The Importance of English in Trade and Business

Categories: English Language English Subject The History Of English Language

Essay, Pages 5 (1203 words)

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Introduction

According to International Communication Union “The world is on the threshold of a new industrial revolution. A revolution that promises to be at least as significant as that which has brought most of the growth of the world's economy in the past two centuries. A revolution that promises to have just as far-reaching an impact on a wide variety of aspects of life, and a revolution with global reach. Telecommunications are at the epicenter of this revolution” (ITU, 1999) .

The growing interest in English languages emphasizes the need for a new approach to learning and, as a consequence, to teaching.

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The reason for this is the improvement of communication technologies in terms of human relations and the need to introduce an international language into the world. Among the suggested ones, English is most likely as an international language or as a world language. As a result, English as an international language with a relative conceptual background is included as a sustainable worldwide means of communication.

As a typical example, the German Chancellor and the French Prime Minister speak English during the negotiations. This example cannot in any case be interpreted as a sign of a decline in the mother tongue or culture. Instead, it is portrayed as an accessible resource for creating mutual understanding. English in all its linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects is used as a means of communication between speakers who are not native as well as between any combination.

Speaking of one or more English languages is the basis for successful business in an international environment.

This paper will show how lack of knowledge of English languages impedes entrepreneurial proactiveness and adversely affects business performance. Furthermore, the paper will define what key language competencies a successful entrepreneur must have and how these competences can be acquired by using interactive methods of teaching a business English language, with particular emphasis on the use of case study or examples of good practice.

Research Aims

The present study seeks to investigate the effect of speaking one or more English languages as undoubtedly one of the key competencies of a successful entrepreneur. Creating a new learning environment is a challenge to evaluate effectiveness. In the field of international business and trade lack of knowledge of English languages is one of the major obstacles for entrepreneurs who aspire to expand their business to English markets. We decided to collect data on approaches to the use of language skills, intercultural competence, awareness of language strategies, loss of business owing to lack of language skills, future exporting intentions and hence projected requirements for further language skills from two companies: Union SHPK – Pristina and The North Unicorn LLC- Pristina.

The major objectives of this study

The subject of study is to prove that business success is closely linked to language competencies and that entrepreneurship education must involve systematic learning of business English languages. The study aims to investigate learning the English language as a continuous process that involves the acquisition of reading, writing, comprehension and, of course, speaking skills. All of these competencies are constantly intertwined and upgraded. Being linguistically competent in a business environment means knowing business etiquette, having appropriate social and presentation skills, being able to attend a business meeting, being able to lead a meeting, being able to have a telephone conversation in the English language, being able to communicate in writing, be able to write a memo, mail, business letter.

4. Research Questions/Hypothesis

The following questions are considered the problem of the research:

Why is it important to speak a English language when you are an entrepreneur?
What is the impact of speaking a English language on business and international trade?
What is the relative value of English compared with other languages which are useful in a business context?
What is the effect of speaking one or more English languages as one of the key competencies of a successful entrepreneur?

The study is intended to achieve the following aims:

To explore the role of the English language in international business and trade;
To find out the effect of speaking one or more English languages as one of the key competencies of a successful entrepreneur;
To emphasize the role of language in a business environment;
To collect data on approaches to the use of language skills, intercultural competence, awareness of language strategies, loss of business owing to lack of language skills, future exporting intentions, and hence projected requirements for further language skills.

Research Design and Methodology

Since it is hypothesized that entrepreneurs face problems when it comes to international business and trade if they lack speaking the English language we decided to use a questionnaire to find out the difficulties they encounter. The questionnaire as an instrument of data collection allows us a collection of both quantitative and qualitative data, offers anonymity, and allows respondents to answer the given questions at their own selected time. The questionnaire is going to be distributed to the employees of two companies from Pristine and that is Union SHPK – Pristina and The North Unicorn LLC- Pristina. Hopefully, the questionnaire is going to help us find out what is the relative value of English compared with other languages which are useful in a business context.

Through this questionnaire the researcher is going to be able to collect data on approaches to the use of language skills, intercultural competence, awareness of language strategies, loss of business owing to lack of language skills, future exporting intentions, and hence projected requirements for further language skills addition, as an ideal situation, learning a business English language is a complete and structured process that begins as early as high school and continues at a higher education institution. The survey addresses and measures the particular needs of Kosovar companies, notably measuring the lost business, or underperformance, due to deficient language skills and cultural knowledge; and barriers to trade due to deficient language skills and cultural knowledge. When it comes to the research methods in this paper, in addition to the theoretical analysis method, the analytical-descriptive method is going to be used in processing the results obtained through the questionnaire.

Also with the help of the Economic Chamber of Kosovo and its members as well as the School of Economics and the Higher Education as an example of good practice, we will try to investigate the language competencies of entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

In an age of satellite telephones, global CNN, and the possibility of wireless Internet connection almost anywhere, it is hard to imagine that there exists a spot on earth that has not been touched by global communication (Stevenson 1992) . However, global communication in the current world order is an amorphous and vast phenomenon with a tumultuous history, and manifold and far-reaching effects on macro and micro levels (Mowlana 1996; Tehraniann, 1999 and Thussu 2000).

The importance of speaking English languages in the business world is not limited to the need to perform specific tasks, but also relates to the overall image of the company and the ability of employees to independently and confidently enter the market. This refers to increased risk readiness, which, in addition to these competencies, is significantly reduced, thus creating a positive atmosphere for maximum success and complete creativity of ideas.