| Abstract:
Intercultural
communication in contemporary business world relies increasingly on e-mail,
the language of which is predominantly English. This should also be reflected
in the contents of Business Communication courses. The present paper discusses
a Sino-Finnish international e-mail pilot project conducted between university
students. The project was made possible by a researcher/teacher exchange
scheme, and it aimed to reform and improve Business Communication teaching.
The paper first introduces the background to the international e-mail
project, and this is followed by a progress report on the project implementation.
In conclusion, the paper argues for the significance of project such as
this, for teaching Business Communication in English and suggests improvements
both for the implementation and follow up of the project. Its limited
focus on the Chinese experience will be complemented in the future by
an account of the Finnish experience.
Introduction
English Business Communication has traditionally been a staple course
of tertiary EFL business curriculum. Its primary objective has traditionally
been to prepare university students of Business studies to communicate
effectively and efficiently with people with different language backgrounds
in international business interactions. From the exponential growth and
widespread use of e-mail as a medium of communication in the corporate
world and also the overall globalization of business follows that present
Business Communication courses often need updating to accommodate the
changes in the social context. The purpose of the present paper is to
introduce a Sino-Finnish e-mail exchange project conducted between Shandong
University, China and the University of Vaasa, Finland. The primary aim
of the project was to introduce a teaching tool for tertiary Business
Communication courses. In what follows, I will first introduce the background
to the e-mail project and follow this with a progress report on the project
implementation. In conclusion, the paper argues for the significance of
such projects for teaching Business Communication and suggests improvements
both for the implementation and follow up of the project. The present
paper focuses on the Chinese experience and is to be complemented in future
by an account of the Finnish experience.
Business Communication Textbooks
Despite the abundance of material for the teaching of Business English
in the 1990s (cf. St John 1996, p. 3), there are very few Business English
textbooks for tertiary education, which would meet the needs of the new
skills required by the corporate workplace. In their aim to cover the
widest possible market, they aim at wide applicability by presenting standard
solutions to standard problems. In this?they usually rely on narrowly
defined cultural competence, whose model comes from the Western, and more
typically North American praxis.
Mainstream textbooks in the 1980s typically rely on sample letters and
sample phrases to be used in 'standard' situations (Jenkins & Hinds
1987, p. 328). Business communication is taught as a mechanical skill
that can be learned through specimen letters and 'fossilized' phrases.
The trend runs into the 1990s, and business communication is still too
often treated as a store of phrases and idioms separate from the actual
business world and professional skills (Louhiala-Salminen, 1996, p. 50).
Writing guidelines given in Business Communication textbooks have not
changed much either. In the 1980s, Business Communication textbooks, which
at that time were often called business correspondence textbooks (e.g.
Kansi & Malmiranta, 1983), used to point out the three C's of courtesy,
clarity and conciseness as the golden rules for business writing. Moreover,
the C's, which can be extended up to seven in number (clearness, conciseness,
courtesy, consideration, completeness, concreteness, correctness) , are
still highlighted either explicitly or implicitly in more recent western
textbooks (e.g., New International Business English, Jones & Alexander,
1992; Ober, 1998; Kankaanranta & Nordlund, 1998). This is the case
also in most textbooks used in the Chinese tertiary curriculum (Wang,
1995; Yin & Guo, 1998). In some recent books in the West, however,
the C's have been replaced by acronyms, such as KISS (keep it short and
simple), and CBS (clear, brief, sincere) (cf. e.g. Moon, 1999 and Louhiala-Salminen,
1999).
The emphasis on conciseness in business communication originates from
North America and it takes the North American praxis as a standard (Pan
et al., 2002). This praxis, however, is not universally applicable to
situations with interactants from other cultural backgrounds. It is a
mistake to attempt to standardize professional communication, while in
the era of escalating changes, "a really effective and practical
approach to professional communication in international settings is ?…?to
learn how to learn directly from the people with whom we need to interact"
(Pan, et al., 2002, p. 4, their italics). The Sino-Finnish e-mail project
aimed to provide the students at Shandong University, China and Finnish
university students in the University of Vaasa with the opportunity to
do this, to learn from the people with whom they needed to interact.
E-mail in the Corporate World: Some Studies
The teaching of Written Business Communications should respond more flexibly
to changes in the choice of the media of corporate communication. The
course input needs to be updated so as to better equip the students with
skills required by their future jobs. Unfortunately, the textbooks used
in teaching Business Communication often lags behind. One of the reasons
for this may be the lack of research into corporate e-mail.
A recent survey (Louhiala-Salminen, 1999, p. 96) conducted in Finland
has shown that e-mail has increased from only 9% in 1992 to 30% in 1998,
while the share of letters and faxes has declined from 27% down to 20%,
and from 54% down to 45% respectively. In consequence, the survey also
establishes a trend towards increasing informality of the language, which
is also supported by other studies (e.g. Gimenez, 2000). The cline from
formal to informal style in written business communication is illustrated
by Figure 1. (from Gimenez 2000, p. 250). The cline shows a shift from
informal to more formal style as we move from personal e-mails/letters
to legal documents. For example, business letters can be very formal as
compared with commercial e-mails and business telexes and faxes as well.
Informal......................................................................Formal
Personal |
Academic |
Commercial |
Telexes |
Business |
Legal |
emails |
emails |
emails |
faxes |
letters |
documents |
letters |
|
|
|
faxes |
|
Figure 1. The Style Flexibility Cline in Written Communication
(see pdf file and ms word)
Despite their wide use, corporate fax and e-mail messages have not received
much attention among researchers. This is probably due to the fact that
companies tend to classify their written business communication as confidential.
Although some research has been conducted into faxes (Yli-Jokipii, 1994;
Louhiala-Salminen, 1996; Akar & Louhiala-Salminen, 1999), e-mails
still remain very much a novelty in research into business communication.
Teachers of Business Communication have to rely largely on the analyses
of fax messages for their teaching of how to communicate through e-mail.
Some characteristics of fax messages can indeed be assumed to be similar
to those of e-mail messages. In her study of requests, Yli-Jokipii (1994,
p. 40) describes fax messages as highly sensitive to the situation, the
power status of the interactants, and the physical qualities of the messages.
Faxes are 'unconstrained', lacking any distinctive form, since diverse
materials, such as pictures, graphs, drawings, and also hand-written notes,
can be transmitted by fax. Yli-Jokipii further contends that the sensitivity
to rhetorical requirements in fax messages is low: they tend not to contain
introductory paragraphs preceding the request to the same extent as traditional
business letters do. All these features, with the exception of the transmission
of pictures and graphs, apply to e-mail messages as well. A comparison
of Turkish and Finnish fax messages suggests that both are characterized
by high intertextuality, sentence fragments, technical abbreviations,
and well-defined interactants (Akar & Louhiala-Salminen, 1999, p.
220). A new set of conventions is thus being outlined for this medium
of communication, many of which we can assume to characterize e-mail as
well.
Although e-mail messages have entered the workplace in the 1990s, research
into the characteristics of this medium has so far elicited little information.
Some features have, however, been outlined as characteristic of the language
of e-mail. E-mail represents a hybrid combination of spoken and written
language (Gimenez, 2000, pp. 237-251). In internal communication, e-mails
tend to be stylistically close to a writing-based telephone 'talk'; in
external communication, they tend to be similar to faxes and letters.
The stylistic pendulum swings from the formality of business letters to
the informality of e-mails (cf. Crystal, 2001, p. 64). A well-designed
e-mail project can thus make students more sensitive to the characteristics
and use of the new medium and stylistically to the relaxed formality of
e-mail messages. Ideally it can also increase the students' awareness
of the importance of cultural competence in the interaction. In addition,
it provides an opportunity for the teacher to complement the Business
Communication textbooks with practice one of the most important media
of the contemporary business world.
Cultural Competence and the Teaching of Business Communication
English as the lingua franca of international business communication is
used more between non-native English speakers than native English speakers
(Louhiala-Salminen 1996, p. 44). Moreover, English is often shaped by
the context, and the different Englishes, for example, Euro-English (AcArthur,
2003) and China English (Jiang, 2003) are gaining more recognition. Against
this background, it is important that Chinese and Finnish university students
can be exposed to different "Englishes". Language is, however,
only part of the entire culture and linguistic competence only part of
our cultural competence.
Cultural competence is receiving increasing attention in foreign language
education and communication studies. Haney (1979, p. 285) contends that
misunderstanding in intercultural communication is caused, most importantly,
by bypassing, the miscommunication pattern, which occurs when communication
fails between the sender (speaker, or writer) and the receiver (listener
or reader) because of the absence of general agreement, egocentric interpretation
or self-assertive conception.
Cultural competence is an important aspect of both the pedagogy and research
of business communication. In addition to introducing a new teaching tool,
the Sino-Finnish e-mail project was therefore also designed to provide
material for my doctoral research into the role of cultural competence
in Sino-Finnish e-mail messages. The inaccessibility of corporate e-mail
messages will thus be partly compensated for in the message data by e-mail
messages of Finnish and Chinese students of Business Communication.
International E-Mail Project as a Teaching Tool
International e-mail projects have been used increasingly and beneficially
in communication and language education (e.g., MacDonald et al., 1995;
Warschauer, p. 1995). In addition to these, the Sino-Finnish project was
also inspired by studies of e-mail exchange for intercultural perceptions
(Meagher & Castanos, 1996; Ma, 1996; Guest & Lovejoy, 1997). The
project was designed to combine English language learning and intercultural
communication in the context of international business negotiations. The
aim was to update the instructional contents and method of the written
Business Communication course and the advantages were assumed to include:
1) an opportunity to simulate international business negotiations in English
via e-mail and gain "authentic" experience of a situation where
English was used between non-native speakers with different cultural backgrounds;
2) to raise the students' consciousness of rhetoric strategies and language
needed in different situations; and 3) to improve their communication
and language skills. The assumption was that university students in both
cultures were motivated to use their knowledge of English and international
business to "perform" assigned tasks in a business situation.
Preparation and Planning
The project aimed to place students in an 'authentic' business situation,
where they 'perform' a series of business negotiation tasks with their
business partners. Such a case-based approach has been suggested as "the
most suitable means for learning about communication in business"
(Louhiala-Salminen, 1996, p. 50), and it was thus adopted also in the
present project design. Two imaginary companies, one Finnish and the other
Chinese were assumed to be in the process of striking a business deal.
In order to enhance the feel of "authenticity", the Chinese
company Zhi4Mei3 Furniture Accessories Co. Ltd. and the Finnish company
Pohjanmaan Kalustetehdas Oy were given detailed contact information, including
culturally-loaded names, postal addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers,
e-mail addresses and websites. From the pedagogical point of view, attention
was given to careful outlining of the business situation and topics that
the students were supposed to be able to handle. The briefing emphasized
that the inquiry from the Finnish company presented a rare business opportunity
for the Chinese company. In consequence, the Chinese company was supposed
to seize this opportunity and aim to maintain the relationship for the
future business. The exchange of e-mails constructed a continuous communication
chain, from request, reply to request, order, order acknowledgement, to
complaints and adjustments. The project participants were expected and
encouraged to consider what, and how to communicate in the particular
situation.
Since students were assumed not to have prior work experience, instructions
were given in the form of a checklist for their reference in e-mail composition.
Checklists were constructed on the basis of recent genre analysis research
into business writing, which aims to explain why writers make certain
linguistic and rhetorical choices (dos Santos, 2002) and some textbooks
(Berntzen & O'Gorman, 1990; Ashley, 1992; Ober, 1992).The checklists
outlined the moves typical of different types of e-mails, and the rationale
was to familiarize the students with the syntactic and rhetoric patterns
of e-mails (Swales, 1990; Bhatia, 1993) and raise their sensitivity to
the rhetorical structures that tend to recur in genre-specific texts (See,
e.g., Swales, 1990, p. 213). As checklists were seen to be important for
the students' understanding of their L2 environments, and they encouraged
them to see business communication as a set of moves. The moves were not
made obligatory in order to allow for flexibility and innovation needed
in emerging business situations, as is also the case in the actual business
world. This orientation allows students to take initiative, which is not
traditionally emphasized in the teaching of Business Communication.
Practical Arrangements
Preparatory measures were needed to overcome some practical problems.
Firstly, different curriculum arrangements in the two universities needed
attention. English Business Communications is offered in the autumn term
for an average class of 15 students for 10 double-hour sessions at Vaasa
University, whereas it is offered in the spring term for a group of 130-plus
students for 17 triple-hour sessions at Shandong University. Chinese university
administrators made therefore an effort to arrange this program to be
given in the multimedia room use and to convert program lectures to regular
curriculum lectures. Secondly, to make the Chinese group compatible with
their Finnish counterpart group, 15 Chinese students were chosen from
a class of fourth-year students from the Department of International Trade
to take part in the project. They had completed their Business Communication
course and were to participate in the project in their free time for no
credit points. These 15 Chinese students were randomly arranged into pairs
with the 15 Finnish students.
Project Implementation
The pilot project extended over a time span from October to November 2003.
In the implementation stage, some problems emerged.
The first problem concerned the incorrect reading of e-mail addresses.
Although the list of e-mail addresses were exchanged at the very beginning,
it was difficult for teachers to monitor if the participants had actually
managed to establish contact with each other. There were, for example,
problems in sending messages to some of the Chinese participants because
their e-mail addresses had been read incorrectly. Unlike the Finnish students
who all used the university e-mail host, the Chinese students had several
e-mail hosts. Also their e-mail addresses were not always read correctly
by the teacher because of their individual writing styles in giving their
contact information.
The second problem was caused by the timing of the project. The Business
Communication e-mail project was an 'intruder' course for the Chinese
students, as it took place in the last two months before the Master's
Degree entrance examination and some other examinations. The majority
of the Chinese university students fail to attend even some obligatory
classes, as they need get time for their entrance examination or the English
Proficiency test they need to take for overseas studies. The class managed
to meet only twice. In the first meeting, only some half of the students
was present. In the second meeting, which aimed to discuss the content
of the project, again only half of the participants attended the class,
as something else had coincided with the meeting.
Overall, project assignments were announced and e-mailed to the Chinese
participants at proper intervals to follow the course delivery pace in
Vaasa. Reading materials, including effective e-mail writing strategies
and two sample e-mails to highlight the cultural impact on intercultural
business communication?were provided by the Chinese teacher.
Post-Project Feedback
As the project was expected to produce pedagogical benefits in providing
the students with testing ground for their learning, a small-scale survey
was conducted among the Chinese participants to get their feedback. At
the end of the project, the Chinese participants were asked to submit
their e-mail messages (they had been informed about this request already
at the beginning of the project), both incoming and outgoing, and to complete
a questionnaire, as well as to write a 200-300-word (English or Chinese)
commentary on the project design and their experiences of the project.
Six replies were received from the Chinese group of 15 students. Five
of these had interacted successfully with their Finnish partners and one
student had not managed to establish a contact with her Finnish counterpart.
The low feedback percentage may be due to the problems in establishing
the e-mail contacts, and only those who had succeeded submitted their
feedback.
A small-scale questionnaire was composed of four multiple choice questions.
For the first question, concerning the needed skills, four out of five
students listed the skills in the order of importance as 'practical knowledge
of the trade', followed by 'terminology or jargon' and 'competence in
the English language'. Only one student placed 'terminology or jargon'
before ''practical knowledge of trade'. The implications for the classroom
activities of this are clear. The focus of traditional textbooks on accuracy,
set phrases, useful expressions, and syntactic construction needs to be
shifted to business writing as a process where students are encouraged
to interpret and analyze 'situations' in order to find solutions. This
must be supported by their knowledge of business practices. The second
question concerned the relevance of cultural competence for their business
interaction. Three out of five answered 'none' and two picked the category
of 'a little'. The limited range of tasks in their e-mail exchange was
given as a possible reason. None of the students felt that cultural difference
played a significant role in their interaction with their Finnish partners.
The usefulness of a genre-based checklist, as a guide to their letter
composition, monitored by the third question, was confirmed as expected.
Four out of five respondents picked the category 'necessary' and one picked
'very necessary'.
In order to get their opinion and attitude towards the project, the fourth
question concerned reasons for a possible dropout from the project, that
is, had they considered dropping out, what would have been the reason.
Four out of five picked the option of 'their Finnish partner's inadequate
enthusiasm' and one 'no regular access to internet'. None of the students
suggested the lack of interest in the project as a possible reason for
dropping out.
The Chinese respondents described the e-mail project as a 'rare' or 'precious'
opportunity. The advantages included: 1) applying their English language
and business learning; 2) communicating with a non-native English speaker
with a different cultural background; 3) improving their e-mail writing
skills; 4) developing the feel of an international business community;
5) learning about their partner's culture.
The time frame was regarded as the biggest problem. Three of the five
respondents were busy preparing for their entrance examination and the
other two were busy with their application for overseas studies. To improve
the project, they suggested having the time frame rescheduled before October
to overlap their course of EFL business communication. One participant
also suggested a credit system to boost and maintain the participants'
enthusiasm. One participant complained about the limited number of writing
tasks. In sum, all students appreciated this opportunity and agreed it
should be made a part of the studies of international trade.
Students' E-Mail Messages
The small e-mail corpus reveals that the participants had a clear idea
of the difference between formality of business e-mails and informality
of personal e-mails. Also, the corpus suggests that students take initiative
as the project gave rise to new unexpected topics. For example, efforts
were made to sort out a misunderstanding of a date either as the shipment
date or delivery date. Another example could be the suggestion made by
one Finnish student to have the Finnish text and the Finnish logo attached
to the Chinese labels.
Problems and Solutions
The main problems in the pilot project lay in the implementation stage,
in particular, the exchange of e-mail addresses and the weak functional
role of the teachers as monitors and facilitators. Posting and carrying
out the project on a WebCT environment could solve most of these problems.
A WebCT course setting would enable teachers to post lectures online and
have students' activities under full control.
With reference to the feedback from the Chinese students, more writing
tasks would be needed. The time frame of the course should be rescheduled,
for example, a month earlier or it could be fitted into the course homework
of Business Communication for the 3rd year students. The construction
of the dyads may need more careful consideration; for examples, same-sex
or different-sex pairs or dyads with similar hobbies may enhance the intensity
of correspondence. Last but not least, feedback from both sides needs
to be obtained and studied to improve the e-mail project.
Concluding Remarks
As emphasized at the beginning, the international e-mail project was designed
as an innovation to improve EFL Business Communication teaching and learning.
Administrators at both ends were needed in its successful implementation?without
them, the project would not have developed so far. The enthusiasm of the
participants was another guarantee of the success of the project. Student
participation was self-monitored and thus depended on their motivation
and willingness to take responsibility. The post-project feedback gives
strong evidence of the potential pedagogical benefits of the e-mail project.
The benefits of the student-centered teaching, situation-centered learning
and process writing have for long been acknowledged, and promoted as elements
of business communication teaching. The participants of the international
e-mail project assumed professional roles to 'negotiate' and get things
done. In doing so, written communication was no longer perceived by students
as a skill that can be learned through sample letters, translation work
and set phrases. This has been the traditional approach to the learners
of business communication and still is so, for example, in the new Chinese
textbook of English Business Communication (Hu, forthcoming). Instead,
students were focusing on messages and adjusting their behaviors accordingly.
The present paper argues for international cooperation as a way to improve
English Business Communication teaching. On the basis of the participants'
contribution and feedback, the potential pedagogical value of an international
e-mail exchange course is undeniable. In conclusion, the international
e-mail exchange project provides an effective way to bridge the gap between
classroom activities and the dynamic fast-changing business environment.
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