Today most of the on-the-job language training in Finland is conducted by Finnish business language schools. The pedagogical contents and proficiency targets of those schools vary widely. Moreover, diagnostic tests are not always carried out or they are not very advanced. However, studies have shown that businesses want training that is individually targeted and accurate. The language trainers should thus be professionals and able to adjust teaching in various contexts. There is a need for highly specialized teachers who can teach advanced students. Professional vocabulary as well as getting to know different genres of speech have been mentioned among the most needed skills. Also, the teachers must be able to motivate and make the student experience feelings of success. (Sajavaara and Salo 2007).
ELF research is a response to the new, more global context of English. If ELF awareness can help learners by increasing motivation, would it not be time to give this information to the ELF speakers in the corporate setting as well? The present tendency in corporate English training, at least in Finland, is that the local NNSE teachers teach the grammar and the basics and NSE teachers are often demanded by the customers to do the rest of the work.
REVISION OF SUMMARY WRITING
Instruction:Write a summary of the text “English in Finland” based on Ella Hujala’s study “English as a lingua franca in the workplace: one-size-fits-all?”
Remember that an effective summary must follow the rules given below. An effecvtive summary:
Begins with an introductory sentence that states the article's title and author and restates its thesis or focus;
Includes all of the article's main points and major supporting details;
Deletes minor and irrelevant details;
Combines/chunks similar ideas;
Paraphrases accurately and preserves the article's meaning;
Uses student's own wording and sentence style;
Uses quotation marks when using phrasing directly from the article or source;
Includes only the article's ideas; excludes personal opinion;
Reflects article's emphasis and purpose;
Recognizes article's organization;
Stays within appropriate length; is shorter than the original;
Achieves transition through use of author's name and present-tense verb;