According to expectation violation theory, job applicants can be upgraded or downgraded during an interview when their accent does not match employers' speech expectations. Focusing on the employment of second language French job candidates in Québec, this study explored this issue dynamically in terms of how expectations may impact the trajectory…

Globalization in the banking industry has demonstrated one of the most significant necessities of today, English for Specific Purposes (ESP)-based curricula. ESP drives contemporary organizations to communicate effectively with customers, suppliers, and competitors across geographical boundaries. Therefore, it is imperative to examine learners'…

This article presents the results of a 2014 survey of more than 2,100 U.S. employers on their requirements for multilingual employees. The survey found a significant discrepancy: On the one hand, 93% of respondents "value[d] employees who…are able to work effectively with customers, clients, and businesses from a range of different countries…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs analysis of English learning from the viewpoints of students and the real needs of employers regarding English usage at the workplace. A questionnaire was administered to 60 participants comprising 30 senior students and 30 employers. After quantitative analysis, the results demonstrated that…

The primary purpose of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) is to measure the everyday English skills of individuals, who speak a first language other than English, working in an international environment (ETS, 2015a, 2016a; Powers & Powers, 2015). The TOEIC also has six secondary purposes: (1) to verify the current…

One of the greatest challenges faced by university language centers in Italy is finding ways to motivate students to complete extracurricular language courses offered to help them meet their language proficiency requirements for graduation. It was hypothesized that the root of the problem was that the existing course offerings focus too narrowly…

Employers in the UK recognise that a lack of language skills can limit their company's international growth. Many students on language degrees, however, feel unprepared for working in a business environment. The final year "Working with Languages" module on Leeds Beckett University's language degrees aims to help the students to expand…

In the second year module "Professional Contexts for Modern Languages" at Lancaster University, students take 20-25 hour placements, and using a multimodal forum, they articulate their challenges, development and understanding of the varying contexts in which they are working. In summative assessment, students across languages and types…

There is a need to expose the learners in the hospitality industry to real workplace requirement in terms of communication skills. In view of its importance, human resource managers, researchers and educators in the field of hospitality management or the hotel practitioners have to pay more serious attention to it. Thus, it is pertinent that both…

Immigrants' employment prospects depend on their underlying levels of education and technical skills as well as their ability to communicate as needed in the host-country language. Since basic language courses do not impart the host-country language skills necessary for success in the workplace, many governments on both sides of the Atlantic are…

A project to improve the literacy skills of workers in a clothing manufacturing company is reported. The goal of the project was to teach practical workplace reading and writing skills using materials and requirements of the employees, the employer, and their union. The project integrated a skills approach with a creative writing approach. The…