What English is the “right” English to use for business talk? What about for corporate texts? Does it differ from company to company?
Nordic Editors and Translators is pleased to invite you to a special lecture on 20 April following the theme English in Business & Business in English: English matters in the multilingual reality of multinational companies. Anne Kankaanranta of the Aalto University School of Business will present her research on English as a business lingua franca and ‘corporate language’. Her findings and knowledge of how business English is used in practice will be valuable to anyone working with business-related texts.
A three euro donation for the use of the bookshop space is requested.
Time: 6:00 pm
Date: 20 April 2016
Place: Arkadia International Bookshop, Nervanderinkatu 11
Abstract:
In multinational companies, English may have an official status as a/the corporate language or it may represent a pragmatic choice among multilingual employees with no other shared language. Although practitioners typically talk about ‘English’ in both cases, researchers in international business communication make a distinction between the two. On the one hand, English is conceptualized as a native language (ENL) and on the other, as a shared resource used by speakers of different mother tongues (BELF; English as business lingua franca). In my talk, I’ll be addressing two questions: what exactly does this dual role of English entail and what kind of English ‘matters’?
BIO
Anne Kankaanranta, PhD, is Senior University Lecturer, Organizational Communication, Department of Management Studies, Aalto University School of Business. On the undergraduate level, her teaching focuses on English business communication skills and on the graduate level, she teaches in the Master’s Program in Corporate Communication. Her research interests include the concept of English as business lingua franca (BELF), ‘corporate language’ and various aspects of global corporate communication. She has published in, e.g., English for Specific Purposes, Journal of Business Communication, and Public Relations Review. As a visiting scholar/lecturer, she has worked in, e.g., Centre for Global Englishes, University of Southampton (UK); Aarhus University (Denmark) and University of Michigan (USA).
