DEVELOPING WORKPLACE ENGLISH PROGRAMMES IN BOTSWANA

1. DEVELOPING WORKPLACE ENGLISH PROGRAMMES IN BOTSWANA Modupe Alimi Dept of English Univ. of Botswana

2. Economic growth and political stability are two important factors. can influence the linguistic landscape of a nation. crucial for the attraction and mobility of required workforce in any nation. Introduction

3. That India and China have become major players in the global economy is evidence of workforce mobility in the Asian subcontinent. Nunan (2003:595) reports change in the status of English in China in the following areas: entry requirements to university, promotional prospects in the workplace, curricula, and published materials . Examples

4. “China joining of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and awarding of the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing” Reason

5. Talk discusses suitable workplace English programmes for the emerging multicultural work environment in Botswana: What are the language needs of employees? How are the relevant language departments in the country responding to the growing demands for English in the workplace? What are the implications of the growing demand for English in Africa? Objectives

6. Multilingual and multicultural society. British Protectorate until it gained independence in 1966. Retained English as its official language. Adopted Setswana as its national language. Botswana

7. The linguistic landscape of the workplace seems to divide into two overlapping types: Workplace where English is predominantly the tool of oral and written communication (EEWP). Workplace where both English and Setswana, are used for oral communication with English dominating the written mode (ESWP). Workplace

8. Botswana - world’s largest producer of diamond. Establishment of Diamond Trading Company of Botswana. The emergence of the DTCB is expected to result in “one of the largest transfers of skills and commercial activity to Africa“ (De Beers’ chairman) Mining

9. English will probably continue to dominate as the language of official functions the language of the management for conducting the business of the organisation Setswana the language of interaction amongst employees Proficient/not proficient in English for establishing/ maintaining social relationships in the workplace. Mining

10. Tourism : another major source of revenue in the country. It is estimated that over the next ten years, Botswana’s travel will “achieve annualized real growth of 5 per cent, exceeding the world average at 4.3 per cent and the Sub-Saharan Africa at 4.5 per cent” (Botswana Tourism news). Tourism

11. Travel and tourism already accounts for over 10% of total employment and just under 16% of non-mining GDP”. (Botswana: The Impact of Travel and Tourism on Jobs and the Economy, 2007: 3) This supports the view that the economy is becoming globalized. Tourism

12. The general view is that it is necessary to prepare Batswana for careers in tourism: “the success of travel and tourism like most service-based activities, depends heavily on its labour force” who will be required to provide “high standards of customer service” (p.61). Tourism

13. Certificate courses in Travel and tourism by private and public institutions. Travel and tour companies are also springing up. Two cadres of workers: highly specialised the more general Both specialised and informal English skills will be in demand. Tourism

14. NGOs and donor organisations that may have employees who do not speak English either as a second or foreign language. Massive recruitment of health professionals from Cuba (Botswana Guardian, March 10, 2010). Health sector

15. Bokamoso Private hospital a joint venture between BPOMAS and PULA in partnership with ORI, New York and VUMC, Nashville, Tennessee. Bokamoso intends to offer a number of specialities that are not available in Botswana at present. It will hire nurses and doctors from outside the country (Sunday Standard, July 10 2009). Health Sector

16. The work environment in the commercial arm of the Aviation department seems to lean more to the ESWP. In this arena, national identity and cultural consciousness are the powerful prevailing forces. Announcement of flight schedules, boarding and other types of oral messages are relayed first in Setswana and second in English. Aviation

17. Establishment of the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana (CAAB). It is expected to employ over a thousand employees. Possible modifications in the linguistic playing field. Aviation

18. CAAB has been handicapped in recruiting personnel due to lack of the skilled personnel in the country especially in the areas of “mechanical, electrical engineering, and flight safety attendants” (Botswana Guardian, April 01, 2010). Aviation

19. The expansion of the operations of the Aviation industry and the consequent recruitment of highly specialised personnel support the need to develop workplace English programmes in Botswana. Aviation

20. Establishing the workplace language needs of any group of workers requires comprehensive needs analysis. Workplace English needs vary depending on the nature of the task and the responsibilities of the work environment. Workplace English needs

21. The specificity of learners’ needs has been criticised by a number of scholars. Hutchinson & Waters (1987) argue that the narrow angle approach of ESP is “demotivating and irrelevant to students’ needs. Common /specific needs

22. The position adopted in this talk is that “the common core approach needs to be supplemented by some attempt to define students’ (workers’) more specific needs and the actual language difficulties that they encounter in their professional lives” (Johns & Dudley- Evans 1991:303). Common /specific needs

23. Position is validated by Kaneko, Rozycki & Orr (2009: 1) who report on the language needs of computer engineering graduates at work: Perception: that speaking and listening skills are core skills. Survey : showed that reading (of manuals and instructions for installation) and writing (email faxes and business letters) are core.

24. Isolating “what learners will be required to do with the foreign language in the target situation, and how learners might best master the target language during the period of training” (West, 1994: 1). Needs Analysis

25. NA has become more detailed and specific in that it employs a variety of methods to ensure validity and reliability of results. See Long (2005), Cumaranatunge (1988) Gilabert (2005) Lasso-Aguilar( 2005) and Sullivan and Girginer ( 2002).

26. Cowling (2007) multiple methods: Interviewed employers, students, previous students (now fully absorbed). Developed two sets of questionaires: for the students and previous students/employees. Used the open-ended humanistic NA approach to enable target students to express their needs and their anxieties (Mackey & Bosquet, 1981). Research

27. Coleman (1988:1) Units in large organisations interact both synchronically and diachronically. That “an accurate description for NA purposes must be complex and dynamic”. Suggests “a two-stage NA”. Stage 1 reveals the complexity and dynamism of the organization. Stage2 focuses on the specific needs of the constituent units.

28. The process of identifying the workplace English needs for the mining, aviation and tourism industries, and the health sector in Botswana will entail a carefully developed comprehensive NA specific to each of these workplaces. Implications: 4 sectors

29. It will also involve the full participation of the workers themselves as well as their employers and other stake holders. The methods considered appropriate for soliciting information should be in accordance with the general orientation of specific workplaces. Implications: 4 sectors

30. Competency based instruction as “a data based adaptive performance oriented set of integrated processes that facilitate, measure, record and certify within the context of flexible time parameters the demonstration of known, explicitly stated, agreed upon learning outcomes that reflect successful functioning in life” (Spady,1977: 10). Competency based instruction

31. Competencies are “indicators of successful performance” in the workplace while reading and writing skills for example are merely “enablers on which the competencies depend” (Spady, 1977:10). Competency based: Advantage

32. The health industry: is generally safety driven. health related terminology and common expressions which are locality specific will be important. communication in this sector is precise and concise and such skills will also be important. Considerations

33. Aviation industry is also safety driven and is governed by international standards. Generally therefore, aviation English in Botswana should conform with ICAO regulations which comprises a complex set of language competency standards. Considerations

34. Tourism seems to consist of two different aspects: “tourism that requires technical language and formal discourse (e.g baggage loss, overbooking) and tourism requiring a more relaxed tenor as in tour guiding and holiday resorts”. (Nelson, 2003) cited in Curaado Feuentes (2004). Considerations

35. The courses drawn up for workers in this industry may benefit from these distinctions. It may also consider such skills as conversational fluency and politeness skills. Considerations

36. In the mining industry, clear communication and good cross-cultural awareness are critical. Therefore skills that promote these will benefit this category of workers. Considerations

37. English Dept - tailor made short courses: For legislative drafters (Grammar refresher course ) Staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (a course on critical thinking and writing skills) Proposed workshop for some staff of Parliament (report and speech writing for some of its staff). Proficiency course in English aimed at people who want to improve their reading, writing, grammar, listening and speaking. Response

38. The fact that no NA was conducted, makes the courses more of the general English type, which lacks specificity.

39. Proficiency course reasons for enrolling in the programme: they all need some level of improved performance in their vocations. One student who operates a franchise indicates that his special needs include oral presentation skills to sell his products and build his self confidence.

40. L2 use takes place in “innumerable social settings” outside the classroom. Such innumerable places include largely workplaces which have become globalised due to ‘migration and employment mobility’ (Firth 2009: 129). Implications: Growing needs

41. Reconceptualise English programmes especially in the universities to: prepare the students to use the language in the real world to carry out real activities. research on English language use should focus on how the language is used in those real workplaces in order to reformulate courses to respond appropriately to those needs. Reconceptualisation

42. We should ideally be “recording and studying what people do with the language in the real world to understand what the real world problems are for those speaking the language” (Schegloff) in Wong & Olsher, (2000: 122). Reconceptualisation

43. Firth and Wagner (1998:91) “communicative competence is ongoing, inchoate transitional and dynamic”. Language users in the workplace will always be ‘learners’. They are meet “new or partly known registers, styles, language related tasks, lexical items terminologies”. They need to adapt and transform of existing knowledge and competence, and acquire of new knowledge.

44. Relevant language departments need to engage with the different emerging workplaces in Botswana to conduct comprehensive needs analysis that will be useful for developing appropriate workplace English programmes. Engagement

45. Proper career structure and professional development of ESP practitioners in the continent are critical for the development of sustainable ESP programmes in Africa. Mount courses in ESP/EAP Development

46. Thank you for listening.