Cross-Cultural Analysis of English and Italian Economic Discourse:

Cross-Cultural Analysis ofEnglish and Italian EconomicDiscourse: ExpressingOpinion and AttitudeKsenija Juretić, Ph.D.Tamara Pirjavec Marčeta, B.A.Kristina Kaštelan, M.A.University of Rijeka, Faculty of Economics, Rijeka, Croatia

What is common to alllanguages? Communicative function: theprimary need of human beings toexchange ideas , to express ourattitudes and share our beliefs witheach other in order to be mutuallyappreciated for WHO WE ARE, WHAT WE DO WHAT WE BELIEVE IN.A speaker (a creator of a message) Listener (an active recepient

Today’s business environment European integration, globalization national boundaries losing theirmeaning as economic frontiers:organizations are crossing their nationalborders REENGENGINEERING (Hammer&Champy, 1993): Fundamental rethinking and radicalredesign of business processes toachieve dramatic improvement incritical, contemporary measures ofperformance: COST , QUALITY,

Business language (LSP) The focus on performance – theprimary function Business communication- to maintainsocial and business relationship(international business transactions,meetings, conferences, socializing…) Professional and scientific economicdiscourse: to inform (precise, concise,objective)

THE MAIN OBJECTIVES (1) to review the influence of theInternet on business language andculture (2) traditional categorization oflanguage competence vs.Communicative competence (3) expressing attitudes, opinions andbeliefs in English and Italian:similarities and differences

Internet, business language andculture Internet- the link is simply a mechanism toenable Hypertext to come into being.A creator: WWW of human achievements, discoveries andinnovations –click on the InternetA user: Advantages: speed -navigate, surf, search ,have a better perspective than a predecessor Drawbacks: speed (wrongly formulated e-mail,use it in excess) English predominant,communication barriers…

Business LanguageThe English language we use as a worldwide acceptedmedium of communication at internationalconferences/ meetings is not culture-bound. although it is great to have English as lingua franca,our proposal is that other languages should be givenequal importance in education.To achieve this we must broaden our views and deepen ourunderstanding of cultural and sub-cultural contexts ofany language we learn or teach in order to gainthe‘authentic language performance’.

The Lewis Model classifies different cultures according tothree ‘poles’ representing different typesof behaviour: Multi-active – warm, emotional,loquacious, impulsive ( SouthernEurope, Latin America and Africa); Linear-active – cool, factual, decisiveplanners (Britain, the USA, Germany,Switzerland); Reactive – courteous, amiable,accommodating, compromiser, goodlistener (Japan, Vietnam, China, Korea,

Anglo-Saxon vs.ItalianLINEAR ACTIVEMULTI-ACTIVEcool, factual, decisiveplanners, their body languageis more controlled and handgestures very moderate whileexpressing their attitudes andopinions.essentially individualist and‘universalists’ – they thinkrules apply to every body.Focused, confrontationpossible, but ready tocompromiseemotional, loquacious andimpulsive, their bodylanguage and hand gesturesto punctuate an expressionand give their attitudes andopinions a shading that theword or phrase itself lacks.essentially collectivist and atthe same time ‘particularist’ -they believe that personalrelationships and friendshipsshould take precedence overrules and regulations.do many things at the sametime; they are flexible, goodat changing plans and happyto improvise.

Language knowledge vs.Communicative competenceTraditional approach: Focused on 4 skills and3 aspects ofknowledge: Grammatical(vocabulary,morphology and syntax) Textual (cohesion,rethorical orconversationalorganisation) Sociolinguistic(varieties, registersand culturalreferences)Communicativecompetence:Judgments on what is: systamaticlly possible(what the grammarwill allow); Pshycho-linguisticallyfeasable ( what themind will allow); Socio-culturallyappropriate ( whatsociety will allow)

Communicative successDepends on:BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE –past experience, current input, situational andcultural contextDISCOURSE DOMAIN- an internal interpretation as a cognitive constructcreated by a language learner/user for inter-language development and use.Sufficient contextual cues it would enable usto recognize them in the environment, identify the situationand our role in it.Insufficient- insecurity, poor communicative performanceSTRATEGIC COMPETENCE is a mediator between the internal traits of thelanguage user’s background knowledge and language knowledge andthe external characteristics of the situational and cultural context, controlling theinteraction between them

• Both we, as teachers of language for specific purpose (LSP),and our students should broaden our views on cultural andsub-cultural aspects of a language in order ]to achievethe ‘authentic language performance’.• The three ‘poles’ representing different types of behaviour:Multi-active, Linear-active and Reactive, may serve as signpostson the fast track by offering us contextual clues for teaching,learning, operating and living in this global world of ours.•to appreciate = to understand(different cultural contextsand be aware of their similarities and differences)