Discuss some of the ways in which English has been shaped as a tool for work.

Introduction

Language is the main vehicle for communicating between human beings. It seems,

therefore, natural not only to associate it with exchanging ideas and points of view, but also to consider it a medium for achieving goals and getting a job done.

In this essay I will look at how English is employed in the context of a working environment and will examine, in general and theoretical terms, some of the main features which characterize this type of language and the social implications on the groups of people who use it; in this respect I will consider two situations: English used by co-workers and English used by professionals when speaking to members of the public.

In the second part, I will give some concrete example of working English which

should illustrate the main points discussed.

Characteristics of English as a tool for work

The main feature of language as a tool is its facilitative function: the focus is on the

goal to be achieved and on how the use of a particular set of language conventions influences an outcome. Since language is a very adaptable medium, it can change to reflect the needs of a particular context or situation.

Another important factor is that for a communicative conversation to be successful,

a shared cultural knowledge and understanding is required from speakers and listeners. This common background enables them to relate to what is being said in a way that may not be intelligible to other people, while very frequently the distinctive features of the language may not be apparent to participants any longer, since they have become part of a subconscious expressive process.

Discourse communities

The concept of discourse community is very important for understanding how

English is used as a working language. It was developed principally by the linguist John Swales who observed that particular types of communities exist in which people do not necessarily live close together or even have personal contact, nonetheless they use a common spoken or written language to achieve a shared objective. In the words of Neil Mercer the notion of this type of community

Professional discourses are not static but change and develop naturally to adapt to

the needs of people working in a specialised field of work. In fact, they have not been

self-consciously designed for their purpose, but have evolved through the processes of natural selection and conventionalization within the range of ways of using language that people have employed over the years. (Mercer, 1996, p. 99). Discourse can be defined as the ways in which language, either spoken or written, is used in the social

practises of a community. The necessity for understanding other people in a work environment can produce many varieties of discourse.

Quality of language: its format and function

The first aspect that comes to mind when considering the English language in the

context of a working environment is the use of a distinctive vocabulary linked to a specific occupation.

Jargon

Most commonly represented by acronyms and technical terms can, in fact, be found in virtually any industry and can seem obscure to outsiders who are not familiar with conventions and peculiarities of that business. However, becoming familiar with jargon is a normal process when entering a profession and it is often only a matter of time before the nuances are mastered. It is a necessity to be able to communicate effectively with colleagues and this represents a great incentive to learning it.

However the role of jargon as a useful linguistic element coexists with jargon as a

tool for defining social relations incorporating roles of authority and submission. This

happens particularly within the private sector, where unnecessary wordiness and sentence complexity are employed to prove superiority and to influence the public sector, where the extreme use of jargon can often be described as writing to impress, rather than writing to inform. This latter case is well illustrated by Martin Cutts in his contribution to English at work, for the Open University (Cutts, 1996). In it he

quotes the following response by a British Local Government official to a citizen request to put up posters in the local public library:

So far I have dealt with the format of the language itself; there are, however, other

considerations to be made with regard to the function of English in the work place.

This is a preview of the whole essay

quotes the following response by a British Local Government official to a citizen request to put up posters in the local public library:

So far I have dealt with the format of the language itself; there are, however, other

considerations to be made with regard to the function of English in the work place.

Indeed, other work-related quality of language may be more distinctively represented in the structure of an interaction, rather than the fact that technical English words are used. (Neil Mercer, 1996, p. 87). The process of working together towards a common goal involves consultation, deliberation, instruction, information, as well as explanation, interpretation and negotiation. All interpersonal factors that are strictly linked to the useof language. M.A.K. Halliday (1995) identified three specific aspects associated with the use of English at work which are outlined below.

The ideational function

Probably the main purpose of work-related language is to facilitate carrying out a

task or job and completing it successfully without introducing any ambiguity or unnecessary risks. This can be achieved by means of highly task-oriented communications, heavily based on content, reference, dealing with concrete facts and problematic situations; the ideational aspect of language works mainly by encoding two sorts of reference, to entities (including things, people and abstract ideas) and to processes, relations and actions. These referential needs are realized in English roughly through noun phrases on the onehand and verb phrases on the other.(Peter Medway, 1996, p. 108).

The interpersonal function

Another important aspect is related to building, maintaining and supporting relationships among members of a discourse community. All individuals in the group of people involved represent distinctive personalities, and the awareness of their status, authority, expertise and dependence in relation to each other becomes the focus of the

interpersonal function.

Intertextuality

Like many other types of discourses, a work-related communication makes extensive

use of intertextual references, that is, implicit or explicit references to another piece of

discourse. Phrases like

Ò...as I was telling you yesterday...Ó

, andÒ...we could move thisgraphic to the right...Ó

1 contain the same semantic (and sometimes verbal) material of another conversation carried out previously by the parties involved. Intertextuality is of central importance in workplace discourse since it connects all separate spoken and written communications into a single network of ideas and contributions, as well as bringing

together the diverse participants into a discourse community.

Social factors

English is in a unique position in that it is, for a vast number of people, a language

which is not their mother tongue, but which has to be employed at work. Many corporates and industries in the world are faced with a dilemma where there is a need to be competitive internationally, meaning that a comprehension of English is

invariably required, but at the same time the majority of the workforce does not have the language as their mother tongue. It is obvious, then, that a compromise has to be found, so that both the financial viability of the firm and the satisfaction of the employees are secured. Although different approaches have been taken, the common idea is that English should be used for important internal communications and for conversations between managers and external business partners. On the other hand, the workers have the freedom of converse in their local language(s) when speaking between themselves (this was thought to be important for both retaining a social identity, and for reducing the psychological strain of having to constantly monitor themselves so as not to slip into the native language) as well as having the choice of talking to their managers through either languages. A significant issue relates to safety policies within organisation: it seems sensible to produce multi-lingual signs and notifications to avoid misunderstandings and legal complications.

Carrying out a working conversation in a multilingual context can sometimes produce

unsatisfactory results; difference in expectations and interpretations can be attributed

to diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences of the participants involved. Helen

Marriott, who researched what she called intercultural business negotiations, points

out that explaining misunderstandings in terms of cultural experiences does not mean

simply making generalized comparisons between the interlocutors ways of talking. In the international business world of today other cultural factors beside national origins might be important for shaping speakers ways of talking business in English, and for shaping their interpretation of events.(quoted in Mercer, 1996, p. 90).

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Gender and status

Beside the influence of the work culture on speakers choice of language there is the

important aspect of gender, which influences the way conversations take place. In her

research, Janet Maybin (1996) discovered that men tend to exercise more influence over the choice of topics, to interrupt female partners and to dominate the interaction as well as control codeswitching in multilingual conversations. A similar pattern can be identified with regard to job status. The higher-ranking individual is the one who generally steer the conversation and selects the type of language. One interesting investigation carried out by Nicola Woods attempted to find out which one of the two factors has the greatest effect on speakers control of a verbal interaction. Her results showed that when the two power bases of gender and occupational status are at work, then the former gender tends to exert the greatest influence on floor apportionment

Essentially, while the power base of occupational status did influence the

way that both men and women organized conversation [...], nevertheless even when women

held high-status occupational positions male subordinates still organized the interaction ina way that allowed them to dominate the floor. (quoted in Mercer, 1996, p. 95).

Working with the public

Until now I have concentrated on issues particularly related to the working language

within certain communities of discourse. However, there are particular issues of interest concerning English used by professional individuals when talking to members of the public who do not belong to the same discourse community. The points should also be

considered when analysing discourses in the workplace.

Use of jargon and specialised language

As illustrated above, the use of jargon and specialised language can sometimes cause

misunderstandings and produce poor communication especially when the professional is not able to talk about relevant topics in a way that is clear to the uninitiated layman.

Often the insider might genuinely find it hard to cover a work-related topic without using any language other than that of his or her discourse community. On the other

hand, there are instances where the control and power over the non-specialist are deliberately exerted by ignoring any lack of understanding, thus monopolizing the knowledge required to steer the conversation in a given direction.

Difference in culture

In a multicultural situation, a common problem arises when a speaker is not fluent in

English and does not have the same shared understanding of the principles required for engaging in a specialised type of conversation. C. Roberts and P. Sayers carried out a study to address this particular issue in the context of interviews by British English speakers of, among others, Indian immigrants to Britain; they arrived at the conclusion that there is a tendency to use the language factor as a reason for not clarifying misunderstandings. The interviewers assume that any of the candidates talk which they did not understand was therefore meaningless, i.e. not meaningful for the candidate. Instead of clarifying such utterances, interviewers choose to ignore them. In this way they often fail to grasp where key points for the candidate are occurring, and the whole interaction starts to go wrong.(quoted in Mercer, 1996, p. 102).

Floor apportionment

Measures the relative extent to which speakers take substantial turns at speaking.

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The interview situation is very characteristic of a professional vs. layman verbal

exchange; in it the type of language plays a major role and is often the main factor in

determining the outcome of the interview. The research of Jo Longman (1996) is particularly relevant to this issue in that it defines three concepts which are useful for analyzing the relationships between interviewer and candidates, particularly when there is an element of co-operation between the two (such as it is the case with a professional adviser in occupational training and an unemployed person); they are filtering, reformulation, and accountability.

Filtering

. The information provided by the candidate frequently contains uncertainty,

hesitation and other elements which can be counter-productive to the purpose

of the interview. By filtering out these elements the advisor ensures that only

crucial and relevant points are retained and the presentation is more effective.

Reformulation

. The format of the information is adapted and polished by the adviser so as to create a more professional language. The choice of words is crucial here as are the grammar and structure of sentences.

Accountability

. Since the advisor is manipulating someone elses information, there needs to be a certain accountability on his part when talking to the candidate. This often takes the form of asking for clarification and approval as well as making sure that there is full agreement on the final output. After discussing the general characteristics of English as a tool for work I am going to present and analyse some examples of language from the software industry.

Some example of working English from the software industry

The examples reported below are taken from electronic mails received within a leading software corporate. Although there are several forms in which English in this context has been adapted, I will concentrate on two aspects: the use of jargon, especially in the written communications, and the way assumptions are made as to what certain words mean, which would be meaningless to outsiders.

Use of jargon

The advent of the computer industry, and in particular of electronic mail has

brought about radical changes in the way people communicate within organisations and the conventions linked to the use of language. This is particularly evident in the over-use of jargon and so-called computerese, a highly-specialised type of English which can sound obscure to outsiders and, sometime, to insiders as well.

There are several features that can be identified. The first is undoubtedly represented

by acronyms and abbreviations. Starting with people proper names, often incorporated

into status reports sections like the following:

Minutes of Management Meeting - 2 April 1998

Attendees: PC, TOR, RK, SG, MM, BM

Agenda: Plan for new release, Quality issues, AOB.

Another instance of abbreviation occurs in email subject lines, which were originally

meant to give a short summary the message content. However, with increasing frequencythe entire content of the mail is entered in the subject and ended by an identifier( <eom>= end of message) to signal that there is no actual text in the mail:

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Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1998 13:46:46 +0100

From: [email protected]

X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (PPC; I)

Subject: Please send me your status report <eom>

In more extreme cases, the whole subject line is virtually reduced to a string of

abbreviations and acronyms which barely make sense, like on the example below:

Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 13:46:46 -0100

From: [email protected]

X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (PPC; I)

Subject: out of office ufn, atb <eom>

which translates into

out of office until further notice, all the best

Finally, abbreviations such as Rgds (for regards) and Thx (for thanks) have also

become part of the standard netiquette of electronic interaction, although their usefulness (like the one of the subject line) is highly questionable: in my opinion, the actual time saved when typing cannot justify the loss of meaning.

Exertion of power/trying to impress

More than in any other field, the advance in technology of the IT industry makes

keeping up-to-date with the latest terms and buzzwords. Sometimes this fact is exploited by employees to show their superiority when participating at meetings. A sample from a recent brainstorming session illustrates this very effectively. Tony (the manager), Sarah (the junior engineer), and Fergus (the senior engineer) are discussing the new features of an upcoming software release:

Tony: We need to find out what other features are incorporated into 4.06.

Sarah: The Eudora filter and smart browsing definitely need to be evaluated.

Tony: Lets ask the marketing people to send us a detailed list of

changes, since at the moment we dont know for sure.

Fergus: I know that there is a lot of LDAP stuff.

Tony: [5 secs]Ok, that’s it then.

The second last sentence had no specific relevance to the question asked in the context

of the meeting; it was deliberately uttered to impress the other participants since the

senior engineer was aware that nobody else would understand what LDAP was; furthermore no extra explanation was given to clarify what the technical term really meant and thus added nothing useful to the conversation. In fact the meeting was ended by the manager without taking notice of the engineerÕs contribution.

Extension of the language as a tool

English has become a literal tool for work in the field of computer programming.

especially in fourth generation computer code. Whereas older programming languages

were made of indecipherable and cryptic terms and clusters of symbols, newer ones have become more user-friendly and adopt English-like commands. Snippets from

Assembler (machine language),C (created in the 70s), and SQL (a fourth generation database language), illustrate the point effectively:

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Conclusion

In this essay I have described in general terms the ways in which English is adapted

to the needs of workers to achieve goals and communicate effectively in the workplace. I have looked at the quality of language in this context and the social factors which shape it. In the latter part of the paper I have presented some example of working English from the software industry, where English has become the dominating language.

References:

David Graddol, Dick Lieth and Joan Swann (2003) ‘English history, diversity and change’ The open University.

Halliday, M.A.K (1985) Spken and written language, Deakin, Victoria, Deakin University Press.

David Graddol, Dick Lieth and Joan Swann (2003)’ Using English: from conversation to canon”The open University.