Business Discourse
across ‘cultures’:
data selection, collection and analysis
Francesca Bargiela
(What I said in the)
Abstract

personal chronology of business discourse
research

changes in methodological approaches that
have characterised the evolution of business
discourse research.

issues of data selection, collection and
analysis (in research across ‘cultures’)
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Applied linguistics, LSP, ESP,
and ……………………
Applied linguistics
 Language(s) for Specific Purposes
 English for Specific Purposes

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…….
Business Discourse
A definition…

‘the interaction which takes place between individuals
whose main activities are located within business and
whose contact is motivated by matters relating to their
respective businesses’ (Bargiela-Chiappini and
Nickerson 1999: 2).
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The relationship between reality
and teaching materials

Marian Williams (1988)

EFL: The gap between ‘theory’ and practice
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The analysis of
Business Discourse is…..

…….contextual and intertextual, self-reflexive and
self-critical, although not necessarily political, and is
founded on the twin notions of discourse as
situated action and language as work.

Linguistics ‘applied’?
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Business Discourse:
a personal chronology
1.
2.
3.
‘Prehistory’ : 1970s-80s
History: 1990s
Recent developments: 2000s
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Business Discourse: a personal chronology
1. ‘Prehistory’

(Before my time….) The Seventies: language audits, language
needs analysis (text analysis) (LSP)

The Eighties: negotiation studies (quantitative methods/simulated
data); business correspondence and documentation (genre analysis)

Lampi (1986) real-life negotiations + linguistic analysis;
Europe: LSP/ESP → text analysis (grammar, vocabulary, text structure)
US: business communication → ‘how-to’ approaches
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The Seventies: language needs analysis; genre analysis (LSP/ESP)
GENRE ANALYSIS: John Swales and his generic model of the ‘research article’
- MOVES & STEPS Move 1: Establishing a Territory

Step 1: Claiming Centrality

and/or

Step 2: Making Topic Generalisations

and/or

Step 3: Reviewing Items of Previous Research
Move 2: Establishing a Niche

Step 1A: Counter-claiming

or

Step 1B: Indicating a Gap

or

Step 1C: Question Raising

or

Step 1D: Continuing a Tradition
Move 3: Occupying the Niche

Step 1A: Outlining Purposes

or

Step 1B: Announcing Present Research

Step 2: Announcing Principal Findings

Step 3: Indicating Research Article Structure
(from: GENRE A NA LYS I S : A KEY TO A THEORY OF ESP?
By T Dudley-Evans – 2000)
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The Eighties…
FIELDS/APP-ROACHES
METHODS/DATA TYPE
1.
quantitative methods (simulated data)
2.
qualitative methods: genre analysis,
text analysis, contents analysis
(business correspondence/business
documentation)
1.
negotiation studies →
2.
genre studies →

Lampi (1986)


My experience ….. (needs

analysis, ISP, simulated
negotiations….)
→

First linguistic analysis of
business negotiations
DATA (access, selection,
analysis) +
METHODS (survey, genre
analysis, speech acts analysis )
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Lampi (1986) Linguistic components of strategy in business
negotiations.
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Business Discourse: a personal chronology
2. History

Nineties:


Boden (1994) meetings + CA;
Bargiela and Harris (1997) meetings +pragmatics
and DA + comparative analysis
3 important developments:
from written to spoken language
 ethnographic approaches to BD
 multi-disciplinarity

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The Nineties…..
FIELDS/APPROACHES
1.
METHODS/DATA TYPE
business discourse (+inter and
cross-cultural+multi-method)
→
2.
genre studies /discursive
approaches (+multimodal)→
3.
politeness studies

1.
2&3 qualitative methods: genre
analysis/ multimodal
analysis/emails, websites, new
corporate documents→ CSR)
CA + social theory (meetings)
Boden (1994)



qualitative methods: pragmatics,
social psychology, DA, CA, CDA/ reallife negotiations, meetings,
presentations etc.
My experience….

written correspondence and authentic
negotiations (BC projects) ;
organisational ethnography; meeting
analysis
→

DATA (access, selection, analysis)
METHODS (speech act analysis,
pragmatics, ethnography, interviews,
observation, sense-making)
(Organisation studies + management
studies)
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Boden (1994) The business of talk.
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Business Discourse: a personal chronology
3. Recent developments

Multidisciplinarity → + dialogue with the US
Multi-method research

Business Discourse goes East (ELAB)


Intercultural communication and the ‘cultural
other’:
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The 2000s:
Business Discourse → Asian Business Discourse(s) (1)

Cross-field dialogue → US (management
communication, organisational communication,
business communication, rhetorical analysis ….
→ UK+Australia (organisational discourse)

Interculturality → collaboration with Asian
countries (China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand….=
ELAB network)
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Future developments:
Business Discourse as a metaphor for dialogue

Multi-disciplinary….


socio-pragmatics, intercultural pragmatics, critical
anthropology, critical cultural studies, cultural
sociology, cultural psychology, hermeneutics, ….
Multi-method…

DA, CA, ethnomethodology, rhetorical analysis,
ethnography, multi-modal analysis, visual analysis…
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Business Discourse research:
some trends






From written to spoken data
From quantitative to qualitative approaches
From mono-method to multi-method
From intra-cultural to cross- and inter-cultural
From Euro- (and US-) centred to ‘international’
From mono- to multi-disciplinary
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