English at Work. The communicative situation of engineers

Abstract

In the formation of globally operating European or international business corporations, an increasing number of Swedish companies have been sold to owners abroad in recent years. This often implies that their head office is located abroad and their corporate language has been changed from Swedish to English. The sociolinguistic effects of the language shift and the communicative situation at work when English is used as a linguafranca in the workplace have, however, been relatively little explored. The overall aim of this study is to investigate how engineers having Swedish as their mother tongue use English at work. Focusing on written English, specific research questions concern what engineers typically write in English at work, what proficiency level is required for writing tasks in English, what strategies are used to perform writing tasks in English, and whether there are differences between male and female engineers as regards writing tasks in English. A further question dealt with in this study is to what extent courses in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in engineering programs may prepare engineers better for writing in English at work. The investigation, carried out in ten large companies and one smaller, representing various business sectors, comprises a survey with 89 respondents, ten interviews performed in five of the companies, and an analysis of different types of documents typically produced in the workplaces and written in English. Two categories of documents, reports and minutes of meetings, have been more thoroughly examined and described by means of a proposed model of document analysis. The results show that more than half of the respondents write English on a daily basis at work. The most frequently written types of text are e-letters and reports. E-letters were indicated to be the text type that requires the lowest level of English proficiency, whereas instructions and reports were considered to require a very high level of proficiency. The most frequently used strategies mentioned to perform writing tasks in English were to rely on one’s own ability, collaborate with a colleague, and consult existing similar documents. Concerning writing tasks in English in relation to gender, the unanimous opinion was that writing tasks were linked to a person’s work position rather than gender. Although containing a relatively large number of grammatical errors, especially involving verbs, the documents analysed in the present study seem to be communicatively effective, most likely due to authors’ domain knowledge and ability to apply discourse conventions such as expected thematic structures. Considering the diversity and variation observed in the nature of writing tasks and documents, it could be argued that authentic texts and data from target workplaces instead of classroom models should be used in teaching to prepare students for the diversity awaiting them in their future professional writing in English.