Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2015

Academic Territorial Borders: A Look at the Writing Ethos in Business Courses in an Environment in Which English Is a Foreign Language

Samer Annous University of Balamand ; Maureen O’Day Nicolas University of Balamand

Abstract

With the globalization of higher education, English has become the lingua franca of universities operating in non–English-speaking countries seeking internationalization. The communication needs of students studying in such foreign-language contexts have not been fully explored. In this study, the authors interviewed a purposeful sample of professors teaching a variety of specialties in the School of Business in an environment in which English is a foreign language in order to ascertain their perceptions of students’ ability to communicate in English, and these teachers’ ability to focus on their students’ writing skills. The findings reveal that although these teachers asserted the importance of communication skill, particularly in written English, they did not feel that nurturing that skill was part of their academic responsibilities. They felt that they had neither the time nor the expertise to nurture students’ ability to communicate in English.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2015-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651914548457
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
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Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Ghimire (2024)
    Understanding Transnational Technical Communication in Technical and Profession…
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  2. Hodges et al. (2023)
    Transnational Technical Communication: English as a Business Lingua Franca in E…
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  3. Romero et al. (2018)
    Encountering Internationalization in the Writing Classroom: Resistant Teaching …
    Across the Disciplines
  4. Koerber et al. (2017)
    Theorizing the Value of English Proficiency in Cross-Cultural Rhetorics of Heal…
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  5. Peter (2016)
    Designing withHDRdata: what thehuman development reportcan tell us about intern…
    Communication Design Quarterly

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CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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