Implications for language teaching

One of the main aims of the study was to examine the language needs of the companies in order to gather information to develop the language education at Karelia UAS. This section discusses the implication of the results for language education in higher education, namely in

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relevant fields regarding the target companies, so the occupational language teaching in engineering and business programs. According to Kantelinen and Airola (2009: 38–40) the language education in universities of applied sciences can be placed into the framework of Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP). They state that “Languages for Specific Purposes studies should be field-specific, real-life related, authentic, practically- and goal-oriented in order to fulfil the requirements of working life” (Kantelinen and Airola 2009: 38).

Keeping these directions of LSP in mind, the results of this study provide possibilities for developing English teaching at Karelia UAS in multiple ways. First, the results can be used to assess what kind of needs and expectations employers have for their employees overall, thus offering possibilities to allocate and direct the emphasis and key points of the language education for the specific fields of business and engineering. One of the current points of emphasis in LSP, as well as in the Finnish language education principles, is authenticity

(Mustaparta et al. 2015: 14–16). Thus, in pursuit of authenticity in English teaching, the results give insight into what kind of situations should be practiced during the education, and what kind of language skills should be the main focus of the teaching. Furthermore, the results can be used for planning curricula, courses, lessons, or even single tasks. The overall results can help focus the contents of the teaching on the most important aspects of language use and skills in regard to the future work of the students, while the detailed descriptions of language use and needs offer great possibilities for using authentic situations as basis for lessons or tasks.

The specific situations and descriptions, which can be used for recreating authentic situations or exercises will not be exemplified nor expanded here, as the data is so multifold. However, the different implications for emphasis, curricula planning or allocating the language

education are discussed further. From the results of the present study, the main implications for occupational language education are emphasis on oral communication, relieving

emphasis on occupational vocabulary, communicativeness over faultless language, and the encouragement for learning multiple languages. Additionally, the key themes in the findings, such as the effect of digitalization and globalization, or the increase in internal

communication, should be taken into account in language education as well.

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The results show that employers expressed a strong need and preference towards oral skills, namely conversation skills, in what they need or expect from their employees regarding English language skills. Additionally, the employers emphasized the courage to use the language or the ability to achieve a goal or successful communication rather than speaking flawless English phonetically or grammatically. This has a rather straightforward implication into language teaching, as the role of practicing oral communication should be emphasized in the teaching. This is very much in line with latest trends in basic language education, as the Finnish national core curricula do highlight the communicative approach and conversation skills: the goal is not to achieve flawless production of English, but rather to communicate the information forward and to be understood (Finnish National Board of Education 2014: 348–

349; Finnish National Board of Education 2019a: 180-184). Similar approaches are visible in the Common European Framework for Languages (Council of Europe 2001: 101–130), in which pragmatic competences, such as conversation skills, and sociolinguistic competences, such as phrases and cultural competences are emphasized alongside traditional linguistic

competences. In the field of industry and business, this has additionally been identified by linguistic scholars: Kankaanranta and Louhiala-Salminen (2010) emphasize BELF

competences, according to which the competence in speaking English should be assessed in achieving goals related to work or succeeding in communication situations. Additionally, this fulfills one of the core directions of LSP, which is the nature of studies being practically- or goal-oriented (Kantelinen and Airola 2009: 38).

Language teaching in universities of applied sciences does not follow a national curriculum that would direct the teaching, but different institutions have their own curricula, which are usually focused on specific courses and their contents. In the case of Karelia UAS, all English courses have their own descriptions and plans of the goals and contents of the courses. In the engineering and business programs of Karelia UAS, the central goals are quite specific in different programs, containing some themes related to spoken communication, such as small talk, presentations, meetings and negotiations, customer service, telephone situations and talking about one’s own work and studies (Karelia UAS 2021). It seems that the different oral situations and emphasis on conversation skills has already been quite extensively

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acknowledged in the English teaching. However, the interviewees in the present study did additionally highlight the courage to use the language with foreigners in oral situations, which was mentioned as a considerable challenge for many employees. Furthermore, the

interviewees emphasized the importance of customs and politeness in addition to the more technical communication, which should definitely be taken into account in language teaching as well. Based on the results of the present study, there is still room for improvement in the oral skills of the employees (see excerpts 88–91), implying that the emphasis on spoken communication and conversation skills in formal language education in the engineering and business programs could be more significant.

In current teaching, occupational vocabulary is quite heavily emphasized in the course

contents and curricula (Karelia UAS 2021). While the employers in the present study regarded it as important, one of the key findings was that employees are expected to learn the more specific occupational vocabulary at work, and not in formal education. This raises the question, whether the emphasis on occupational vocabulary in language courses should be decreased in favor of other contents and skills, such as spoken communication or specific important communication situations, such as customer service, emails, meetings and

negotiations or telephone situations. Furthermore, according to Kantelinen and Airola (2009:

39), the focus in LSP has already shifted from only learning specialized occupational

vocabulary to familiarizing the students with comprehensive intercultural and occupational contexts, thus encouraging to further direct the teaching away from only specialized

vocabulary.

Furthermore, some of the interviewees in the present study mentioned that employees would need competences in intercultural communication, especially in cultural knowledge, as well as understanding different accents in conversation. If the incorporation of conversation skills and intercultural communication skills into the course contents proves difficult due to limited amount of time and resources, the themes can easily be included in different working

methods in the course. Based on the results of this study, it is highly recommended to use oral exercises and simulated situations even when practicing something unrelated such as occupational vocabulary. Similarly, ear training for different accents or including intercultural

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communication in tasks can be realized through using authentic material from different parts of the world, or even cooperating with international students or students from different countries. The use of diverse models of English for spoken communication is especially important, as an overwhelming majority of the companies estimated that their English interactions happen with non-native speakers of English, rather than native speakers.

Furthermore, one of the major trends visible in the results, globalization, heavily invokes the use globally diverse contexts, models and situations. In addition, the native standards in English teaching have been questioned in previous research as well (see Cogo 2012). Overall, following the premises of LSP in producing authentic and real-life -related language teaching (Karjalainen and Airola 2009: 39), the models and interactions should mimic the ones

dominating the English use in Finnish working life.

One of the major implications of the present study for language education was the

encouragement to learn multiple languages. The companies expressed their need for multiple languages on several occasions. The languages that were highlighted most among the target companies were Russian and Chinese. The role of other languages besides English was mainly auxiliary: a proficiency in another language was not expected, but it was strongly valued by the interviewees. The knowledge of another language was seen as an asset in recruiting situations, as well as useful in different situations at work. Similar results have been presented in previous studies (see Räisäinen and Karjalainen 2018; Elinkeinoelämän

keskusliitto 2014), reinforcing the expressed needs of the interviewees of the present study.

Furthermore, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages campaigns for plurilingual competences as well, emphasizing the significance of broad plurilingual

competences consisting of many different languages (Council of Europe 2001: 2–5). Some interviewees were concerned enough to specifically state that current students should learn more foreign languages, as the number of speakers of different foreign languages was perceived to be in decline. These expressions of worry mirror the current direction and state of learning foreign languages Finland. According to the national study on the status and levels of language competences in Finland (Pyykkö 2017: 112), the language competences of Finns are narrowing, as learning languages focuses mainly on English, while learning other foreign languages has become less popular. The concern has been expressed in previous studies as

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well, as both students and teachers in Finnish universities of applied sciences have reported that the opportunities to study additional languages were in fact too narrow (Vaarala et al.

2021: 92–93). Thus, the results of this study, as well as the current situation of language competences in Finland imply that student in Karelia UAS should be encouraged to learn other languages in addition to English. Furthermore, the possibility of offering Chinese as an optional language should be assessed, as the need for the language was mentioned in the present study, as well as in several previous studies (Räisänen and Karjalainen 2018; Pyykkö 2017: 112, 114). However, it should be acknowledged that learning multiple languages is not always beneficiary: according to Lehtonen and Karjalainen (2009: 418), who examine whether the language skills of graduates and the language needs of employers meet, there are often problems of mismatch. On some occasions the company does not require any additional language skills the employee might have, which can even lead to dissatisfaction at work (ibid.).

In regard to the different contexts of English use in the companies, the increase of English in internal communication has strong implications for the language teaching in higher

education. As the context of using English is more and more often inside one’s own company, the situations which are practiced and simulated in language education should accommodate this. In addition to practicing using English with customers or clients and foreign contacts, the situations should include everyday internal communication (see excerpts 22, 31–33, 42, 43, 53, 98). For instance, when practicing with email exercises, the focus should be extended from reclamations or sales inquiries to internal notices and inquiries. The target of the

communication situation should be assessed similarly in many of the commonly practiced situation, such as telephone conversations or meetings and negotiations, and practice situations of internal communications as well.

The key theme of digitalization has some implications for the English teaching at Karelia UAS as well. As the contexts and situations of English use become increasingly digital or virtual, the exercises and simulated situations in language education should match the increasingly digitalized communication accordingly. This means utilizing digital and virtual communication tools as a part of the exercises in the courses, or even practicing competences related to digital communication, such as using different software or applications. According to the

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results of the present study, especially spoken, real time communication through virtual tools is increasing rapidly, and is therefore recommended to be added to the curriculum as an important context of language use to familiarize. However, according to Pyykkö (2017: 114) the effects of digitalization on language use are extremely difficult to predict. Thus, the

currently visibly trends, such as virtual meetings and the ever-increasing use of emails should definitely be taken into account in developing language education, but radical changes should not be implemented.