Plurilingual and intercultural proficiency are a part of the key competences in international business. In companies operating internationally, business people use several languages at the same time, switching and mediating between languages and cultures.
Thus far, the teaching of languages and communication included in academic economic education has targeted monolingual skills, whereas plurilingual competences, such as changing between languages, mediating activities and transfer strategies, have been disregarded.
This research and development project starts by focusing on international business communication: What kind of multilingual situations do business people encounter in international contacts? Which linguistic and cultural competences are required and used, in other words, what kind of plurilingual competence is necessary?
The plurilingual learning objectives for professional language curricula are then derived from the results of the needs analysis.
The project is interdisciplinary covering both subjects and languages. Based on the approaches of multilingual research, plurilingual situations and their demands in international business life are charted, and the competences necessary to cope in these situations are deduced. This analysis provides a foundation for developing global learning objectives, and plurilingual curricula in language didactics. Synergies in language learning are also expected in economic education, as well as an improvement in plurilingual
and intercultural competences; resulting in more competent staff in
international business communication.
The project is linked to the results from studies on awareness, attitudes, and strategies in plurilingual learning.
Key words: plurilingualism, international business, language didactics.
Project workers: Eeva Boström and Joachim Schlabach, Unit for Languages and Business Communication / Department of Marketing and International Business