The Intercultural Dimension and BELF in the English Course Curriculum of Business Schools: Proposal for an Integrated Model

For a series of historical, economic and geographic reasons, English is considered the language of communication in the business field (cf. Crystal, 2003; Graddol, 2006). Since the last industrial revolution, the models of reference have been the British and American ones, and the hegemony of these two countries has affected also the field of higher education (cf. Phillipson, 2003; Altbach & Knight, 2007) and business schools in particular have followed American standards. Although the economic paradigm may start to slowly shift because of the new challenges represented, for example, by the Asian markets, English is still the main language used in academia and in business (cf. Graddol, 2006; Wächter & Maiworm, 2014). Language use is not a point of discussion in documents concerning the internationalisation of business schools, where it seems to be implicit that English is the medium of instruction, also in countries where English is not the national language. However, merely offering English-taught programmes is not sufficient for any institution that wishes to provide students with an encompassing education which can equip them with the tools to succeed in an increasing globalised, multilingual and multicultural world (cf. Jones, 2013; Bieger, 2011). To this end, from a linguistic and socio-cultural perspective, two main aspects should be more promoted and integrated across the curriculum: awareness of language and cultural features embedded in both academic disciplines and in their models of instructions. Another factor to be considered is that, in the world of work, the kind of English used during the majority of business interactions belongs to the field of BELF - Business English as a Lingua Franca (cf. Kankaanranta & Louhiala-Salminen, 2013; Bargiela-Chiappini et al., 2007). The integration of a linguistic and of an intercultural dimension which takes into account the principles of BELF, may help to improve the students and staff’s intercultural and communicative skills in the context of business education. With this purpose, a model of Business Intercultural Communicative Competence (BICC) is proposed, adapted from Louhiala-Salminen and Kankaanranta’s model (2011), and inspired by Deardoff’s Model of Intercultural Communicative Competence (2006). After a brief description of the BICC model, its possible pedagogical implications will be discussed, providing a series of suggestions for implementing its dimensions in the English course curriculum of business schools.