June 2006 Volume 1
Article 4.
PDF File

Article Title
The Globalization Debate in Business English:
Exploiting the Literature through matrices

Author
John Adamson

Bio Data
John Adamson gained his Doctorate of Education from Leicester University specializing in the area of inter-cultural interview communication with Thai learners. He teaches sociolinguistics, study skills and discourse analysis, as well as Business and General English in Japan at college and company level. His publications focus on interview discourse, learning strategies and Business English methodology. He is most active in his local area of Japan creating teacher research groups and organizing workshops. John is an Editor for the Asian EFL Journal and Senior Associate Editor for the Asian Business Journal. He can be contacted at: johnadamson253@hotmail.com

Introduction

This article puts forward a proposal for the teaching of reading through the use of matrices in Business English classes. The reading material focuses on globalization, a current and controversial issue for students of Business English on English language preparation courses for university-level postgraduate business-related courses. It is argued in this paper that the use of this literature in such classes can challenge the beliefs and ethics of the students and, in this process, forms a means to engage in multi modes of learning from reading the literature and writing summaries guided by matrices to subsequent discussions with classmates of what they have understood and how they react to the conceptual content of the literature. The ethical nature of the debate itself is clearly a potentially sensitive one, evocative and even cathartic, as it calls upon the participants to review their fundamental belief systems concerning the nature and role of commercial activity in society.

The proposed methodology employed to facilitate such reading lessons through matrices was employed in English preparation courses for foreign students wishing to enter U.K. Master courses in Business Administration (M.B.A.). These students were mostly from China, Turkey and various West African countries who were studying at a U.K. college prior to university entry. The course was part of an English curriculum lasting up to one academic year including university entry test preparation (IELTS) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). This class was a compulsory part of the EAP component of the curriculum and was assessed by means of an end of course test and continual assessment.

In this explanation of how globalization can be used as a topic in the Business English classroom, I will firstly describe the choice of literature and then move on to examine what linguistic objectives can be set when working with it. Following this, the methodological steps involved in the proposed lesson will be outlined, particularly focusing on the use of a reading 'grid', or matrix, as a visual organizer. Finally, some conclusions will be drawn about using such controversial literature.

The chosen literature

In this section, I will look at the possible choices of literature to be used in the lesson, showing the historical and stance-related perspectives under consideration in that selection.

The literature for or against globalization, or simply weighing up these pro and anti stances is plentiful in the media. Many M.B.A. and other postgraduate business-and media-related courses have course components which require students to analyze the impact of globalization upon economies and societies. As a consequence, globalization as a topic carries an immediate topic relevance for those students embarking upon postgraduate study, so it is important that they are exposed in advance to the diverse range of literature available. Of equal importance are the opportunities such literature can offer in the development of the students' lexical knowledge in the field, and also their ability to interact with reading material and fellow students in a critical manner. This is particularly the case in many business course seminars in which students are asked to read various materials and engage in debate. For these purposes, the literature can meet both future needs of content-based instruction and help in linguistic development.

In order to meet these various needs, the proposal is put forward to select literature not simply addressing current viewpoints, but also those from the past, in this case, written over thirty years ago about the activities of multinational corporations, long before the term "globalization" began to be coined. This historical perspective is taken on theoretical grounds because of recent insights into the stage at which globalization currently finds itself, which is, according to Hindle's (2003), "the third age of globalization". To elucidate this important concept, Hindle explains that the first age took place mostly in the post-war years when large companies sold products abroad that had been made in their own home-country factories, i.e. US products made in the USA. The second age, generally from the 1960s saw these companies transfer the production facilities abroad, whilst maintaining their head offices in their home countries. In this sense, decision-making processes about doing business globally still took place on home soil. The third age, which is now emerging, is one in which companies start to transfer the location of their head offices to different countries in an attempt to include more 'local' considerations in the decision-making process. Most companies are somewhere between the second and third ages.

If the concept of the existence of three ages is used as a premise for the choice of reading materials, then the inclusion of literature emanating from these periods in history can be seen as an attempt to bring a historical perspective to the debate, as well as investigating what texts are pro- or anti-globalization. The combination of both the identification of historical and stance-related perspectives is seen as a means to encourage and expand student 'schemata' (their knowledge of the world), the latter area of which possibly approaches content-based teaching for those unaware of some the issues under debate.

The texts have been chosen from the following sources and are, in most cases, often the first few pages of each source outlining the thesis of the book or article:

Hindle (2003) The Third Age of Globalization
Jacobs, Lent and Watkins (2003) Progressive Globalization
Klein (2001) No Logo
Klein (2002) Fences and Windows
Ohmae (1994) The Borderless World
Round (2000) Time for Tobin New Internationalist
Tugendhat (1973) The Multinationals

The choice of Hindle's (2003) article is based on the fact that it informs the reader of the historical perspectives of globalization which are then used as one of the criteria to guide students through their subsequent reading texts. In terms of the other materials, Jacobs et al (2003) expose the students to a politically left-wing stance on globalization, outlining some of the negative social consequences of uncontrolled direct foreign investment in third world countries, yet retaining some fundamental support for a free-market approach. The two texts from Klein (2001 and 2003) take a more aggressive anti-globalization stance, again pin-pointing negative social effects of globalization worldwide to the extent where globalization is seen as undermining the social fabric of some countries. The articles from the early years of the New Millennium (Hindle, Jacobs et al, Klein) all address the downside of globalization to varying degrees. To expose students to older literature adopting a more pro-globalization perspective, extracts from Ohmae's (1994) Borderless World and Tugendhat (1973) are used. These views focus more upon the positive effects that globalization is said to have on societies and the business community.

This literature choice is clearly a subjective one, open to debate in itself as to what materials best represent the various stances about globalization and the ethical nature of multinational activities through time. The debate is potentially one which is highly political, apart from the multitude of economic, social and ecological considerations which can also exist. However, the choice is not intended as definitive and the process of arguing about what literature best represents stances and ages is in itself another potential source of constructive debate among teachers and even students themselves. Particularly of interest was the contrast, when first implemented in the syllabus, in the personal, national and regional viewpoints among the students themselves in the debate. One argument put forward by West African students in my own classes was the lack of an 'African perspective' among the literature. The Chinese students noted the absence of a Chinese voice in the materials despite the fact that China has experienced phenomenal economic growth and was often referred to by various writers. These were, and remain, valid comments which can help to shape the future choice of literature. In response, though, to claims of the choice of inappropriate materials, it is, in fact, the linguistic and concept-based analyses, enhanced through the matrices, which are the core foci in the proposed lesson plan. Reflection on materials forms a secondary objective to what is, fundamentally, an English preparation class. I will now turn to those core foci by showing what linguistic objectives the students could be set when presented with the literature.

Linguistic objectives

In terms of what linguistic objectives this literature can meet, there are perhaps two main criteria for their choice. The first focuses on tense since the three ages identified in the texts involve use of simple past and past habit ("IBM invested in….", "BT used to trade with…"), and can be supplemented by comparing different ages through the past perfect simple and progressive ("This company had been cutting wood forests without license before government controls were implemented"). The second focuses on the use of present tenses ("US companies are now exploiting the South American markets.."). Finally, future tenses, conditionals and speculative language can be used for the texts relating to the third age of globalization ("future managers will have to outsource production facilities", "companies are likely to face more demands for disclosure..").

The specific topic-related lexis is also an area which requires exploitation by the teacher. The exposure to the students of vocabulary (like "offshoring", "outsourcing", "hollowing out") is one source of input from the material, as is the contrast, for higher level students perhaps, of the change of tone and vocabulary between authors who are pro- or anti-globalization. This contrast in lexical style could represent for more advanced students a way to identify so-called "genres" among pro- or anti-globalization authors.

The successful acquisition of such lexis, however, requires the students to consider additionally the type of strategies necessary to manage the task of processing and working with the literature. These strategies are described below in the methodological approach.

Methodological approach

I will now describe the specific methodological steps to be taken to practice those strategies. They involve, firstly, choosing the correct reading strategies to process the texts. The second step is how to orally interact with other students to collect information about texts they have read, like an information gap exercise. This is, then, a multi-modal reading and speaking-based methodology, involving skimming to get the "gist" of a passage, and summarizing it in written and then spoken form. The recognition of the difference between written and spoken genres is also an important teaching point to monitor during this process.

To focus the students on a step-by-step progression through these potentially difficult tasks, a matrix is utilized so that students have a clear visual structure, along with a limited amount of space to write the information in which encourages key word selection (Grabe and Stoller, 2002). This is fundamentally an adoption of an "active" reading approach in which students are engaged collaboratively in processing the literature beyond the surface meaning. According to Davies (1995), this stands in contrast to passive reading which requires the completion of purely language-focused tasks and moves students into a more critical understanding of the underlying coherence and logic in the texts.

This active reading is clearly more challenging to the learner and so, to aid them in that process, matrices can be employed to help students trace the essential concepts in the text, termed by Waller (1981) as the "visual argument" constructed by the writer. This 'road-map' through the text should also engage the reader, I would argue, in more than a comprehension of the non-surface elements, i.e. the main arguments and overlying stance, but also some surface related features, such as key vocabulary which has led the reader to an understanding of the larger non-surface concepts. In my proposed matrices, this "transfer of information" (Nuttall, 1996, p. 195) entails the inclusion of sections which ask the reader to identify lexis which encapsulates a key concept; in effect, inter-complimentary bottom-up and top-down processing is required. Additionally, in order for the lesson mode of reading to be transformed into an interactive speaking mode between the students, a section in the matrices requires students to reflect upon and react to the concepts in the text. Since the subject-matter being read is one which is relevant to student lives, this interaction between text and reader has often been strongly evoked, as can be seen in table 1 which was completed by an African student.

The seven texts require the following information to be entered. Hindle's (2003) article is used as an example in table 1:

Table 1: The Matrix

In the matrix above, the fundamental "stance" (for, against or neutral) needs to be identified, followed by the "main arguments" and the "age of globalization" from which the material emanates. These are the most important objectives in reading, requiring, by means of skimming, key words to be written which crystallize the text's main points. Specifically focusing on main vocabulary and expressions then requires the students to choose what lexical items ("Main vocab/expressions") they consider to be relevant in the main arguments. Following this, in preparation for a final oral stage of the lesson, their own reactions (seen in the matrix in "Your stance to text") to the text is needed, for example, how they agree or disagree with the text, or what they consider the author has failed to address.

The specific steps which this materials writer advocates to exploit the texts with the matrix are suggested as follows:

Give each student two or three texts out of the available seven (adopting a jigsaw reading approach). Each student receives a different set of texts. The objective is to complete the matrix categories by reading their own texts and summarizing them, then gather the remaining text information. In brief:

1. Students read and summarize their texts.
2. Students interact orally to ask and answer questions regarding the missing texts.

At this point, students should have an almost completed matrix in front of them. The next stage is to exchange opinions on their particular stances to the texts they have read and found out about ("Other stances"). It may be the case that some students want to read all texts themselves before passing judgment on those they have not read, however, time limitations may exclude this extra reading stage. In any case, the lesson 'mode' has progressed on to an oral exchange based on the expression of opinions about the texts they have read. Some students may actually be more trusting of the summaries of other classmates and feel ready to evaluate them on that basis. This stage clearly is one which is an accumulation of vocabulary and comprehension acquired so far, an orally productive one in which students are to be encouraged to represent their own stances and justify them in small groups.

In brief, the use of such matrices provides a type of linguistic and conceptual "scaffold" (Diaz-Rico and Weed, 2002) upon which Business English students can use as a guide through their multi-modal reading, note-taking, and discussion activities. It can also be argued that this support to language output is a type of learning strategy, which is, as Chamot et al (1999) point out, "observable" since the teacher can actually see the students fill in the matrix with appropriately concise and accurate language.

Conclusions

This article has shown how literature from different times, or "ages", in the globalization debate can be taught in the Business English classroom through the use of matrices. The skills of reading, summarizing and oral interaction encourage linguistic and critical analysis of the selected materials. As a note about the literature, it is argued that the choice of what represents valid reading material is open to debate both among teachers and students, inducing a new process which in itself can be seen as an extension to the objective of enabling students to think critically about globalization. Overall, the sensitive and evocative nature of the subject-matter, along with potentially difficult lexis, is viewed as a challenge to most students. It is a challenge, though, that carries with it great potential benefit in adding more relevance to Business English materials. Furthermore, it can be argued that a sense of "common ground" (Clark, 1996) is created among the classroom participants since they are encouraged to interact with each other and critically analyze the material in terms its suitability of choice. This new rapport, so to speak, is seen as one in which students actively engage with materials collaboratively. To aid this deeply reflective process, the interaction with the reading material and collaboration with fellow students through the matrices presents a clear focus for reading and speaking, possibly a methodology which is not sufficiently exploited in Business English teaching for university preparation.

References

Chamot, A. U. , Barnhardt, S., El-Dinary, P. B. and Robbins, J. (1999). The
LearningStrategies Handbook. New York: Longman.

Clark, H. H. (1996). Communities, commonalities, and communication. In
Gumperz, J. J. and Levinson, S. C. (Eds.) Rethinking Linguistic Relativity
(pp. 324 - 355) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Davies, F. (1995). Introducing Reading. London: Penguin English Applied
Linguistics.

Diaz-Rico, L. T. and Weed, K. Z. (2002). The cross-cultural, language, and
academic development handbook: A complete K-12 reference guide (2nd
edition) Boston: Ally & Bacon.

Grabe, W. and Stoller, F. L. (2002). Teaching and researching reading.
London: Longman.

Hindle, T. (2003). The third age of globalization. The World in 2004. The
Economist, pp.109-110.

Jacobs, M., Lent, A. and K. Watkins. (2003). Progressive Globalization.
Fabian Ideas 608. London: The Fabian Society.

Klein, N. (2001). No Logo. London: Flamingo.

Klein, N. (2002). Fences and Windows. London: Flamingo.

Nuttall, C. (1996). Teaching reading skills in a foreign language. Oxford:
Macmillan Heinemann.

Ohmae, K.(1994). The Borderless World. London: HarperCollins.

Round, R. (2000). Time for Tobin! New Internationalist. January-February,
No. 320. http://www.newint.org/issue320/tobin.htm

Tugendhat, C. (1973). The Multinationals. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

This article is reproduced with the permission of the Between the Keys, the newsletter publication of the JALT Materials Writers' Special Interest Group. A previous version was originally published in Between the Keys (2004) XII, Number 1, pp. 6-9.