Language needs analysis at the societal level

Brecht, Richard D.; Rivers, William P.

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511667299.003

Cited by 16 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…An odds ratio of 3.531 indicates that organizations in the government sector were approximately 3.5 times more likely than organizations in other sectors to report having a recruitment strategy that specified levels of FL competence. Results presented without p values were determined to be statistically significant in individual chi‐square tests, but not significant after the Holm‐Bonferroni correction. They are presented here as noteworthy, though not statistically significant, results. The Market Forces Framework was first proposed by Brecht and Walton (, ) and elaborated as cited here in the national security context by Brecht and Rivers (, p. 21), and then in the context of social justice by Brecht and Rivers (). Grin (, pp. 39–40) defined supply and demand either in terms of “consumption goods and services, non‐material commodities, or production factors that embody some language‐related characteristics,” which they called “language‐specific commodities (LSCs)”; or as “some manifestation of language, such as the continued existence of a linguistic environment characterized by the presence of Welsh, Spanish or Inuktitut” (emphasis in original). The Modern Language Association's ad hoc task force on language education cited data from the National Science Foundation that only 6.1% of FL majors plan to go on to graduate study (MLA, , n.p., citing National Science Foundation, ).…”

Section: Notessupporting

confidence: 50%

The Demand for Multilingual Human Capital in the U.S. Labor Market

Damari¹,

Rivers²,

Brecht

et al. 2017

Foreign Language Annals

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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 Rebecca Rubin Damari (PhD, Georgetown University) reported giving advantage to multilingual applicants, and only 10% of respondents indicated that new hires "needed to speak at least one language besides English." In addition, the survey revealed employer characteristics related to demand for language ability: Industries with the greatest demand were government and public administration, information services, educational services, health care, and the administrative sector. Language skills were sought in combination with other skill sets, notably customer service, sales, vendor management, and marketing. Finally, the survey identified college majors sought in conjunction with foreign language ability. The study is unique in its size; its coverage of small, medium, and large businesses; and its focus on college recruitment and hiring. The results are critical to educational programs seeking to understand the value of language in the job market

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Section: Notessupporting

confidence: 50%

The Demand for Multilingual Human Capital in the U.S. Labor Market

Damari¹,

Rivers²,

Brecht

et al. 2017

Foreign Language Annals

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“…nlconference.org/docs/NLCBkgdweb.pdf 3 For examples, see Fixman (1990), the papers collected in Lambert (1990), and Moxon, O'Shea, Brown, and Escher (1998). 4 See especially Brecht and Rivers (2005) for the impact of Executive Order 13166 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on language needs in the United States as they relate to the provision of social and legal services to those residents and citizens with limited English proficiency. 5 Crump (2001), for example, listed only those agencies that need interpreters and translators.…”

Section: Policy Implications and Directions For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Speaking Foreign Languages in the United States: Correlates, Trends, and Possible Consequences

Robinson

Rivers

Brecht

2006

The Modern Language Journal

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With President George W. Bush's unprecedented call in January 2006 to expand the foreign language capacity of the United States, it has become clear that languages other than English (LOE) are of great interest to public policy in the United States. Yet the language capacity of the United States remains poorly documented. The 2000 General Social Survey (GSS) included new questions concerning the languages spoken by 1,398 respondents. Although about one quarter (26%) of respondents to this GSS sample claimed they could speak another language, only 10% overall said they could speak it very well. Those respondents who speak a foreign language were typically aged 25–44, graduate school educated, self‐identified as being of a race other than White, and living in large metropolitan cities and on the coasts. Spanish (50%), French (15%), and German (9%) were the most common languages spoken by the survey respondents. Whereas 67% of respondents who learned the language at home as a child said they could speak it very well, only 10% of those who learned it in school or elsewhere did speak it very well. As expected, LOE speakers gave significantly more responses revealing support of LOE and policies favorable to immigration, with LOE‐home speakers being more positive about these issues than LOE speakers who learned the language at school. These findings can help to inform national policy debates concerning how best to address the language needs of the United States.

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“…Most are from the USA and focus on the need for other languages than English (e.g., Brecht and Rivers 2005;Clifford and Fischer 1990;Herzog 2003;Lett 2005;Tare 2006).…”

Section: Needs Analyses and Occupational English Proficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

The mismatch between the unmet need for and supply of occupational English skills: an investigation of higher educated government staff in Norway

Hellekjær

Fairway

2015

High Educ

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Nordic universities are involved in a global competition against American and UK universities, whose main competitive advantage is their placement in English-speaking countries. The authors argue that Nordic universities need to do more to offset this advantage than merely offer English-Medium (EM) courses to foreign and domestic students. They also need to systematically address their students' need for advanced occupational English skills. To underpin this claim, the authors use data from three different needs analyses: (1) a large-scale survey of language use and needs in Norwegian government ministries, (2) a qualitative follow-up study based on interviews of state directorate staff, and (3) a follow-up survey of ministerial job advertisements. These show that while almost 89 % of ministerial staff use English at work on a regular basis, almost 80 % of the highly educated staff have no formal English courses beyond upper secondary school, and that this leads to communication problems. The job advertisement data show that this is because language skills are invariably required in combination with professional degrees that do not necessarily include language modules. It concludes by arguing the need to integrate language-learning goals into EM courses and to supplement these with occupational English and communication courses.

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Language needs analysis at the societal level

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

The Demand for Multilingual Human Capital in the U.S. Labor Market

The Demand for Multilingual Human Capital in the U.S. Labor Market

Speaking Foreign Languages in the United States: Correlates, Trends, and Possible Consequences

The mismatch between the unmet need for and supply of occupational English skills: an investigation of higher educated government staff in Norway

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