The Concepts Of Belf Essays Examples

Business communication

Introduction
A lingua franca is the practice of learning a foreign language because there is the need to acquire communication skills in it. English has been used as a lingua franca to enhance international relations especially on business fronts. Currently, more than 80% of business transactions are made in English even though the majority of users of this language are non-Native speakers. With the rise of globalization, countries and business professions have seen the need to use English as a lingua franca to enhance business competition and sustain their operations. Based on this brief overview, the paper seeks to delve on the importance of business as a lingua franca, it concepts, how it affects the global environment and the need to have a global language.

Importance of BELF and its competence in International Business

Many business corporates from a diverse cultural and language background share business information using BELF. Business English has played a role of ensuring neutrality in communication because everyone has to learn the “linking communication tool” in order to enhance meaningful communication. Apart from that, BELF users attach their culture when sharing international business information. For instance, Finish users of BELF are primarily focused on the content unlike Swedish users who seek to enhance personal relationships while using BELF (Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2013). In such case, international business users of BELF will learn cultural diversities and establish ways through which cultural association in BELF affect business operations. The use of BELF helps non-users to identify themselves with their “English” thereby making it easy to identify foreigners in their business world. For instance, A Russian communicating in English would be different from a Korean because the accents of the two languages in English are different. Business English is a wide language to be mastered as a whole; for this reason, BELF has helped users to improve the quality of language by encouraging them to learn business vocabularies that will enhance communication and hence business operations.

During the British colonization of North America, the use of English by non-Natives became common and the rise of industrialization prompted the use of Business English as Lingua Franca. By definition, a lingua franca is an adopted or learnt language between one or more than two users whose native language are not the same. The commonality aspect of learning the new language was to eliminate cultural and language barriers, which hinders effective communication and hence exchange of goods and services on the international front. Sometimes, non-Native users of Business English use it while associating it with their own culture. Such a move has encouraged acculturation because people sharing Business English can be able to learn the culture of one another.
According to Kankaanranta & Planken (2010), there are 400million native English speakers, but more than one quarter of the world are able to use English in enhancing communication even though they are not native speakers. Kankaanranta & Planken (2010) go ahead stating that over 80% of all the interactions between nonnative English speakers takes place in English. Business as a Lingua Franca matters because globalization cannot be enhanced without the adoption of Business English as a third language between two different users who are not native English speakers. Emerging economies such as China, Japan and other Asian countries have to adopt the use of Business as a Lingua Franca to expand their economies through international trade (Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2013). In the future, English might take over, become the universal primary language that allows the exchange of business information, and thus sustain trading activities of users from more than two countries. The influence on the global environment
The global environment will have to review some of the international culture of communication to allow the adoption of Business English as common language. Many business professions will be forced to learn and understand foreign culture because most users of BELF allow cultural interference to alter the originality of the adopted language (Rogerson-Revell & Louhiala-Salminen, 2010). After the whole world has adopted English as a business communication tool, trading activities are set to improve and the global economy will improve thereby improving the standards of living of people. The fast flow of information and exchange of technological expertise helps to bridge the gap between developing and developed economies. It is important to note that the adoption of BELF will not only influence business operations globally, but will also influence political ideologies of countries that adopted it. For instance, BELF users will no longer identify with either communism or capitalism because two socio-economic systems will be bound by a common language.

Importance of having a global language

It is of paramount use for many people across the world to adopt English as a global language. The rationale behind it is that globalization, which increase the level of technology among users will improve (Jenkins, 2013). Apart from that, strict cultural practices that could hinder foreign business activities would stop immediately after the adoption of the common language. Considering that difference in political ideologies across world causes many wars, the adoption of the global language will enhance peace because many people across the world will not be divided along religious lines, political affiliations or race; English will eliminate such differences.

References

Jenkins, J. (2013). English as a Lingua Franca in the International University the politics of academic English language policy. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Kankaanranta, A., & Planken, B. (2010). BELF Competence as Business Knowledge of Internationally Operating Business Professionals. Journal of Business Communication, 47(41), 380-407.
Kankaanranta, A., & Louhiala-Salminen, L. (2013). “What language does global business speak?” – The concept and development of BELF. The Concept and Development of BELF, 26(1), 17-34.
Rogerson-Revell, P., & Louhiala-Salminen, L. (2010). An Introduction to Language Matters. Journal of Business Communication, 47(4), 375-379.