Business Discourse across ‘cultures’: data selection, collection and analysis

Business Discourse across ‘cultures’: data selection, collection and analysis

Francesca Bargiela

Centre for Applied Linguistics - April 29th, 2010 2

(What I said in the) Abstract

personal chronology of business discourse research

changes in methodological approaches that have characterised the evolution of business discourse research.

issues of data selection, collection and analysis (in research across ‘cultures’)


Applied linguistics, LSP, ESP,

and …………………… Applied linguistics Language(s) for Specific

Purposes English for Specific

Purposes


……. Business Discourse

A definition…

‘the interaction which takes place between individuals whose main activities are located within business and whose contact is motivated by matters relating to their respective businesses’ (Bargiela-Chiappini and Nickerson 1999: 2).


The relationship between reality

and teaching materials Marian Williams (1988)

EFL: The gap between ‘theory’ and practice


The analysis of Business Discourse is…..

…….contextual and intertextual, self-reflexive and self-critical, although not necessarily political, and is founded on the twin notions of discourse as situated action and language as work.

Linguistics ‘applied’?


Business Discourse: a personal chronology

1. ‘Prehistory’ : 1970s-80s2. History: 1990s3. Recent developments:

2000s



1. ‘Prehistory’ (Before my time….) The Seventies: language audits,

language needs analysis (text analysis) (LSP)

The Eighties: negotiation studies (quantitative methods/simulated data); business correspondence and documentation (genre analysis)

Lampi (1986) real-life negotiations + linguistic analysis;

Europe: LSP/ESP → text analysis (grammar, vocabulary,

text structure)US: business communication → ‘how-to’ approaches


The Seventies: language needs analysis; genre analysis (LSP/ESP)

GENRE ANALYSIS: John Swales and his generic model of the ‘research article’

- MOVES & STEPS -

Move 1: Establishing a Territory Step 1: Claiming Centrality and/or Step 2: Making Topic Generalisations and/or Step 3: Reviewing Items of Previous ResearchMove 2: Establishing a Niche Step 1A: Counter-claiming or Step 1B: Indicating a Gap or Step 1C: Question Raising or Step 1D: Continuing a TraditionMove 3: Occupying the Niche Step 1A: Outlining Purposes or Step 1B: Announcing Present Research Step 2: Announcing Principal Findings Step 3: Indicating Research Article Structure

(from: GENRE A NA LYS I S : A KEY TO A THEORY OF ESP?By T Dudley-Evans – 2000)


The Eighties…

FIELDS/APP-ROACHES1. negotiation studies →

2. genre studies →

Lampi (1986)

My experience ….. (needs analysis, ISP, simulated negotiations….) →

METHODS/DATA TYPE1. quantitative methods (simulated

data) 2. qualitative methods: genre

analysis, text analysis, contents analysis (business correspondence/business documentation)

First linguistic analysis of business negotiations

DATA (access, selection, analysis) +

METHODS (survey, genre analysis, speech acts analysis )


Lampi (1986) Linguistic components of strategy in business negotiations.


Business Discourse: a personal chronology2. History

Nineties: Boden (1994) meetings + CA; Bargiela and Harris (1997) meetings

+pragmatics and DA + comparative analysis

3 important developments: from written to spoken language ethnographic approaches to BD

multi-disciplinarity


The Nineties…..FIELDS/APPROACHES

1. business discourse (+inter and cross-cultural+multi-method) →

2. genre studies /discursive approaches (+multimodal)→

3. politeness studies

Boden (1994)

My experience…. written correspondence and

authentic negotiations (BC projects) ; organisational ethnography; meeting analysis →

METHODS/DATA TYPE

1. qualitative methods: pragmatics, social psychology, DA, CA, CDA/ real-life negotiations, meetings, presentations etc.

2&3 qualitative methods: genre analysis/ multimodal analysis/emails, websites, new corporate documents→ CSR)

CA + social theory (meetings)

DATA (access, selection, analysis)

METHODS (speech act analysis, pragmatics, ethnography, interviews, observation, sense-making)

(Organisation studies + management studies)


Boden (1994) The business of talk.



3. Recent developments

Multidisciplinarity → + dialogue with the US

Multi-method research

Business Discourse goes East (ELAB) Intercultural communication and the

‘cultural other’:


The 2000s: Business Discourse → Asian Business

Discourse(s) (1) Cross-field dialogue → US

(management communication, organisational communication, business communication, rhetorical analysis ….→ UK+Australia (organisational discourse)

Interculturality → collaboration with Asian countries (China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand….= ELAB network)


Future developments: Business Discourse as a metaphor for

dialogue Multi-disciplinary….

socio-pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics, critical anthropology, critical cultural studies, cultural sociology, cultural psychology, hermeneutics, ….

Multi-method… DA, CA, ethnomethodology, rhetorical

analysis, ethnography, multi-modal analysis, visual analysis…


Business Discourse research:

some trends From written to spoken data From quantitative to qualitative

approaches From mono-method to multi-method From intra-cultural to cross- and inter-

cultural From Euro- (and US-) centred to

‘international’ From mono- to multi-disciplinary

Documents

Business Discourse across ‘cultures’: data selection, collection and analysis