 to 24 said they can speak English compared to 18 percent of those

who are in the age over 55. Employees in lower positions, usually those of manual work, can still

get the job and it is enough for them to know their native language. However, those who want to

achieve any good job positions, the English language and business English is must (Baker et al).

4.3 Aspects of Business English

Michael Nelson in his thesis wrote, searching for any noticeable features or aspects of

Business English there is one output; lack of any studies towards what business English is what

are specific features, most of the books deal with the practical part, how to teach business

English and they serve as learning books. It is very difficult to find any analysis. This is mostly

21

because teaching as well as learning business English is not usually done at university but at

language schools. Language schools usually do not have time and money that could be spend on

such a research. He also stated: “Business English teaching is a business, not an academic

pursuit.“ Moreover it is very difficult to obtain any valid data as part of the business talk is meant

to be companies secrecy and they do not allow anyone to reveal it as the intellectual property of

companies are very precious (Nelson, 57).

In further investigation of books that deal with the subject of teaching business English,

there is found few words, usually at the beginning of books what business English is. Sylvia

Donna although she entitled her chapter 1.2 „What is business English?‟ she did not state any

linguistic definition. The chapter mostly answers questions what is needed to be ready for when

teaching business English. Where courses may take place, what the length is, who the learner is

going to be. She also mentioned what is special about business English. However, this is also

related to learner attitude towards studying business English, such as learners‟ real life

experience or urgent need to learn due to work requirements. She also explains the difference

between classes of Business English and classes of English as a foreign language (Donna, 2). In

contrary of Donna, Frendo deals with question what is special about business English more

thoroughly. He clearly answers the question: “In short Business English is communication with

other people within a specific context“ (Frendo, 1). According to him users of business English

are those who using the language in their business needs. People in business need to negotiate,

cooperate, persuade, explain things a understand each other; however everything is related to

their job. He also copes with questions who are learners of English, people who need to know

language for very specific purpose on one side. However, people who just want their English in

general get better on the other side (Frendo, 1). Jones and Alexander are more precise in the area

of Business English. They clearly defined: „it is simply English used in business situation.

(Jones, Alexander 1) They also quoted that every company and every department within these

companies use their own special terms therefore courses cannot cover all of specific vocabulary

but more only those who are basic and most common. Also these special terms are best learned

once people are „on the job„ (Jones, Alexander 1-2).

22

4.4 Writing in Global Business English

The most demanding job for business English is to be understood at international level. Not

every employee in the company is trained in the business English and in general English are

differences in knowledge among people. Global Business needs Global English. There is a clash

when native English speakers deals with non-native, therefore new Global Business English has

been introduced and it is recommended to be used once companies communicate worldwide.

Rachel McAlpine introduced book Global English for Global Business and recommended usage

of Global Business when companies are sending following worldwide: fax, letter, proposal,

report, all international business communication either written or spoken, and advertisements in

international publications, instructions and user-manuals for exported goods and all international

speeches and presentations (McAlpine, 106). The reason to use the Global Business English it

may save costs related to misunderstanding. Example of these savings can be following,

company sends out a letter that is misunderstood, just because it is written in difficult English,

this letter must be rewritten or sometimes client can change the meaning of letter and people

have to travel to explain this misunderstanding or it needs to be clarified over the phone, in all of

these cases costs to explain what was originally meant grows, therefore the profit of using pure

Global English is obvious (McAlpine, 4-6). McAlpine introduced few tips that should be

followed once writing in Global Business English.

Choose words with one clear meaning

It means words that do not have more than one meaning unlike words such as „while‟, „since‟ or

„as‟ those have at least two different meanings. Ideal words are those that have specific, definite

meaning or words that make sense alone. Avoidance of „miniwords‟ is crucial as these words

usually have more meaning or when they are read alone do not make any sense. „Miniwords‟ are

those words that have 3 letters or less, such as to, of, for, how, if, so, may, get, put, sit, go, let

(McAlpine, 13-22).

23

Verbs

In Global Business English it is better to use more verbs than nouns as verbs bring the action,

therefore use of action verbs is recommended. Among those verbs are following provide, reply,

spend, find, configure and many others. Phrasal verbs are very difficult to any non-native

English speaker therefore using of these verbs should be minimized. Finding meaning of those

verbs in dictionary is also difficult. It is recommended to use simple one verb instead. Modal

auxiliary verbs (may, might, could, can and others) are considered to be verbs that explain mood.

For foreigners it is very difficult to distinguish these ambiguities therefore rephrasing the

sentences may help foreigners to understand better and clearer the meaning (McAlpine, 22-31).

Idioms

Idioms are very difficult to be understood by non-native speakers. The expressions are used

without further logic. When translating them, non-native speakers must do it twice once into

literally forms and then into their own language. Although native speakers use them in everyday

conversation they should be avoided in Global English. If the avoidance is not possible then

idioms should be clearly explained (McAlpine, 31-37).

Short sentences

Short sentences are easily to be understood and read. Short sentences are considered to be those

that have maximum of 20 words, however sentences consist of 16 or fewer words are always

even better. Non-native speakers read slowly than native. Also native speakers read in their own

language in phrases therefore they are able to put more words in short-term memory, non-native

speakers read word by word. To link sentences it is useful to use transition words and phrases as

it helps readers to follow thoughts. Bullets also may help to reduce long sentences as many of

these can be subdivided into bullet points (McAlpine, 38-47).

Simple sentences

Simple sentence pattern, Subject, Verb, Object and Complement, is the easiest to be read by non-

native speakers. It is default pattern that is taught everywhere therefore non-native speakers are

very unlikely to get confused. Moreover, automatic translation software can deal with the

translation easily and so it can be easy to those who cannot understand English at all. Another

24

useful tip is put one idea per sentence. More ideas put into one sentence tend to confuse readers

or some of the ideas can be considered as less important (McAlpine, 38-53).

Elimination of „which‟ and „that‟

These words can cause trouble to foreign speakers as they change meaning with commas or

whether is used which or that. Complete elimination will also make sentences shorter and the

benefit is avoidance of any ambiguity (McAlpine, 55-56).

Avoid negative language

In any course book of Business English is highly recommended to use positive language.

Negative language can confuse even native speakers. English language apply rule that two

negative in one sentence form positive sentence whilst in other language it can stress negative.

Some languages also have no equivalent to negative structure in English and it is impossible to

be translated. In some culture saying negative things can be considered to be rude or aggressive.

Also answers to negative questions can differ by nations, as the logical answers can be yes in one

culture, no is expected in English language, this can cause misunderstanding (McAlpine, 57-58).

Date

When speaking about date at international level, we should be aware of what form we shall use.

The best possible solution is to write month in full (April) to avoid any confusion that the month

is considered to be day and vice versa (McAlpine, 75).

Use of aforementioned tips for Global Business English should avoid any future

misunderstanding and ease possible translation. Global Business English can be appreciated by

many of non-native speakers that must deal in Global Business and are kept being confused by

native speakers when using ambiguous words or idioms that are difficult to be understood.

Global business English will not solve the need of people to be able to communicate in English

and to have knowledge of English language; this may only help them to understand better to

native speakers.

Further the work deals with the position of English language and its knowledge in the Czech

Republic. What are the requirements from the side of employers and what employees may offer

to employers?

25

5 English language in the Czech Republic

In 2004, a research was conducted by „Národní ústav odborného vzdělávání‟. The research

focused on needs of employers and readiness of graduate to enter the job market. Knowledge of

foreign languages as a key ability was necessary for 60 percent of university graduates whilst

only 1% of those who leave vocational schools. Moreover, organizations that have more than

500 employees required this knowledge from 96 percent of university graduates, nearly the same

number 83,7 percent is seen in case of companies of less than 25 employees. Knowledge of

foreign language as a criterion to be hired as an employee for graduates is the second most

important after the required education. Researchers also asked employers if the knowledge of

graduates meets their criteria, employers claimed that in 58,5 percent there is lack of required

knowledge and recommended that schools should increase language abilities, especially

speaking and conversational part of knowledge (Kalousková et al.).

In 2011, Profesia.cz (Personnel Company) carried out research that proved the requirements

for knowledge of foreign languages. Most of the companies required active knowledge of

English language therefore they even advertised their job position in English to eliminate those

who do not understand the language at all. 67 percent of advertising companies required English

language in their job offers, in the first half of the year 2011. 21 percent of companies‟ required

German language. Requirements for other languages are rather rare and are needed mostly in

specialized jobs such as translators, lectors or those workers who will have to do business at

market in countries where people do not speak English or German; in numbers those

requirements are about 1 percent for Spanish, Italian, Russian or Hungarian language. According

to applicants English language is the most spread foreign language. Basic knowledge of English

language is declared by 56 percent of applicants (“Pokud neovládáte angličtinu, najít práci je

těžké”).

CzechInvest conducted research from different angle. In the year 2009 asked Czech

population about ability to speak any foreign language. 9 out of 10 people claimed that they are

able to speak at least one foreign language. Unfortunately Slovak language has not been

excluded, therefore the number got so high as 72,2 percent declared the knowledge of Slovak.

English language got to second stage with 61,3 percent of people who are able to use it. Only

16,1 percent said that they are fluent speakers of English. People living in Prague have the best

26

knowledge of English language, it is about 81,9 percent, South Moravia is considered to be on

the second place together with people from Pardubice and Hradec Králové (70 percent). Better

knowledge of English as well as German language have young people in the age between 18 to

29 and every fifth person use foreign language in job (“Průzkum: devět z deseti Čechů mluví

cizím jazykem”).

To sum up aforementioned research even though people‟s ability to speak English language

grows, there still differs the level that is required by employers and what applicants may offer.

Employers often encounter with insufficient knowledge of English. Time to time one can read

newspaper articles that deal with this problem. For example iDnes in different times inform

people the knowledge of English is required otherwise you may lose on job market. The need of

English language is required no matter what origin the company is. It used be a habit that

companies required English language even at job position that would never use the language.

However, nowadays the companies do not follow it and once it is stated the knowledge is

required than employee will use and encounter with the language at work ( Hudečková).

To support or disprove abovementioned researches I decided to carry out my own research.

The research is focused on multinational companies (corporations) where the ability to speak

English is expected.

27

6 English language in corporations

6.1 Introduction to research

The practical part of my thesis focuses on what is the reality of knowledge of English

language of Czech employees working in multinational corporations. Multinational corporations

are companies with separate legal entities that are registered and operate in more than one

country (“Multinational Corporation”). As these companies are usually spread worldwide and

have their headquarters in other countries there is expectation of high proficiency of English

language to be able to communicate either with colleagues in other countries or to report results

to headquarters.

The data were obtained from several companies that operate in the Czech Republic. The

companies were located either in Prague or in Brno. Though aspiring to cover as broad industry

categories as possible, received answers were mostly from companies that have their

specializations in information technology, telecommunications or finance; few answers were

from aviation, news agency and pharmaceutical company. According to division, if these

companies are specialized in service or research and development, this was equal.

When obtaining data, I have not asked any of these companies officially to use their name in

the thesis and so for reasons of confidentiality, I will not name any of the companies. The data

were received from many various companies but their specializations are somehow similar, I put

the companies for this research to three following groups. When speaking about companies in

group A, those are meant companies specialized in information technology, group B are the

companies specialized in telecommunication industry, group C are the companies that have their

specialization in finance, audit or taxation. As mentioned above I received few responds from

companies specialized in aviation, news agency and pharmacy, however respondents work in

these companies as experts either in information technology or in finance, therefore I will put

them to group A and C. Even though I grouped the companies accordingly, I worked with the

findings as a whole and did not subdivide them per these categories.

In numbers, I received 33 responses in total (Chart 1). Majority of the responses were from

telecommunication industry, 14 respondents, the other field that was covered are „IT‟ companies,

10 respondents. 6 respondents were from companies that deal with finance, audit and taxation, 3

28

respondents were from other industries, such as aviation, news agency and pharmaceutical

company.

Chart 1 – Industry categories according to number of responses

6.2 The Questionnaire

To obtain data method was chosen questionnaires. They were sent off to people working in

multinational corporations by e-mail and these people were supposed to distribute it further in

their work or to people whom they know that also work in corporations. Questionnaires were

written in Czech language as it was expected that they would be filled out mostly during

respondents working time. It was intended to make it as much comfortable as possible to

respondents and also to assure that answers would be sent back. Questionnaires were made to be

simple. Most of the questions were close-ended and respondents were supposed to tick right

answer in given scale according to their opinion. Last question in questionnaire was open-ended

and respondents were supposed to write the answer on their own. Main aim of questionnaires

was to discover the ability to speak English when working in multinational corporations and

whether there are any most frequent or unique phrases that are used by people across

corporations.

14

10

6

3

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Industry categories

Industry categories

29

First five questions were intended as warm-up questions to receive general information

about respondents and their background. Apart from gender and age were included questions

about job position and industry category of company they work in and whether the company use

English as a “company” (communicative) language. One of the aims of the questionnaire survey

was to give an overview of the importance of English at work. Respondents were asked to mark

on scale level of English language, importance of English language to their work performance

and how often they encounter with English language. Furthermore, to see how they assess

themselves the level of their English and what are the requirements of the company for their job.

Respondents indicated the language performance on a scale with the alternatives none, basic

(general), basic (limited to my work), Intermediate (general), Intermediate (specialized to my

field of work), Upper-intermediate (general), Upper-intermediate (specialized to my field of

work), Advanced at the level of native speakers.

The study primary deals with the real use of English at their work, three questions aimed at

obtaining this information through different types, if they understand all expressions that are

used at work, respondents were also asked about form of English language they usually

encounter with and in what kind of communication English is used. Another question of interest

was the ability to speak English. In an attempt to get a picture of this, one question was about

ability to communicate outside their work. In the hope of getting more detailed information

about particular expressions the last question was to write as many expressions as possible they

hear or use at their work most often. The expectations were to obtain any valid expressions that

are used in so called “corporate speak”, however the result was a little bit different. The results

will be explained in more details further in the thesis.

6.3 Obtained data

The survey addressed male and female workers in multinational corporations of different

age with various job positions. As it may be seen below 64 percent of respondents were male, 36

percent were female (Chart 2), in the age from 26 to 43. The job positions were really various,

however mostly can be considered as administrative or sales positions, if considered also

seniority of these positions in majority they were managers or seniors in their companies.

Majority of male respondents can be explained when considered that most of the respondents

were from telecommunication and IT companies where it is believed that male workers usually

30

prevail. In my opinion, relatively narrow age rank can be taken as a result of need of

understanding of English language in corporations. The research mentioned above has proved

that better knowledge of language has usually younger people; therefore it may explain the result

of age group.

Chart 2 – Gender division

To get a picture about level of English language of people working in multinational

corporations, respondents were supposed evaluate their knowledge themselves (Chart 3). I tried

to follow levels according to Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

However, I added further division if the knowledge is general or rather specialized to their field

of work. On the given scale they were supposed mark their level. Majority, 37 percent, of

respondents evaluate themselves as upper-intermediate with specialization to their field of work.

Equal number of people 18 percent considered themselves as intermediate and upper-

intermediate with general knowledge of English rather than specialized. Surprisingly, equal

number (18 percent) came out also from those who thought that their level of English is at the

level of native speakers. 9 percent of respondents evaluated themselves as intermediate rather

specialized to their field of work. None of the respondents considered himself/herself to have

64%

36%

Gender

Male

Female

31

none or basic level of English. When designing the questionnaire I did not expect anyone who is

working in multinational corporations where English language is, as further confirmed, presented

on regular basis to have lower knowledge than intermediate and this was confirmed.

Chart 3 – Self-evaluation of English language skills

Apart from the self-evaluation of English language knowledge respondents were supposed

to indicate the required knowledge for their job position from the side of their employers (Chart

4). According to this survey employers require either intermediate or upper-intermediate

knowledge. Mostly 30 percent of employers have the requirement of specialization to particular

field of work, 30 percent are satisfied with the general knowledge. However, none of the

employers require knowledge at the level of native speakers but also would not be satisfied with

someone who would have none or only basic knowledge even though limited to the field of

work.

0%

0%

0%

18%

9%

18% 37%

18%

Self-evaluation

None

Basic (general)

Basic (limited to my work)

Intermediate (general)

Intermediate (specialized to my

field of work)

Upper-Intermediate (general)

Upper-Intermediate (specialized

to my field of work)

Advanced at the level of native

speakers

32

Chart 4 – Requirements of companies

Apparently, respondents considered their English language skills to be better than it is

required from their employers. The figures gained from this survey are different from those

mentioned above in chapter 5 where employers mostly complained about knowledge of English

language. A probable explanation for this difference can be that surveys in chapter 5 were mostly

about applicants for job positions. However, this survey deals with employees who are on the job

positions already, which can mean that they were selected out of the applicants and therefore met

criteria given by employers. Moreover, self-evaluation need to be interpreted with caution as this

was only matter of respondents‟ personal feeling, there was not given any test which would test

the real knowledge therefore people could have underestimate or overestimate themselves.

The importance of knowledge of English language was previously mentioned when dealing

with research conducted by different institutions. The survey confirmed earlier indications of

importance of good knowledge of English language that were required from employers. More

than half of the respondents, 73 percent, stated the knowledge of English language is essential

0%

0%

0%

20%

30%

20%

30%

0%

Requirements

None

Basic (general)

Basic (limited to my work)

Intermediate (general)

Intermediate (specialized to my

field of work)

Upper-Intermediate (general)

Upper-Intermediate (specialized

to my field of work)

Advanced at the level of native

speakers

33

for their work, 27 percent claimed that it is important and none of the respondents said that

English is not important (Chart 5). These numbers may support previously mentioned statement

that once the company requires the knowledge of English language it is very probable that in the

job the knowledge will be essential or at least important to conduct the work.

Chart 5 – Importance of English language knowledge

The importance of knowledge goes together with frequency that respondents encounter with

English language at their work. Not unexpectedly, the results show that the vast majority, 82

percent, encounter with English on everyday basis, while just few respondents, 9 percent, either

several times a week or several times a month (Chart 6). That English is the language commonly

used at work can be supported when considered that 0 percent of the respondents indicated that

they do not encounter with English at all or on irregular basis.

0%

27%

73%

Importance

Not important

Important

Essential

34

Chart 6 – Encounter with English language

Since previous figures were primarily focused on importance of English language, a set of

following questions dealt mostly with the real use of English at workplace. First question

whether respondents understand expressions that are used at their work, 100 percent of them

answered that they understand entirely (Chart 7). This result can be very gratifying as it may

show that the employees are very good and do not have any problem to understand regardless

their level of English language. However, since the question of not-understanding is a sensitive

issue, the result should be considered with caution. To admit that you have a problem to

understand something in English could also mean that you are partly not competent to your

work. The interpretation of this question could also vary. One could mean it as understanding of

each word whilst others, and I would think this was the case of all the respondents, could

interpret it as a general understanding.

0% 0%

9%

9%

82%

Encounter

Never

Irregularly

several times in month

several times in week

every day

35

Chart 7 – Understanding of expressions used in communication

When considering the real use of English language it is important to know what form the

respondents mostly encounter with (Chart 8). In this question I focused on productive skills

(speaking and writing) and omit receptive skills (reading and listing) because I wanted to specify

it to active usage. Spoken and written form was further divided to formal and informal as closer

specification. Most of the respondents indicated all four forms written formal, written informal,

spoken formal, spoken informal. However, when considering each form individually, is not

surprising that they encounter mostly with written formal, 28 percent. Considering that this

research was conducted in business world this figure was expected. Further, and this is

surprising, respondents said that the least often form they encounter with is spoken formal, 22

percent. This could be interpreted that the business is mostly dealt in written form and when

speaking with business partners the spoken form is not so strictly given. It may be the result of

above figures dealing with level of English language skills. Spoken formal form can be

considered as more difficult as respondents usually do not have time to think what they say at

meetings same way as they have time to think about form when writing. Taken on account

another thing that the business can be done in English even when none of the sides comes from

English speaking country, usage of formality of language is disputable. As nobody can be aware

0% 0%

100%

Understanding of expressions

Do not understand

Understand partially

Understand entirely

36

what the formal spoken form should be like, therefore it may be easier to use rather informal

spoken form with certain politeness. Moreover, spoken informal form will be most likely used

among colleagues and in internal communication.

Chart 8 – Form of English language people mostly encounter with

Abovementioned internal communication hinted to another field the questionnaire focused

on when considering usage of English language. Whether English language is used by

respondents exclusively for internal communication, only within company or it is used also for

communication with customers (external communication) or both for internal as well as external

communication (Chart 9). This particular question should help understanding the previous one

about forms. According to my findings most of the respondents, 64 percent, use English for

internal as well as external communication. Not surprisingly, 27 percent of respondents claimed

that they use English only for internal communication. Interesting point is that 9 percent of

respondents said that they use the language only in communication with customers although at

the beginning they admitted that English is communicative language of their company. This can

be explained that communication was considered only as a productive skill (speaking, writing)

0%

28%

25%

22%

25%

Form of English language

Do not encounter

Written Formal

Written Informal

Spoken Formal

Spoken Informal

37

and listening and reading was not thought out. The consequence of such consideration can be the

result of order of questions. As the preceding question was about productive skills, so people

could misinterpret this one as focused on productive skills as well.

Chart 9 - Use of English in communication

To complete findings of the survey and further explore understanding of English by people

who encounter with English on regular basis in the workplace, the last but one question was the

one about ability to communicate in general, even outside their working environment. The

respondents were once more asked to evaluate the skill by themselves. They were supposed to

assess whether they are able to speak outside their work fluently, partially or if they are not able

to communicate at all or with difficulties. 61 percent of respondents considered themselves fluent

speakers, even outside their work. 36 percent said that they were able to communicate partially

and only 3 percent admitted that having difficulties speaking about other things than working

issues (Chart 10).

These findings can be compared to the chart of self-evaluation (Chart 3). According to me,

people that considered their level of English Upper-Intermediate and higher, regardless of their

27%

9% 64%

Use of English

Only within the company

(internal use)

In communication with

customers (external use)

Internal and external use

38

specialization should be able to communicate fluently even outside their working environment.

Therefore this number should be as high as 73 percent. However, few respondents could

underestimate themselves, as they feel more comfortable speaking about work and as a result

they could consider themselves as only partial speakers with ability to communicate only to

certain level. These people are mainly from the group that level of English is at intermediate

level plus few people from upper-intermediate level. The person who consider himself/herself to

have difficulties when speaking about other things than work would be found in the group of

people, whose English is at intermediate level but specialized to the field of work and they

probably do not feel comfortable speaking about other issues those related to their work. As

indicated in the previous self-evaluation chart there should be no one who is not able to

communicate at all, although the topic of conversation would not be related to their work, this

finding was proved as no one, 0 percent, indicated the not-at-all.

Chart 10 – Ability to communicate outside the work environment

0%

3%

36%

61%

Common Communication

Not at all

With difficulties

Partially

Fluently

39

6.4 Expressions used at work – “corporate speak”

Corporate speak, can be also referred as a corporate jargon. It is a language used in

corporations as well as government offices. It is considered to be a occupational variety of

English. Although it has not been clearly or officially defined, it is widely used in English-

speaking organizations (“Corporate jargon”).

On the internet it is not difficult to find web pages where people are making fun or do not

speak with pleasure about corporate speak. According to Amy Chulik once you are working in

the office it is very difficult not be touched by these words. She has mentioned the list of

unpopular corporate phrases. The first place belongs to „outside the box‟ 31 percent of

respondents of that survey marked it as the worst one. Next is „low-hanging fruit‟ 24 percent.

The third place is for „synergy‟ 23 percent (Chulik).

The aforementioned survey is very different from my survey. Last open-ended question of

my questionnaire was that respondents were supposed to write a few phrases and expressions

that they use or they see the most often at their work. I must say that as this was open-ended I

have not received the answers from all respondents, probably because they would have to spend

more time on this question. However, responses that I received were different from those I

expected when designing the questionnaire. It might be the result that corporate speak has not

been spread so widely outside the English native speakers‟ territory and as most of corporate

phrases are considered to be idioms. In my opinion, idioms are always difficult to be acquired by

non-native speakers as they can have a different meaning when translated into other languages or

non-native speakers may not know the meaning at all. Different results from those expected can

also be a consequence of the design of the question. The question was written in the following

way: “Please write down below the most frequent expressions in English language that you use

or see in your work. The more expressions written, the better it is. It is mainly about fixed

expressions and phrases. In case you do know Czech expression, please write it next to the

English one.” I asked for the translation to be able to further analyze it, in case I would not know

the phrase.

Those who responded to this question had written mainly expressions that they use at their

work and which are related to their field of work. Few respondents, especially those whom I got

40

a chance to speak to before they filled in the questionnaire wrote the expressions and phrases I

had meant - in the field of corporate jargon.

Analyzing expressions according to where and how they are used and what meaning they

have was easier to me as most of the expressions I know from my work. Few expressions

especially from information technology were unknown to me so I asked people who work in this

field to explain it to me. I also consulted a dictionary specialized to technical terms. I will not

analyze down all of the expressions I will always choose some that represents a group.

To list expressions that I received I would like to divide them into several groups. First

group would be expressions that I would consider to be a corporate jargon as people who are not

working in corporations may not know the meaning and it can be quite difficult to guess the

meaning. The sub-type or sub-group of this corporate jargon would be abbreviations since, based

on my experience, they are mostly used in written forms.

COB – close of business day

EOB – end of business day

MEC – month of closure

LOI – letter of intent

E2E – end to end

SPOC – single point of contact

These abbreviations apart from „SPOC‟ are used across corporations no matter what field of

industry the company belongs to. SPOC is used mainly in companies specialized in information

technology.

Another sub-type of corporate jargon would be phrases. According to MacMillan dictionary

the phrase is: “a group of words that are used together in fixed expression.” (“Phrase”) Phrases

are usually used across corporations the same way as abbreviations.

win-win

top down thinking

chair the meeting

drive result

face the challenges

urgent action needed

41

press on

focus on

to follow a process

to face an issue

have a clash

Few of these phrases or words should not probably be considered as purely corporate speak. For

example win-win is an adjective used in expression of win-win situation – is a situation in which

everyone benefits (MacMillan, “win-win”). Other expressions that do not belong to corporate

speak exclusively are press on, focus on or follow a process. However, on the other side, top-

down thinking I would consider as purely corporate jargon. The phrase means that someone

thinks about something in general level and then thinks further focusing on end-result. Chair the

meeting is another expression that would probably not be used outside corporations, people who

do not know this fixed phrase would more likely use „meeting leader‟ and instead of asking who

chairs the meeting, they would ask who leads the meeting. Drive result should probably be the

phrase drive for results which means work effectively to produce the best results possible. Face

an issue is an expression also rather used in working environment of corporations as people

outside this territory would more likely use to deal with an issue.

Second group of expressions I received are those that are used especially in written

communication. I assume, that nowadays most of the communication is done through e-mail

respondents probably send me expressions that they use in their everyday electronic

correspondence. These might be fixed phrases used in any written communication, not

exclusively in corporations. According to me, the phrases are usually written either as a greeting

or used to finish the e-mail. They all seem to have certain level of politeness.

Best regards,

Kind regards,

On behalf of

To whom it may concern

In regards to

Regarding,

In case of further question

42

Please contact me with any issues

Words or expressions which are used in companies in general, regardless the field of

industry the company represents, are put into third group. These are words used on everyday

basis.

meeting

deadline

schedule

training

call

survey

analysis

approval

strategy

report

follow-up

oki-doki

forecast

According to my experience, although all of these have their equivalent in Czech language,

Czech expressions are not used in corporate environment. I have observed my colleagues for a

few days and analyzed whether they use Czech words for any of the aforementioned. To be

honest, I have not heard anyone to say „jednání‟ instead of meeting or „mít hovor‟ instead of have

a call. The only word that is used in Czech is „schválení‟ for approval. Another impression I got

from my observance that my colleagues are sometimes unable to pronounce correctly some of

these words, for example schedule or analysis but they still insist on using the English

expressions rather than Czech.

43

The fourth group consists of words used in financial companies. These companies mostly

deal with finance analyses, audit or tax counseling. Expressions received from these respondents

were closely specialized to their field, however, some of these expressions, such as report or

analysis, I put to the third category as they were received from other companies as well.

corporate income tax return

tax depreciation

tax provisions and reserves

transfer pricing

post the journal

balance sheet

income statement

As it can be seen, these words are very closely specialized to financial matters of companies.

These expressions should be considered as business English rather than corporate English.

Expressions in the fifth group are those used in companies specialized in information

technology or used by people who work on the position of IT experts in other companies. In my

opinion, these expressions are more considered to be technical terms and should not be classified

as corporate speak as well.

switch

router

network

firewall

security

cloud computing

application

Point-to-Point, Point-Multipoint

Interesting point about these terms is that most of them got different or similar from their

original, once considered to be a technical term. For example: switch according to MacMillan

Dictionary is “a change from one thing to another” or “something such as button or a key that

controls the electrical supply to a light, piece of equipment, machine, etc.” (“Switch”) while in

technical terms as found in technical terms dictionary a switch “is used to network multiple

44

computers together.” Actually, its function was to switch from workstations to the mainframe

computer and between workstations so the concept involves both switching and networking

though this is not reflected in the name (“Switch”). In original meaning the switch changing one

thing to another in technical term it is connecting things together. Another example can be given

by Firewall. The word originally referred to a real brick wall that was built to enable fire to

spread from one place in the building to another. (MacMillan, “firewall”) The term is used in

information technology for a similar purpose. “A computer firewall limits the data that can pass

through it and protects a networked server or client machine from damage by unauthorized

users.” (TechTerms, “Firewall”). When used in both environments technical as well as non-

technical it servers to protect one thing from another. Some terms, in my case, a compound

„cloud computing’, does not refer to anything outside the technology environment. Cloud

computing is a neologism and it refers to on-line applications and services. (TechTerms, “Cloud

computing”) In non-technical environment to get an idea what it means we would have to

separate cloud and computing and still as a compound it would not make any sense to us.

According to me division of technical terms7 can be made into three categories: the first

category where the meaning in non-technical and technical environment is similar, the second

category where the meaning is different and the third category would be words or compounds

that do not have any meaning in non-technical terminology.

7 Terminologies often add more terms by shift of meaning, i.e. semantic neologism

45

7 Conclusion

It was the spread of political and economic power over the centuries and computer

technology over the last few decades that have contributed to increase in the number of people

who speak English. English speakers mainly come from business environment. More than ever

before, being able to speak English means getting better job opportunities and earning more

money. As the world is becoming more global, the need for global language is becoming more

urgent. English serves as a global language nowadays.

Due to the fact that even in the Czech Republic and increasing number of companies have

their corporate language English and that knowledge of English seems to be taken for granted in

the process of employing people, a major question in this study is what is the knowledge of

English language of people working in corporations? In what situation and context English

language is mainly used and also to find expressions that are either used across corporations or in

some industry specialization.

The findings of the survey may not be as surprising as expected. It is interesting to note that

although employers complain about their employees‟ knowledge of the English language, people

in my survey evaluate themselves not lower than intermediate level of English knowledge. In

majority of the cases the respondents claimed that their proficiency in English is higher than

required by their employer. Nevertheless, all of the respondents claimed that the knowledge of

English is either important or essential for their work, which would confirm the requirement

from the side of employers. Further, all of the respondents admitted that they understand all of

the expressions they use to conduct their job and a vast majority of them are also able to

communicate fluently outside their work environment.

If we took these people as a sample of population in the Czech Republic it would mean that

majority of people living in the Czech Republic are advanced in their English language

knowledge. However, my survey was focused on minority of population of the Czech Republic

as most of the respondents were educated young people, usually with a university degree. They

work in white-collar positions in multinational companies. Therefore, these findings must not be

taken as a measure of the whole population.

Focusing on the second aim, which was to prove that people in multinational companies use

specific expressions difficult to be fully understood by people outside these companies, I must

46

admit that this aim was fulfilled only partly. I received few expressions that are apparently used

across corporations, but most of the words and collocations are specific and related to the field of

work of each respondent. Moreover, when looking on the Internet I was able to find more

specific idioms than those delivered by the respondents. This can be the result of their not-

understanding either my task in the questionnaire or that fixed phrases are not being used in the

environment of corporations in the Czech Republic.

While working on my thesis, I have come across several problems as multinational

companies seem to be new phenomena. There have not been many resources that would

explicitly fit my topic. In the future, it would be also interesting to analyze both the written

documentation as well as emails along with the spoken interaction of people in corporations and

to further investigate the knowledge of English language among these people.

47

Résumé:

This bachelor thesis deals with English as a Global language with primary focus on English as a

corporate language. The theoretical part is devoted to research and summary of English

becoming a lingua franca, spread of the English over the centuries, across the world and also

what may happen with the language in future. Further the work deals with aspects of English in

business. The main goal in the practical part is to demonstrate the knowledge of English

language of people working in corporations and discover any specific expressions that are used

by these employees.

Resumé:

Bakalářská práce se zabývá anglickým jazykem jako pojmem pro jazyk globální, prvotním cílem

je analýza jazyka jakožto komunikačního prostředku v korporátních společnostech. Teoretická

část se věnuje zjištěním a zhodnocením angličtiny jako jazykem univerzálním , šířením jazyka

v průběhu století, ale i šířením celosvětovým, potažmo evropským. Práce se rovněž zabývá

budoucností anglického jazyka a jeho užitím v podnikání. Hlavním cílem praktické části je

poukázat na znalost anglického jazyka osob pracujících v mezinárodních společnostech a zjistit

charakteristické výrazy používané zaměstnanci těchto společností.

48

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Offenders.”Career Builder. CareerBuilder.com, 6 Dec. 2012. Web. 15 Apr. 2012.

<http://thehiringsite.careerbuilder.com/2011/12/06/coaxing-outside-the-box-back-in-the-worst-

corporate-jargon-offenders/>

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Print.

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Graddol, David. English Next London: The British Council, 2006. Print

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Graddol, David, Dick Leith, and Joan Swann. English: history, diversity and change London:

Open University, 2006. Print.

Hinse, Andrew. “Get Your International Business Terms Right.” CBS. CBS Interactive Inc., 7

June 2007. Web. 1 Apr. 2012. < http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-28040297/get-

your-international-business-terms-right/?tag=bnetdomain>

Hudečková, Kamila. “Bez znalosti angličtiny jste na pracovním pohovoru out.” iDnes. Mafra,

a.s., 3 Mar. 2010. Web. 7 Apr. 2012 <http://finance.idnes.cz/bez-znalosti-anglictiny-jste-na-

pracovnim-pohovoru-out-pjs-/podnikani.aspx?c=A100225_1341813_zamestnani_hru>

“Issues Global.” The History of English. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2012

<http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/issues_global.html>

Jenkins, Jenifer. English as a lingua franca: attitude and identity. Oxford: Oxford University

Press, 2007. Print.

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skills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992. Print.

Kalousková et. al. “Potřeby zaměstnavatelů a připravenost absolventů pro vstup na trh práce –

2004.” Národní ústav odborného vzdělávání. NÚOV, n.d. Web. 7 Apr. 2012. PDF file

<http://www.nuov.cz/uploads/Vzdelavani_a_TP/potreby_zamestnavatelu_04.pdf>

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Britannica Inc., 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2012.

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/342377/lingua-franca>

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"Multinational Corporation (MNC)” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

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<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/397067/multinational-corporation>.

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52

List of charts

Chart 1 – Industry categories according to number of responses ................................................. 28

Chart 2 – Gender division ............................................................................................................. 30

Chart 3 – Self-evaluation of English language skills .................................................................... 31

Chart 4 – Requirements of companies .......................................................................................... 32

Chart 5 – Importance of English language knowledge ................................................................. 33

Chart 6 – Encounter with English language ................................................................................. 34

Chart 7 – Understanding of expressions used in communication ................................................. 35

Chart 8 – Form of English language people mostly encounter with............................................. 36

Chart 9 - Use of English in communication .................................................................................. 37

Chart 10 – Ability to communicate outside the work environment .............................................. 38

53

Appendix

English as a Corporate Language

Anglický jazyk – jazyk korporátních společností

1. Pohlaví:

Muž

Žena

2. Věk:

3. Pracuji na pozici:

4. Společnost, ve které pracuji, působí v oboru:

5. Společnost, ve které pracuji má angličtinu jako komunikativní jazyk:

Ano

Ne

6. Znalost anglického jazyka je pro výkon Vašeho povolání:

Nedůležitá

Důležitá

Nezbytná

7. Moje úroveň znalosti anglického jazyka je:

Žádná

Základní (obecná)

Základní (omezená - nezbytná pro můj obor)

Středně pokročilá (obecná)

Středně pokročilá (specializovaná pro můj obor)

Pokročilá (obecná)

Pokročilá (specializovaná pro můj obor)

Velmi pokročilá na úrovni rodilý mluvčí

8. Požadavek společnosti, ve které pracuji, na úrovni jazyka pro mou profesi je:

Žádná

Základní (obecná)

Základní (omezená - nezbytná pro můj obor)

Středně pokročilá (obecná)

Středně pokročilá (specializovaná pro můj obor)

Pokročilá (obecná)

54

Pokročilá (specializovaná pro můj obor)

Velmi pokročilá na úrovni rodilý mluvčí

9. Při výkonu svého povolání se setkávám s anglickým jazykem:

Nikdy

Nepravidelně

Několikrát měsíčně

Několikrát týdně

Každý den

10. Anglickým výrazům používaným při výkonu svého povolání používané v rámci komunikaci:

Nerozumím

Rozumím částečně

Rozumím zcela

11. S angličtinou se většinou setkávám ve formě:

Nesetkávám

Písemné formální

Písemné neformální

Mluvené formální

Mluvené neformální

12. Angličtinu používám v komunikaci

Pouze v rámci společnosti (interní účely)

V komunikaci se zákazníky (externí účely)

Interní i externí účely

13. V anglickém jazyce jsem schopen komunikovat i v běžné (mimopracovní) komunikaci:

Vůbec

Obtížně

Částečně

Plynule

14. Níže prosím uveďtě nejčastější výrazy v anglickém jazyce, které ve své práci používáte nebo vídáte.

Jde zejména o ustálené výrazy a fráze. V případě, že znáte nebo existuje český výraz uveďte jej

prosím vedle anglického:

Prosim o zaslani na adela.pilatova@gmail.com