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Leading questions for guest speakers

1. Do you see general tendencies in the use of language(s) for industrial and commercial purposes in all or most member states of the European Union?

 

2. Are there notable differences in the commercial use of language(s) with regard to:

  • countries (small as opposed to large)
  • European geographic and linguistic regions (north/south, west/east, Romance/ Germanic/Slavonic/Finno-Ugric language areas)
  • members states (new as opposed to old)
  • national languages (‘large’ as opposed to ‘small’)
  • companies (big as opposed to small)
  • types and fields of industry or trade (production, service, trade, banking, etc.)
  • degree of export orientation.

 

3. In your view, do companies consider language choice and language use as a significant factor in business and commerce? Should they? In what respects?

 

4. To what extent can the communicative demands of business and commerce be met by the use of:

  • solely the national language(s) of the country
  • other languages as well or
  • only one lingua franca such as commercial English?

 

5. Should the economic and commercial demands of businesses on language use be considered a threat or danger to the status and development of national language(s) within their language area?

 

6. Which policy and action lines should companies follow in order to meet the challenges of international commerce and cooperation?

  • in education and training
  • in the provision of tools to facilitate multilingual communication
  • in terms of knowledge of language management strategies
  • in the development of skills in intercultural communication

 

7. Are there responsibilities for national governments and/or the European Union regarding the use of language in business and commerce? Possible fields include:

  • the creation or strengthening of awareness
  • support for specific research, documentation, best practice, training programmes
  • subsidies for specific company measures
  • language legislation and/or regulation

 

 

(Of course, not all of these questions can be covered in one lecture. Please, make a selection.)

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