Language and Culture in English for Business Purposes: Noticing Their Importance Through Television Advertisements.

Farrah Diebaa Rashid Ali Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang diebaali@yahoo.com

Farrah Ahmad International Education Centre (INTEC), UiTM Malaysia farrah_leo2008@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT This study aimed to look at the awareness of Malaysian English for Business Purposes (EBP) students on the importance of using appropriate language in relation to cultural differences in an international business setting. This research was conducted as a result of several stressful hours of restating and reinforcing the importance of understanding cultural differences in written and spoken business communication to the EBP learners. Prior to the study, the students failed to see that the world communities are built of general and personal cultures. The term culture and subculture did not really bother them as they were not able to see what culture constitutes of. Hence, miscommunication caused by cultural bias was often seen in their outcomes. However, once they were able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the nine culturallyembedded television advertisements, it has been observed that the students were more sensitive towards their selection of words, phrases, sentence structures and their written or spoken styles. They were more careful when using vernacular language, idioms, over-generalization and undergeneralization words. Hence reducing the number of miscommunication possibilities caused by wrong selection of words, phrases and written or spoken styles. Thus, by arriving at such conclusion, it can be assumed that now the students have realized the important roles played by both language and culture in EBP settings.

Keywords: English for Business Purposes, Language, Culture, Television Advertisement.

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1 INTRODUCTION 1.0 Introduction Culture is undeniably important in everyday aspects of life. However, the young generations are seen to be ignorant on the sensitivity of culture, may it be theirs or others. This is resulted from their lack of awareness towards the concept of culture itself. The young generations might have been informed about certain culture especially in their own country but the understanding of the existence as well as the significance of those culture are ignored. Therefore, to introduce a culture especially global culture to the second language learners is a difficult attempt. This is because; most of the learners are used to the secondary sources of learning a language. The second language learners or the respondents of this research are the students of business. In order for them to complete their written or spoken tasks successfully, they have to be sensitive to their surroundings i.e. cultural differences. Their sensitivity is very important where at some level, they have to associate the language use with the element of culture. By understanding the culture, the students/respondents will respect and also apply their knowledge (of culture) in their studies of English language. In a broader scope, having the knowledge and understanding the culture, would allow an individual to apply it in a more appropriate form and situation. For instance, a business deal could be secured if the individual practices the above-mentioned strategies. All this is in accordance with Blooms Taxonomy which stated that there are six (6) categories or levels in ones cognitive behavior. The simplest or the lowest level is the knowledge where most of the students have had in them. Then, it is followed with the second lowest level which is comprehension. Through the presentation of nine (9) culturally-embedded television advertisements, the students comprehension and sensitivity are being observed. But, in order for the students to actually perform in their written and spoken tasks, they have to apply what they have understood into their tasks completion. Once they managed to apply both knowledge and comprehension, they are now in the third category of Blooms Taxonomy which is application. Thus, this research is done so as to identify the students of business comprehension on what it is meant by culture and how they apply their understanding in completing given tasks and assignments.

1.1 Statement of problem Majority of English as Second Language learners in Malaysia learn the language locally while attending the government primary and secondary school. Almost all these schools were taught by Malaysians and direct contact with a native speaker is not a common scene especially those of rural areas. Thus, the only sources of culture learning for the Malaysian ESL learners are secondary printed and mass media. With this limited sources, learners often face difficulties in identifying culture especially those of personal or individual culture of the native speaker.

Another contributing factor is majority of the learners perceive that culture only constitutes unique tradition which is indigenous, old or ancient. The students often easily identified things which they are not accustomed to as culture.

The processes of globalization and glocalization have also caused cultures to spread around and become popular in its new community. Thus it makes the process of culture identification becomes more difficult as the existing culture has now become integrated with the new one and thus may form a brand new culture. And this makes it more difficult for the learners to identify culture.

And most important of all, learners often do not associate language with culture. Failure to bridge the relationship between language and culture has caused many misunderstandings. For example, when one write a straight-forward letter to an English correspondence, he/she will be regarded as being cold. Whereas when an American received a letter from a Japanese counterpart, he/she will see the Japanese as being too personal/emotional.

As a result of all the above, the students are less sensitive towards cultural differences held by different countries, societies, organizations and even at smaller structural unit such as family and club. Therefore, they are not aware of problems and misunderstanding that can take place as a result of incorrect or inappropriate choice of words, phrases, sentence structure and style.

To avoid such misunderstanding, teachers have spent hours training the students selecting the most appropriate words, but the problem is the students still do not see any difference between
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them and their business correspondence, so they assume the writing style would be the same as theirs and will have no effect on the message transferred. By being aware of the cultural differences, the student were expected to be more careful in selecting words, phrases and avoid culturally-embedded idioms and vernacular language in their business dealing. With such problems in hand, the researchers decided to embark on current research.

1.2 Research objectives The objectives of this research are to look at the different elements of culture that may present in an advertisement and how such advertisement helps the English for Business Purpose students to be more sensitive of cultural differences in completing written and spoken tasks. It also aims to observe any effects the noticed cultural elements have towards the learners purchasing power.

1.3 Research questions Research questions of this paper were divided into sets of primary and secondary. There were four primary research questions and two secondary research questions.

Primary research questions: a. Were the students able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the advertisements? b. What were the different cultural elements noticed by the students? c. Was there any differences in term of cultural awareness observe in the students assignments prior and after the study was conducted? d. Were the students able to perceive the importance of minor culture interference in business setting?

Secondary research questions include: a. Did culture have any effect on viewers perception on the products/services/messages? b. Did culture have any effect on customer purchasing power?

1.4 Significance of the study As teenagers nowadays are closer to the different types of media than it has ever be, the current methodology is believe to be of high potential in helping easing up the burden of EBP trainers. This is due to the fact that both EBP trainers and learners are surrounded by abundance of television advertisements available on television channels and on the internet for their easy access. Thus, by using these television advertisements to build culture awareness among the learners, it is hope that the learners will become more sensitive of culture differences in their writing therefore minimizing such error in both written and spoken tasks, which are the ultimate objectives of an EBP course - to increase accuracy and appropriateness. Ultimately, it helps to contribute to current body of knowledge in which such method has not yet received a plausible acceptance among ESP practitioners.

1.5 Limitation of the study As the respondents were of two institutions and majoring in business related courses only, the findings of this study cannot be generalized to the overall population. The used of different advertisements from different countries than the one used in this study might also resulted different findings. This study also tend to focus more on the individual or personal culture held by an organization the advertisement belongs to rather than the general culture shares by the citizens of a country at large.

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Relationship between language and culture Communication is a process of message transfer from the encoder to the decoder through various channels. In this process, transferring the right message intended by the encoder is the ultimate goal. However, this process of transferring messages from one party to another is not as easy as it is seen especially those involving two or more different cultures. Most of the world languages are fully loaded with culturally-embedded words and phrases. Thus they often disrupt the process of meaning transfer. This is due to the fact that language and culture is highly associated with each other.

One of the arguments supporting the above statement is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. They believe that no language can exist unless it is steeped in the context of culture; and no culture can exist which does not have its center, the structure of natural language (Bassnett, 1992:14). This hypothesis stresses that the structure of a language determines how people view their atmosphere and surroundings. Thus it suggested that if one language classifies orange and brown as yellow, and another language looks at those colours as three different colours, it proves that the structure of a language helps people to register the difference between the three colours and helps them to see each colour differently. However, if all three colours are viewed simply as yellow, the speaker of that language would not perceive the difference between what is called orange, brown and yellow (Wardhaugh, 2002; Steinberg, 1993).

Even though all three colours are expressed in a single term, it does not necessarily mean that the speaker cannot differentiate between orange, brown and yellow. The differences in their view or concept of colour actually lies with the environment and the culture of the speaker, Within their speech community, they can differentiate between orange, brown and yellow without having to express it in specific terms as all the members of the society share the same background knowledge. A detailed explanation is only needed when someone from a different culture participates in the conversation. This is not only limited to the concept of colour, but it also includes time, perception, action, proper and abstract noun (Wardhaugh, 2002; Steinberg, 1993).

With reference to verbs and nouns, they contribute to half of the problems of cross-cultural communication. Different speech communities have different sets of words to describe action and noun. Usually, these sets of words refer to specific objects or actions which are not familiar to the speaker of other languages, or in other words, these terms are culturally specific object or action. For instance rokok daun or rokok gulung (leaf cigarette or rolled cigarette is a form of cigarette made by rolling dried Nipah leaf over dried tobacco). This object is culturally specific and thus it is impossible to translate literally into English as the English will neither understand nor picture this kind of cigarette. Furthermore, they do not have any ideas how a Nipah leaf looks like as the geographical area of the English community does not allow the Nipah tree to grow.

Besides concept, object and action, pragmatics is another important element of language that needs to be carefully understood (Mey, 1993). The same expressions might be understood differently in different languages as speakers understanding depends on how they view things and the environment surrounding them. It is also a culturally-related question of what is considered acceptable or taboo in a particular community. Often each society has substituted taboo words with euphemism to make them sound more polite (Wardhaugh, 2002; Steinberg, 1993).

All of the above are the evidences which prove that language and culture is two inseparable entities. One cannot function well using a language if he/she has no background understanding of the culture. A culture on the other hand cannot be inherited to next generation without a language as a medium.

2.2 Culture in English for Business Purposes (EBP) Culture can be national, professional, organizational and personal. It is not easily spotted as it is integrated within the layers of ones life, behavior and belief (Evan & St John,2001). Even though the relationship between culture and language is a subject of great debate among the linguists and sociologists, Evan and John (2001) prefer to say that language reflects culture and culture can shape language (Evan & St John, 2001; 66). Thus, having Language for Specific Purpose (LSP) as an important language learning component learnt by learners around the world, one cannot tear it apart from culture. Ideally, LSP bridges Professionals of different part of the world who are rich of cultural differences and unite them together. Therefore it is important for learners to be sensitive of these rich cultures and appreciate these unique differences to avoid misunderstanding during communication.

Trompenaar (1993) discusses seven dimensions of culture concerning relationships with other people, time and environment. Out of these seven dimensions, the relationship dimensions of neutral:emotional; individualism:collectivism; specific:diffuse; and universalism:particularism are seen as the most important in business setting. Table 2.1 below highlights briefly Trompenaar four most important dimensions of a business culture.

Table 2.1: Dichotomy of Trompenaars four most important dimensions Neutral HIGH Eye contact Space Openness in expressing feelings Emotional LOW

Individualistic HIGH Preference for working alone Competing with others Use of I Asian countries

Collective LOW Collaboration with others Use of we Canada, USA, Australia

Specific/segregating HIGH

Diffuse LOW

Different aspects of life is treated No clear boundary between different individually. aspects of life. e.g: Autralia Boss is only boss at the e.g: China Boss is the boss at all workplace. times

Universalism HIGH one good way The same plan for everybody,

Particularism LOW Encourage flexibility

everywhere

Adapted from Evan & St John, 2001

3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Sample A total of 28 Malaysian students participated in this study. These students were currently doing Diploma in Accountancy at UiTM Pahang and sitting for commerce paper at INTEC. They were of both female and male students aged 18-20 years old. These students have attended the Government school since primary one until secondary five. These two groups of students were chosen due to their future career prospects in business and accountancy settings. Thus, English for Business Purpose Course has more impact on them as compare to other students. Both groups were also doing English for Business Purpose Course at their respective institutions. These groups were also selected mainly because one was currently pursuing their study locally, and the later was preparing themselves to go abroad.

3.2 Data collection procedure The students were doing a 14 week courses on English for Business Purpose at their respective institutions. They were taught and exposed to differences and importance of cultural elements in business communication. During the first eight weeks, the students have completed several written and spoken assignments and tasks. At the ninth week, they were presented with a recording of nine culturally-embedded television advertisements. After watching each advertisement, the learners were required to respond to a set of questionnaire. The questionnaire aims to look at students awareness on the elements of culture presented in those advertisements. The students were again tested on their written and spoken business communication skills to see whether they were now more culturally sensitive than ever.

There are few instruments used in the data collection process which includes a set of television advertisement, a self-report survey and several written and spoken assignments. These items are further explained below.

3.2.1 A set of advertisements A set of twelve culturally-embedded advertisements taken from USA, New Zealand, Malaysia, German and India were selected for this study. These countries were selected due to their geographical location and their current economical and developmental state. Even though, these
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advertisements originated from both English and non-English speaking countries, only English speaking advertisements were selected.

The advertisements were of different themes ranging from festival, tourism, inculcating good behavior, food and beverages, stationery, sports, and law enforcement. These advertisements portray both general and personal culture. Some of the cultures were newly accepted by the society while others were inherited from their ancestors. It was also a combination of obvious and less-obvious culture.

3.2.2 Self-report survey Data for this study were collected through a self-report survey. A self-formulated questionnaire of nine parts was distributed to the respondents during the ninth week of an English for Business Purposes course. At this moment, the students have completed several written and spoken assignments and tasks related to business communication. These assignments and tasks served as medium to elicit information or research data from the research sample.

The questionnaire consists of 13 parts and each part consists of six items. The different parts of the questionnaire represent the different advertisement used in this research. In each part, the respondents were presented with five questions. The questions were design to seek answer for the four research questions posed earlier. The questions comprise an open-ended question, a few objective questions and likert-scale.

A self-report survey was chosen as the instrument for this research based on several factors. First, as individual response of each respondent is crucial to ensure high reliability and validity of this research, it is important for the data to be collected using method in which respondent confidentiality is highly preserved. This method ensures that each data collected is truly from the learner with no influence from others. It is also flexible for the learners to record their response without being afraid of others negative perception especially those from the course instructors or researchers as no personal information were collected.

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3.2.3 Assessments The assessment method used is a combination of both summative and formative assessment. The formative assessment took place through out the 14-week in which students need to present on business-related issues, participate in a role-play based on authentic situation, and prepare written assignments.

The assessments began at the third week of the semester. At week nine, the students were presented with the nine advertisements and the questionannire. Therefore, observations made on the assignments and presentation done in the first five weeks were set as the benchmark against the assignments and presentation done at later weeks. Learners awareness of cultural differences were scored on a scale of four.

1. Extensive used of vernacular language, loaded with culturally-embedded words/phrases. 2. Moderate used of vernacular language, occasionally used culturally-embedded words/phrases 3. Little used of vernacular language, rarely used culturally-embedded words/phrases 4. Did not use any vernacular language, free of culturally-embedded words/phrases. At the end of the semester, students cultural awareness scores prior and after the introduction of the advertisements were compared to look for any significant differences.

3.3 Data Analysis The findings of this research were analyzed in term of frequency counts and this was done with the aid of SPSS version 17. The findings of this study were presented and further discussed in the following chapters.

4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The findings of this study are discussed in two headings which are the primary and secondary research findings:

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4.1 Primary research findings and discussions

4.1.1 Were the students able to notice the different cultural elements presented in the advertisements? Table 4.1: Number of respondents who were able to notice cultural elements in the advertisements (n==28).
15 10 5 0

UiTM

INTEC

The findings suggested that the students were able to notice the existence of cultural elements in the advertisements with the frequency of 87%. It was easier for the students of both institutions to notice the cultural elements presented in Malaysian-made advertisements (advertisements 4 and 6) as compared to those of American (advertisements 2 and 9). This is maybe due to the fact that the cultural elements presented in advertisement 4 and 6 were of familiar to the students. However, it was quite difficult for them to notice it in advertisement 2 and 9 maybe because both advertisements were lack of Asian-like or indigenous cultures. It was also interesting to note that the students were aware of the cultural elements presented in advertisement 5 even though the advertisement was of Indian origin. This is maybe due to the fact that they were well exposed to Malaysian Indian culture, thus making the advertisement less perplexing to them.

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4.1.2 What were the different cultural elements noticed by the students? Table 4.2: The different cultural elements identified by the students
Music Transportation Name Architecture and home decoration People/race Language Food Hair colour Attitude and behavior Cutlery Ghost Birth/marriage/death Festival/ celebration Social acceptance Environment/ geographical qualities American football Clothes/dress/accessories 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Frequency

As it can be seen in the Table 4.2 above, the students were able to identify 17 different cultural elements presented in the nine television advertisements. Among the cultural elements, clothes and accessories received the most plausible attention from the students as 76 occurrences were recorded by the students. This was followed by the American football culture (NFL) and Superbowl, environment and geographical qualities such as night-market, villages, islands, forests and snowy regions. The students also recorded some elements of culture which relies heavily on social acceptance, for instance smoking woman, alcoholic abused and public nudity. They can also easily identify cultural elements related to birth, marriage and death. However, only slightly more than half of the students were able to identify ghostly appearance as culture. Among other cultural elements which did received attention from the students were cutlery chopsticks, rice and soup bowl, attitude and behavior - social respect, driving style, stereotyping of different hair colours, and varieties of food and languages. In addition to the above, it is
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interesting to note that only some of the students were able to identify the architecture of buildings, design of houses and decoration as part of culture and only a handful were able to recognize name, transportation and music as one of cultural elements.

4.1.3 Was there any differences in term of cultural awareness observe in the students assignments prior and after the study was conducted? Table 4.3: Students performance before and after the study was conducted
4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Assignment 1 Assignment 2 Assignment 3 Assignment 4 Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4 Group 5 Group 6

In term of learners awareness of cultural differences before and after the research was conducted, Table 4.3 showed that the occurrence of culturally embedded words, idioms, and colloquial language has reduced gradually as have been observed in the students assignments and presentations. In the table above, assignments 1 and 2 were done prior to the introduction of culturally-embedded advertisements to the students. However, assignments 3 and 4 took place after the students responded to those advertisements. The learners awareness of cultural differences in the table above were scored based on this scale;1. Extensive used of vernacular language, loaded with culturally-embedded words/phrases.

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2. Moderate used of vernacular language, occasionally used culturally-embedded words/phrases 3. Little used of vernacular language, rarely used culturally-embedded words/phrases 4. Did not use any vernacular language, free of culturally-embedded words/phrases. Even though, students performance varied across the groups, it can be concluded that television advertisements helped the students to notice and identify different culture posses by various communities and societies in the world. Through this identification practice, the students were more aware of what they write and speak when completing their written and spoken tasks. It has been observed, the students tried hard to avoid fillers like lah (a common filler used by

Malaysians while speaking in English) and English translation of Malay idioms and proverbs in writing. As a result, they produced carefully-structured texts or discourses with minor interference from culture.

4.0.1 Were the students able to perceive the importance of minor culture interference in business setting? With reference to the other research questions, the researchers believe Were the students able to perceive the importance of culture in business setting? is the most important question to be answered as this is the sole reason why the research has been conducted - to highlight the importance of cultural awareness among the learners while preparing business related documents and presentations.

By looking at and evaluating the findings of earlier research question (sub-heading 4.1.3), the researchers strongly believe that the students have now understood the important role played by culture in business setting. Culture may promote or impede business relation between two international companies. As a result, when two parties of different culture are meeting each other to secure a deal, it is better if both parties try to be as neutral as they could to avoid any misunderstanding caused by different concepts and elements of cultural.

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4.2 Secondary research findings and discussions any effects on viewers perception on the

4.2.1

Did

culture

have

products/services/messages? Table 4.4: The effects of culture on viewers perception on the products/services/messages
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 NO YES

From the above Table 4.4, it can be concluded that in the majority of the advertisements, the students felt that culture did have an effect on their perceptions towards the product, services and messages. It is interesting to note that all students agreed that advertisement five did affect their perception on the message the advertisement is trying to convey. Advertisement five really appealed these young adult learners might be due to the fact that this advertisement highlighted the importance of the young generation to uphold and be proud of their own culture. Advertisement 7 did have tremendous effect on the learners perception on the product because it highlighted the beautiful culture of New Zealand. As a result of watching such beautiful and unique culture, most of the learners felt excited about putting New Zealand in their must-visitcountries list.

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In contrast to the above, the soft drink advertisement (advertisement 9) did not manage to capture the students attention because Superbowl is not a culture they were accustomed to. Thus, it can be concluded culture does play an important role in capturing the attention and altering the perception of the audience on the product it is trying to sell.

4.2.2 Did culture have any effect on customer purchasing power? Table 4.5: The effects of culture on customer purchasing power
35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 NO YES

More than half of the students agreed that the cultural elements presented in those advertisements did affect their purchasing power. For instance, all of the students agreed that they will become more aware of their own behavior in the present of a child so that the child will not be negatively influenced by them. And this was the message, the advertisement tried to put forward.

However, the students viewed that such strategies of using culturally-embedded advertisement to promote soft drinks (advertisements 3 and 9) and NFL (advertisement 8) were not effective. This could be due to the fact that they are accustomed to the drink and they have little interest on the sports as it was not part of their culture. Thus, it can be concluded that only with carefully

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selected cultural elements, the advertisement will achieve its objective. And of course to the learners of English, they now know that their works are subjected for the same criticism too.

5.0 CONCLUSION As a conclusion, with the introduction of culturally-embedded television advertisements to the English for Business Purposes students, the students were now more aware on their selection of words and sentence structures. They have understood the importance of why a text needs to be free of culturally-embedded phrases and information. Their understanding has been translated into action and these positive findings have been observed in their spoken and written assignments and presentations. Even though, it is undeniable that there are many factors that may lead to such positive improvement, the researchers believe that the introduction of culturallyembedded advertisements as part of teaching aid did help the students realize the importance of understanding cultural differences in a business setting.

REFERENCES Asmah, H. O. (1993). Language and Society in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. Bassnett, S. (1992). Translation Studies. New York: Routledge. Diller, J.V. (2007) Cultural Diversity. USA: Thomson Brooks/cole Evan & St John. (2001). Development in English for Specific Purposes: A multi-disciplinary approach. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. Haynes, J. (1989). Introducing Stylistics. United Kingdom. Kramsch, C. (1998) Language and culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Mey, J. L. (1993). Pragmatic - An Introduction. United Kingdom: Blackwell. Renzetti, C. M., & Curran, D. J. (2000). Living Sociology (2nd ed.). USA: Allyn and Bacon. Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (1995). Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. Oxford: Blackwell. Steinberg, D. D. (1993). An introduction to psycholinguistics. London: Longman. Wardhaugh, R. (2002). An introduction to sociolinguistics (4th ed.). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
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Wiersma, W. (2000). Research Method in Education. USA: Allyn and Bacon.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS Farrah Diebaa Rashid Ali (Ms) received both her Master of Human Sciences (TESL) and Bachelor of English Language and Literature (Hons.) from International Islamic University Malaysia. Currently, she is teaching at the Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Pahang. She has attended and presented in several international conferences. She coauthored a few books, among others The Goblins of English Grammar published by McGraw Hill Education Asia (2009) and Inter-faith Dialogue: A Quranic Approach published by ABIM (2010).

Farrah Ahmad (Ms) is a graduate from International Islamic University in Bachelor of Human Sciences (Hons) in English Language and Literature. Currently, she is an AUSMAT (Australian Matriculation Program) lecturer at International Education Centre (INTEC) UiTM Section 17, Shah Alam. She has attended several conferences and this is her first research to be presented with co-author.

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