Oral needs in Spanish professional environments

1. Oral English Needs in Spanish
Professional Settings: Different
Perspectives
ICSE 2014 Santiago de Compostela
Lourdes Pomposo
UNED: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia.
Madrid
Facultad de Filologías Extranjeras y sus Lingüísticas

2. Table of contents
 Real situation in Spanish Business Settings
 Business English as a Lingua Franca
 Characteristics of Business Discourse
 Importance of Oral BE over Written BE
 Needs Analysis of Oral English in Business settings
 In-Depth interviews of the study
 Questionnaires of the study
 Observation: oral simulations
 In-Depth interviews: Results and Perspectives
 Questionnaires: Results and Perspectives
 Oral simulations: Results and perspectives
 Conclusions

3. Real situation in Spanish Business Settings
Own Experience
(Company Class Teachers S.L.)
International Reports
(EPIC, ELAN, The Economist)
Companies spend more than 50% of budget in
English education
HHRR managers are not satisfied with staff oral
skills
Staff feel insecure with oral skills but secure with
writing.
They are losing business oportunities.
They do not see results after training.
(EPIC,2012) Spain has a low level of oral
communication in Business English.
(ELAN) English is the main language used in
business settings.
(EF) Oral English skill of developed countries: Spain
is 24th.
(BEI) Spain has an average score of 4,5.

4. Spain placement in International Reports
(ELAN 2006, BEI 2013)

5. Business English as a Lingua Franca
• Business English has become the common language in Business international settings in order to have
effective communication (Du-Babcock, 2013).
• That language is used by non-native speakers.
• The importance of that communication: get the business objective.
• It is more important the context and the way people communicate than the language itself :
“the most important issue in business English is not language ability, but the experience and ability
dynamically maneuver within the communities of practice which business people inhabit”.
(Hanford’s ,2010: 145)

6. Needs of Business Communication
Yin y Wong (1990), Holden (1993) y St. John (1996)
Written communication Oral communication
• E mails
• Letters
• Reports
• Telephoning
• Socializing
• Giving presentations
• Taking part in meetings
• Negotiating

7. Importance of Oral Business Communication
• Oral communication is the most important one in business settings.
• It is always in need to improvement according to their speakers.
• The performance is more important than linguistic competence.
• That performance and the results might be influenced by cultural and social
aspects.
Louhiala-Salminen (1996); Maes et al. (1997), Crossling y Ward (2002), Rogerson-Revell (2008), Vivanco
(2009), Calle y Pomposo (2010).

8. Needs Analysis of Oral English in Business settings
Linguistic Needs Analysis
• “To identify necessities alone is not enough... You also need to know what the learner knows already, so that you can then decide which of the
necessities the learner lacks...The target proficiency, in other words, needs to be matched against the existing proficiency of the learners. The gap
between the two can be referred to as the learners’ lacks”.
(Hutchinson y Waters 1987, 55-56)
Needs Analysis common Tools
Demands
• What students need for a
target situation.
Wants
• What students want and
need.
Lacks
• What the students do not
have but need.
Interviews Questionnaires Observation
Linguistic
audits
Tests

9. In-Depth interviews of the study
• Steps
• Emails to clients and former clients (HHRR or Education department managers with more than 5 years of
experience in the same company).
• Selection of seven companies of different sectors .
• Confidenciality agreement signing.
• Record interviews. (30 minutes approximately)
• Analysis of results.
• Objectives
• Profile of workers/companies that need English. (Level of English, general importance of English, English education in-company,
socio-cultural influence)
• Most common business situation s where English is needed.
• Communicative competences needed in each business situation. (linguistic and non-linguistic situations)

10. Questionnaires of the study
• Type of questionnaire
• Google Drive questionnaire: fast and easy response (email).
• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SoG75rrLkUTtuH-FFQ2QSfdGErY5OlM2eUNXb7rhdnA/viewform
• It was sent to more than fifty workers who had shown interest in participating in the research and were in
contact with English language.
• 42 workers of different sectors answered to the questionnaire.
• Objectives
• Profile of workers/companies that need English. (Level of English, general importance of English, English education in-company,
socio-cultural influence)
• Most common business situation s where English is needed.
• Communicative competences needed in each business situation. (more linguistic and non-linguistic situations offered
than the ones offered in interviews )

11. Observation: oral simulations
• Objectives
• Find communicative needs by means of oral evaluation
• Fast evaluation, holistic rating scale (Mixed rating scale: CEFR and Vancouver Community College).
• Tasks recorded with AVIP tool (UNED)
• Tasks
- Simulation of presentation - Simulation of a video meeting.
- Product: “Pills that raplace meals - Topic: “Spanish working timetables: Time
at working times”. for lunch?”
Individual production(19
participants)
Interaction (4 meetings: 12
participants)

12. In-Depth interviews: Results and Perspectives
MEETINGS 7 100%
PRESENTATIONS 5 71,42%
NEGOCIATIONS 1 14,28 %
SOCIO-CULTURAL 0 0%
LEVEL OF ENGLISH STUDIES AGE
High 4 57% University 5 71% 30-45
Medium 3 42% High
school
1 14% 100%
Low 1 14% Others 1 14%
Pronunciation 4 57%
Communicative competence 4 57%
Vocabulary 4 57%
Grammar 3 42%
Fluency 3 42%
Get the objective 2 28%
Body language 1 14%

13. Questionnaires: Results and Perspectives
Fluency 83%
Vocabulary 80%
Pronunciation 63%
Grammar 39%
Communicative competence 75%
Intonation, volume… 49%
To get the goal 47%
Body language 30%
Linguistic and non-linguistic competences in oral communication
in general
Fluency 95%
Pronunciation 83%
Suitable expressions for presentations 78%
Correct grammar 52%
Self confidence 87%
Intonation, volume… 73%
Dealing with questions 70%
Body language 60%
Not reading the Power Point Pres. 12%
Linguistic and non-linguistic competences in presentations.
Fluency 92%
Pronunciation 72%
Correct grammar 58%
Give opinions 86%
Active participation 84%
Self-confidence 82%
Interruptions and turn taking 64%
Body language 58%
Intonation, volume,… 56%
Linguistic and non-lingüístic competences in meetings

14. Oral simulations: results and perspectives
• Topic: Meeting: Working timetables of Spanish companies compared to European ones. /Presentation: Pills that replace
meals.
• Ratings: from 1 (minimum) to 3 (maximum).
• Results were contrasted with other three raters.
RESULTS:
• No high rates in general.
• Very low rates in pronunciation, accuracy and fluency.
• Better rates in range of language and accuracy (related to grammar and vocabulary).
• No effective interaction (moderator keeping the conversation) no fluency or improvisation.
• Stiff faces without voice intonation in front of a camera.
• Only minimum rate included (1)
* Not included in Individual rate scale
Range of
language
Accuracy Fluency Coherence Pronunciation Body language *Interactive
communication
52,6% 68,42% 42,11% 10,53%
(positive result)
63,16% 47,37% 52,6%

15. Conclusions
 Oral English communication in Spain the weakest in business environments .
 English oral skills are not taken into account in job interviews.
 The profile of workers is similar but there are few of them that represent the company in oral communicative situations.
 Spain has changed in theses last five years but we still need to improve oral communication in training (companies and universities).
 Companies do not have a continuous education and it is not extended to all the workers. It depends on the budget.
 There are different perspectives from HHRR departments, workers in general and speakers in business environments.
Companies Workers Reality
- Very general vision of the problem.
- Socio-cultural aspects have no
importance.
- Body language is not important.
- Grammar and fluency have no
importance.
- The main problem in low level is social
and educational .
- Personal vision of the problem and
narrow vision.
- Socio-cultural aspect is very important in
oral communication.
- Body language is very important in
presentations.
- Fluency and pronunciation are the most
important competences. (no grammar)
- The main problem in low level in
education , lack of continuous training in
company and Spanish personality.
- Difficulties in communicating
without reading.
- No body language at all (webcam)
- No fluency
- Little improvisation but respect for
turn-taking
- Uncomfortable silences

16. THANK YOU!