"English? - Oh, it's just work!": A study of BELF users’ perceptions

Abstract

With the increasing number of business professionals operating globally, knowledge of successful English lingua franca in business contexts (BELF) has become an important element in overall business know-how. Here, we report on a research project focusing on everyday BELF communication at work. It consists of an extensive survey, and related interviews among international business professionals. In addition to offering some quantitative data on communicative situations, the survey results show the respondents’ views of situation-specific factors in their communicative situations in relation to each other. Our findings suggest that English in today’s global business environment is “simply work” and its use is highly contextual. Thus, knowledge of the specific business context, the particular genres used in the particular business area, and overall business communication strategies are tightly intertwined with proficiency in English, which impacts upon teaching.