"'Intermediate-Level' Communication: A Model of Communication for Multiple Cultures"

 About the Author

Travis Daniel Griffin attended New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and graduated with a B.S. in Technical Communication in May of 2013. Prior to receiving his degree, Mr. Griffin spent ten years working in an international company, addressing the inherent challenges associated with working with multiple cultures. After receiving his degree, Mr. Griffin and his wife moved to Austin, Texas, where he accepted employment h a growing social media management software company. Mr. Griffin works daily with customers from around the world who use his company's software to manage relationships built through social media.

Contents

    Introduction

    Literature Review

    Literature Review (cont.)

    Literature Review (cont.)

    Methods

    Methods (cont.)

    Discussion

    Discussion (cont.)

    Conclusion

    References

    Appendix A

    Appendix B

Background and Literature Review (Continued)

Concepts in ESL and ESP

Because English is considered to be the international language of business and science, students around the world are taught English at a young age. The ESL training is a focus in lower and middle (high school) education. This education is continued at the university level, so that students can gain what is referred to as an “intermediate-level” understanding of the English Language (Fleming, 2011).

As students begin to focus on the subjects that they will be working on in their careers, there is a need to step beyond the intermediate level of the English Language. Students are often required or are strongly encouraged to take classes in ESP. These English classes are specifically designed to aid the students directly in their fields as they continue their education. They may last years, months, or just a few weeks. It is the goal of ESP teachers to train the students in the vocabulary and usage of English that is specific to the field (Lockwood, 2012).

Common tools that ESP teachers use are visuals, visualization, etymology, sentence shortening, and familiar context setting. Visuals are used that would be familiar, or have a similar look to concepts that the students are familiar with from their background culture. These are often used in conjunction with verbal cues to help students form a mental relation to draw upon (Yogman, 1996) (Erfani, 2012) (Fleming et al., 2011) (Royce, 2002).

Etymology relies on breaking complex words down to their base meanings. Students are taught important English terms by looking at the roots of the words and building the more complex words that these words form. The theory behind this technique is that students learn more than just a single word in the language but how to form an understanding of new words which contain familiar roots when presented with a new and previously unlearned word. This particular use of etymology in teaching, allows students to not only learn a finite level of understanding in a language, but learn a tool that will help them further their knowledge of the workings of the language (Zolfagharkhani, 2011).

Visualization is a unique concept that is being explored in ESP teaching, but also has been applied in U.S. technical communication. Erfani used it in the ESP classroom by giving students a term or concept, and instructing them to “visualize” exactly what the word meant to them. This gave students the opportunity to form a mental image to connect words and concepts with. He found that this technique had a positive impact on his student’s level of comprehension (2012). This concept was also discussed by Andrews. She discussed the importance of verbally painting a picture with generalized terms that helps to explain visual concepts. This allows the audience to find a way to digest the information on their own terms and can lead to enhanced understanding (2001).

The other pertinent concept studied was the concept of sentence shortening. This simple step may be taken for granted, but because foreign languages are often taught in short sentences, to learn new concepts, it is important for ESP students to be given as little “noise” as possible when learning new concepts. While students in ESP classes are expected to have an intermediate level understanding of the English language, the process of learning a language requires taking small steps with each concept. Sentence shortening allows the student to focus the learning centers of their brains more directly on the concept, and less on the context surrounding the concept, thus minimalizing the need to decipher multiple concepts.