Naslov
Training Croatian business English students to infer the correct meaning from job ads published by international corporations

Autori
Kabalin Borenić, Višnja ; Krnajski Hršak, Vera

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, neobjavljeni rad, stručni

Skup
AELFE 2010 IX Annual Conference of the European Association of Languages for Specific Purposes

Mjesto i datum
Hamburg, Njemačka, 19.09.2010. - 22.09.2010

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Ostalo

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
global job market ; discourse community ; business English ; reading skills ; job advertisements ; application letters

Sažetak
The objective of the study is to determine to what extent Croatian university business students (CUBSs) are able to infer the correct meaning from job vacancy advertisements published in English by international corporations. The study involved some 200 CUBSs taking Business English 1 as a compulsory course. According to the course entry requirements, students were required to have acquired a B1/B2 level of English language competence as defined by the CEFR. The ad, taken from a public web site, announced the post of financial analyst with a mobile telecommunications company in an extensive one- page text in English. To the experienced eye, it was clear that the ad did not really reflect the reality of the job itself. However, our students were not able to separate out the “commercial message”, which is the standard part of all job ads published by the respective company, from the stated and implied position requirements in the second part of the ad. Although the position advertised primarily requires precision, concentration and patience, the wording of the job ad lead students to emphasize their congeniality, thriftiness and humour(!). The students were not familiar with the “conventions of communication accepted in the discourse community” (Widdowson, 1998: 10), which induced them to misplace their focus and become preoccupied with emulating the company image rather than meeting the job requirements. This reflected negatively on the style of their applications, and the quality and relevance of the information presented within. Our findings suggest that it is vital that CUBSs' practical reading skills be enhanced so that they are able to understand each individual job ad as a text reflecting the numerous aspects of the job itself and the company/professional culture as a whole.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Filologija

Napomena
Sažetak rada u postupku je objavljivanja u zborniku.

POVEZANOST RADA