Business Communication and Public Speaking in the ESP Domain: Some Considerations

Abstract

The aim of this paper relates to the implications of introducing Public Speaking as a specific English for Purposes (ESP) domain in teaching and learning Business Communication (BC). Background literature on this topic provides a useful frame for understanding and justifying the origins of the subject and the arena in which studies on public speaking in business English then emerged. In addition to that, an overview of the business workplace skills required by corporate communities at present demonstrates that public speaking in the teaching and learning of English for Business Purposes cannot be ignored. The study underlines the strong need for a focused reflection on the impact of good oratorical skills in business communication in English. Due to the varied and complex nature of business communication, however, public speaking studies and programs should be targeted for the audience, and not standardized or copied from models which are suitable to a non-business context.

Workshop Peningkatan Kualitas Kemampuan Public Speaking

“…Gagasan yang disisipi cerita lucu dan disampaikan dengan antusias serta bersemangat membuat audiens bertahan untuk mendengarkan, merasa terlibat dan gembira (Greenacre et al, 2014;Lestari et al, 2021;Trisnaningati & Sinambela, 2021). Zanola (2021) mengemukakan keterampilan berbicara di depan umum merupakan salah satu keterampilan dasar yang dibutuhkan di tempat bekerja. Dalam penelitiannya Zanola menemukan bahwa meskipun dibutuhkan pada kenyataannya banyak karyawan yang tidak mampu berbicara di depan umum karena kurang dilatih saat mereka menjadi siswa atau mahasiswa.…”

“…Beberapa orang yang mampu berbicara di depan umum menyatakan bahwa mereka terbiasa diberi kesempatan untuk mengemukakan pendapat saat berdiskusi dalam keluarga. Peran keluarga relatif kuat dalam pembentukan konsep diri sehingga mereka memiliki keberanian dalam bertindak (Diadema and Ambarwati, 2022;Zanola, 2021). Docan-morgan dan Nelson (2019) berpendapat tentang pentingnya peningkatan kemampuan berbicara di depan umum bagi para siswa dan mahasiswa.…”

A Study of the Language Characteristics of Types of Business English Speeches from the Perspective of Functional Linguistics

“…Speakers may use multimodal texts to make the speech more accessible to the audience (De Grez et al, 2009). Zanola (2016) argues that public speech, as a special form of conversation, should be adapted to the reactions of the audience. In a business context, the speaker and the listener of the conversation are concerned with the effectiveness and efficiency of the spoken word.…”

Rhetorical Analysis at the Service of Business Communication: Gender-Based Differences in Students' Perception of the Speaker

“…That is why rhetoric is an important element of most business communication courses, with context and audience being studied in detail within the field of rhetoric. Zanola (2016) gives an overview of public speaking content in business communication manuals from the beginning of the twentieth century and concludes that the majority have devoted more pages to rhetoric than to business writing, which underlines the importance of public speaking skills in a business context. On the other hand, Lee (2019: 3) points out how "numerous studies address rhetorical theory and practice in business communication, but relatively few works focus on rhetorical criticism".…”

“…Research also shows that listening skills are among the most understudied and untrained ones but are very important in the workplace (Sullivan, 2011). Zanola (2016) points out that business communication and public speaking courses should be adapted to the audience (i.e. business students) especially when choosing examples of speeches for analysis, her suggestion being to use examples from the business context.…”