Introducing Business Presentations to Non-Native Speakers of English: Communication Strategies and Intercultural Awareness

Authors

  • Juan Carlos Palmer Silveira

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13136/2281-4582/2019.i13.287

Keywords:

Linguistics, BELF

Abstract

For fourteen years, students enrolled in the Master Program in English Language for International Trade have had to cope with the use of English as a Lingua Franca in business settings. During this time, lecturers taking part in this program have paid attention to this important area of research from a discursive perspective, observing how students develop promotional presentations in the classroom, always considering that their audience is often formed by non-native speakers for whom English is not their mother tongue. In many instances, companies assume that English is a necessary tool for them in order to clinch a deal with a foreign counterpart, and that only those students who are able to use it appropriately will be able to find a good job in the future, being the global language used in order to work internationally.

A business presentation is an activity that deserves our study, as presenters have to be wise enough to get the audience’s attention from the very beginning. To do so they use a number of communication strategies, keeping in mind that they will probably be speaking in English in front of some other people who do not speak this language on a daily basis (Palmer-Silveira 2015). They have to understand that the message has to be concise and clear, maximizing their efforts to sound frank and truthful, and overcoming any problem that could arise regarding cultural differences between the person sending out the message and those receiving it.

In this paper, our aim is to analyse the way students introduce themselves and the company they work for to foreign customers, considering all those communication strategies followed, and paying special attention to the way they alter native-speaker norms. To do so we will analyse 81 presentations, all video-recorded in the last five editions of this master’s program (2013-14/2017-18). Students were video-recorded in order to later analyse the kind of multimodal elements used while introducing their presentations. Five elements have been analysed in order to study the type of multimodal resources used by students to perform these presentations. These were a) gaze; b) gestures; c) movements; d) intonation, pace and rhythm; and e) visuals.

Results will show that most students show a clear attitude towards intercultural awareness, understanding that clarity, simplicity and some basic communication strategies can help them deliver their message more appropriately to a non-native audience. That initial part of the presentation establishes the contact between sender and receivers, and the use of adequate strategies to communicate the message will help to overcome any intercultural problem.

References

Apelman, Vivianne. English at Work: The Communicative Situation of Engineers. Licentiate Thesis. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, 2010. Bailly, Gérard, Stephan Raidt, and Frédéric Elisei. “Gaze, Conversational Agents and Face-to-Face Communication.” Speech Communication, 52.6 (2010): 598-612. Bernad-Mechó, Edgar. A Multimodal Approach to Metadiscourse as an Organizational Tool in Lectures (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Castellón de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I, 2018. Calder, Andrew J., et al. The Oxford Handbook of Face Perception. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Cicala, John, Rachel Korthage Smith, and Alan J. Bush. “What Makes Sales Presentations Effective⎯A BuyerSeller Perspective.” Journal of Business and International Marketing, 27.2 (2012): 78-88. Crawford Camiciottoli, Belinda. “Elaborating Explanations during OpenCourseWare Humanities Lectures: the Interplay of Verbal and Nonverbal Strategies.” Multimodal Analysis in Academic Settings: from Research to Teaching Eds. Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli and Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez. New York: Routledge, 2015. 144-170. Crystal, David. English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Ekman, Paul. Emotions Revealed: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. New York: Times Books, 2003. Evans, Stephen. “Just Wanna Give You Guys a Bit of an Update: Insider Perspectives of Business Presentations in Hong Kong.” English for Specific Purposes, 32.4 (2013): 195-207. Gajšt, Nataša. “Business English as a Lingua Franca–A Cross-Cultural Perspective of Teaching English for Business Purposes.” ELOPE: English Language Overseas Perspectives and Enquiries, 11.2 (2014): 7787. Galloway, Nicola, and Heath Rose. Introducing Global Englishes. London: Routledge, 2015. Gerritsen, Marinel, and Catherine Nickerson. “Business English as a Lingua Franca.” The Handbook of Business Discourse. Ed. Francesca Bargiela-Chappini. Edimburgh: Edimburgh University Press, 2009. 180-194. Grayson-Riegel, Deborah, and Ellen Dowling. Tips of the Tongue: The Nonnative English Speaker’s Guide to Mastering Public Speaking. Oceanside, CA: Indie, 2017. Gurung, Regan A.R., et al. “Dressed to Present: Ratings of Classroom Presentations Vary with Attire.” Teaching of Psychology, 41.4 (2014): 349-353. Jewitt, Carey. Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London: Routledge, 2009. Kankaanranka, Anne, and Leena Louhiala-Salminen. “What Language Does Global Business Speak? – The Concept and Development of BELF.” Ibérica, 26 (2013), 17-34. Kendon, Adam. Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Kress, Gunther. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge, 2009. McNeill, David. Hand and Mind: What Gestures Reveal about Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Mehrabian, Albert. “Communication without Words.” Communication Theory. Ed. C. David Mortensen, London: Routledge, 2008. 193-200. Palmer-Silveira, Juan C. “Multimodality in Business Communication: Body Language as a Visual Aid in Student Presentations.” Multimodal Analysis in Academic Settings: from Research to Teaching. Eds. Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli and Inmaculada Fortanet-Gómez. London: Routledge, 2015. 171-192. ---. “Showing Power and Persuasion in Business Communication: The Corporate News Section in Websites and Social Media.” Power, Persuasion and Manipulation in Specialised Genres. Eds. María Ángeles Orts, Ruth Breeze, and Maurizio Gotti. Bern: Peter Lang, 2017. 285-310. Pittenger, Khushwant K.S., Mary C. Miller, and Joshua Mott. “Using Real-World Standards to Enhance Students’ Presentation Skills.” Business Communication Quarterly, 67.3 (2004): 327-336.
Poggi, Isabella and Catherine Pelachaud. “Persuasion and the Expressivity of Gestures in Humans and Machines.” Embodied Communication in Humans and Machines. Eds. Ipke Wachsmuth, Manuela Lenzen, and Guenther Knoblich Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. 391-424. Querol-Julián, Mercedes and Inmaculada Fortanet “Multimodal Evaluation in Academic Discussion Sessions: How Do Presenters Act and React?” English for Specific Purposes, 31.4 (2012): 271-283. Rogerson-Revell, Pamela. “Using English for International Business: A European Case Study.” English for Specific Purposes, 26.1 (2007), 103-120. Valeiras-Jurado, Julia. A Multimodal Approach to Persuasion in Oral Presentations. The case of Conference Presentations, Research Dissemination Talks and Product Pitches (Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation). Ghent: Ghent University, 2017. Valeiras Jurado, Julia, María Noelia Ruiz-Madrid, and Geert Jacobs. “Revisiting Persuasion in Oral Academic and Professional Genres: Towards a Methodological Framework for Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Research Dissemination Talks.” Ibérica, 35 (2018): 93-118. Yates, JoAnne and Wanda Orlikowski. “The PowerPoint Presentation and its Corollaries: How Genres Shape Communicative Action in Organizations.” Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations. Eds. Mark Zachry and Charlotte Thralls. New York: Baywood, 2007. 67-91. Zelazny, Gene. Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Downloads

Published

2019-06-01