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Business
Communication and Public Relations for ESL Students
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Russia has established its
first four-year degree program in public relations at the Electrotechnical University in
St. Petersburg. Most of the teachers are ESL specialists and are faculty members in the
university's Department of Foreign Languages. They use English to teach Western concepts
of professional public relations because much of the body of knowledge in this field is in
English (PRSA, 1988, 1990, 1993).
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As the subject is taught
at most major universities in the West and-within the past few years-at universities in
newly emerging market economies in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and elsewhere,
public relations is considered an important management function that uses all forms of
communication to establish and facilitate understanding between an organization and its
many publics (Cutlip, Center, Broom, 1993). The best university programs teach students to
recognize and criticize heavy-handed propaganda and unethical uses of advertising and
public relations techniques. They also focus on legal and ethical ways that businesses
communicate today (Design for Public Relations Education, 1993).
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The Russian students
admitted to their nation's first university program in public relations speak English as
their second language. During their four-year course of study they learn at least one
other language, most likely German, French, Swedish, or Finnish. Consequently, these
students are learning to communicate as public relations practitioners in three or more
languages.
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The program is designed to
give students a variety of opportunities to obtain knowledge and develop competencies
needed in public relations- including speaking, writing, and critical thinking skills
appropriate for interpersonal, small group, and mass communication situations. The focus
is not only on teaching English as a structured system of grammatical patterns but also as
a means to communicating. The emphasis is not only on English as a second language (ESL)
but also on content, meaning, and student interest (Quinn 1984).
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Writing is an essential
skill in public relations. The purpose of the writing activities in the public relations
program at the Electrotechnical University is to give students a variety of experience in
writing and producing not only business letters but also press releases, public service
announcements, speeches, and other public relations materials.
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Most liberal arts programs
at Russian universities include courses on writing. But too often such courses are very
general. Similar to ESL students in other countries, Russian students are not taught
practical business letter-writing skills. Rather, students are taught to write
compositions and essays with no particular reader in mind except the instructor. A recent
survey indicates most schools throughout the world offering English language training
programs for business students do not use business-oriented instructional material
(Schleppegrell 1990). While non-business-oriented writing assignments help students expand
their vocabulary and improve their grammar, they do not equip the students with the
knowledge and practical skills they need in public relations.
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The following case studies
provide insight into how ESL can be used with business-oriented students. For an excellent
review of the research in second language writing exercises, see Krapels (1988).
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The specific ESL writing
exercises we report here were implemented in two phases: an initiation phase to introduce
students to basic letter writing principles; and, a pre-professional phase to introduce
them to more sophisticated business writing situations.
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The purpose of the
initiation phase is to get the students interested in the process of letter writing-any
type of letter, including one to a friend or family member. The instructor's task is to
suggest a stimulating topic that generates lots of interest on the part of students. One
of our assignments was to write a letter to a friend about "My first semester at the
university." Because many of the students had not yet had adequate chances to express
themselves about this topic, an unusual level of self disclosure occurred during the
writing exercise. Such "freeflowing" writing exercises not only increase the
level of enthusiasm among students for writing letters but also provide valuable ideas for
the instructor to use later in planning additional class exercises and individualized
writing assignments.
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In the pre-professional
phase, more task-oriented business letters are discussed. For example, one exercise
involved responding to a letter to the editor of a major magazine. We used an English
language magazine that had a section devoted to letters to the editor, and made
photocopies of one question-to-the-editor (without the editor's reply). These were
distributed to the students, who were asked to compose a sensible response (the editor's
response). The language-learning simulation not only gave the students an opportunity to
work on their writing but also to imagine themselves in a position of responsibility
dealing with the public (Hyland 1993). It also helped them improve both empathic listening
and critical thinking skills.
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After a round of peer
reviews and a class discussion focussing on the students' initial responses to the letter,
the students were asked to revise their answers. On completion of the revision, the
students received a photocopy of the actual response from the editor published in the
magazine. Now the task for the students was to compare their efforts with the published
answer, paying attention not only to the substance of the response but also its writing
style and structure. One class discussion revealed that the published response did not use
a salutation, that absolutes such as "never" and "always" were
avoided, and that the tone was straightforward-as one student said, "neither
buddy-like nor mother-like."
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Going from the initiation
phase to the pre-professional phase, the tone and logic of the students' writing changed
considerably. Through class discussion, students could focus on these changes and how
roles affect behavior-especially the roles of business communicators and public relations
practitioners.
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A more authentic
pre-professional letter-writing exercise asked students to write a letter to a local
business asking for brochures and/or information about its public relations activities.
According to current literature in ESL, the more authentic the exercise, the more
learning-especially among adults (Arnold, 1991). The visiting American professor, who
taught only in English, drafted the letter and asked his students to translate it into
Russian. The students were asked to tailor their letters to specific local businesses
and-with the approval of their instructor-send their letters in Russian to the companies.
It definitely gave the students a dose of reality (Lund 1992).
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The one-page letter had
three paragraphs: the first explained the purpose of the letter, the second gave
background about the student and Russia's first university-based public relations program,
and the third indicated that the student would call in a few days to find out when he or
she might come to pick up available materials that illustrated the organization's public
relations activities. The letter was to be signed by the head of the public relations
program, a distinguished educator whose prestige and influence might "open
doors" for the students.
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The purpose of the
exercise was to give the students an opportunity not only to improve their English skills
but also to learn about the differences in Western and Russian business
practices-including letter writing styles, formats, business expressions, decision-making
strategies, expectations, and basic principles of public relations. The instructional
emphasis was on both content and process.
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The students were asked to
prepare drafts in Russian and to submit originals and revised drafts clipped together. The
sets of drafts were circulated among small groups of students who were asked to identify
the best letters. After each round of reviews, students were asked to revise and improve
their letters. It took more than a month, but eventually the program head agreed to sign
and mail a large number of the letters.
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As students saw the work
of their peers in progress, they developed an ability to identify various approaches to
writing a good business letter. This use of peer response groups has been effective for a
variety of teaching situations, including business communication and public relations
courses (McElreath 1991).
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More exercises recommended
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While the focus of this
article has been on only a few types of business letters, other ESL applications might
include different types of business letters-for example, billing, order fulfillment, job
application acceptance or rejection, and customer complaint resolution.
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Using an initiation phase
that introduces students to basic letter writing principles and a pre-professional phase
that emphasizes real-life situations, we have found that business letter writing exercises
can be very effective in helping students not only improve their ESL skills but also their
knowledge about business.
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Mark McElreath is a specialist in public relations, and head
of the Ethics Committee of the International Association of Business Communicators. He is
author of Managing Systematic and Ethical Public Relations.
Valeria Shadrova is an ESL specialist at the
Electrotechnical University in St. Petersburg, Russia. She spent a semester in 1994
teaching business and professional communication at Towson State University in Maryland. |
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- Arnold, E. 1991. Authenticity revisited: How real is real? English
for Specific Purposes, 10, pp. 237-244.
- Cutlip, S. M., A. H. Center and G. M. Broom. 1993. Effective
public relations. 7th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
- Design for Public Relations Education. 1993. New York:
Status/Trends of Public Relations Education. Foundation for Public Relations, 415
Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017.
- Hyland, K. 1993. Language-learning simulations: A practical guide.
English Teaching Forum, 31, 4, pp. 16-21.
- Krapels, A. R. 1990. An overview of second
language writing process research. In Second Language Writing,
ed. B. Kroll. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
- Lund, S. 1992. Giving your course a dose of reality. English
Teaching Forum, 30, 3, pp. 10-15.
- McElreath, M. 1991. Using small groups in the classroom:
"Helping Atlas to shrug." In Learning to Teach: What you need to know to develop
a successful career as a public relations educator, ed. V. S. Turk. New York: Public
Relations Society of America.
- -----------.1993. Managing systematic and ethical public
relations. Dubuque, IA: Brown and Benchmark.
- Public Relations Society of America Task Force. 1988. Public
relations body of knowledge. Public Relations Review, 14, 1, pp. 3-30.
- Public Relations Society of America Task Force.
1990. Public relations body of knowledge. Annotated bibliography.
New York, NY, Public Relations Society of America, 33 Irvin
Place, 10003.
- Public Relations Society of America Task Force.
1993. Public relations body of knowledge. Updates of annotated
bibliography. New York, NY, Public Relations Society of America,
33 Irving Place, 10003.
- Quinn, T. 1984. Functional approaches in language pedagogy. Annual
Review of Applied Linguistics. Cambridge, MA.: Cambridge University Press.
- Schleppegrell, M. and L. Royster. 1990. Business English: An
international survey. English for Specific Purposes, 9, pp. 3-16.
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