Description of Spanish and English Assistant Programmes 1.

The dissertation below may be interesting for language teachers or those involved in corporate foreign language training. Users of the Assistant Programmes may also like to select certain sections to read to clarify points on the pedagogical approach, the functions of some of the tools or the practical applications of SPANISH ASSISTANT BUSINESS and ENGLISH ASSISTANT BUSINESS.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Assistant Business software programmes (Spanish and English) as practical workplace tools for writing emails in the L2 and discuss their potential for foreign language acquisition.

Objectives and Significance of the study

1. Why the Assistant Programme project was conceived.

As a teacher of English in Spain I have given classes in business English over the past 15 years in companies in Huelva, Jaen, Madrid and Seville.

The necessity for English language training in Spanish companies has been recognised by employers since the increase in importance of English as a common language for international communication. Furthermore, Spain's membership of the European Community opened more international markets and the need among employees in Spain for business English language skills has escalated. The ELAN report carried out by CILT on behalf of the European Commission states the demand for language skills in business is of vital importance:

“A significant amount of business is being lost to European enterprise as a result of

lack of language skills. On the basis of the sample, it is estimated that 11% of

exporting European SMEs (945,000 companies) may be losing business because of

identified communication barriers.” (Executive summary 2007. p.1)

However, despite the demand, from my perceptions in companies receiving language training in the Seville area, understandable difficulties are apparent between the provider of business English training and the students:

The increasingly long Spanish working day allows little time for the study required to make appreciable improvement in English language skills. Of all the companies which are clients of the language training organization, Company Under Study (CUP), students are timetabled with 1 to 3 hours a week. Unfortunately, the students who most need business English language training are also frequently obliged to travel to other countries for work purposes and find that they must cancel a proportion of their timetabled classes.

Classes arranged by CUP are held either in work time or before or after the working day. The former scenario means loss of company working time, which can result in more than the hour or hour and a half projected for the class due to the syndrome of “chip-changing”; where an employee is forced to make a mental break with the task he/she is undertaking (at a possibly inconvenient moment) to attend the class at the specified time. Consequently, the return to work after the class requires another transitional period to regain concentration. I have also noticed the same syndrome in the classroom itself; students can find the class tasks difficult to concentrate on and complain that their “mind is on work”. Such difficulties in receiving English language instruction via programmed classes during work time illustrate the limits of this approach and the conflict of interests between company managers and course providers.

In the latter scenario (where students are given classes outside work time) I have also detected factors which are counterproductive to a consistent attendance. Classes may be held before the working day begins. Often the company allows its employees to sit half the class in company time and the other half in the employees' own time. Nevertheless, the employee must arrive at the workplace before the usual clocking-in time. Problems of attendance encountered at CUP with this system are the following:

Employees have family commitments: preparing breakfast for their children; taking their children to school etc. which they find disrupted by having to reach the workplace earlier than usual.

Employees used to a regular timetable simply find the irregularity in work start times difficult to cope with; as a result students often forget (or say they forget) to come to class and motivation often drops during the course.

Language courses held at the end of the working day (either completely within work time or partly in the employees' time) also fail to provide a suitable learning environment:

As in (i) above, when classes are held outside working hours, family commitments often mean an employee cannot attend the classes on a regular basis.

Classes held at the end of the working day also mean that the students who attend often suffer from tiredness, which impedes full concentration and therefore this reduces the capacity of language acquisition.

On a final note in this section, business language students at CUP very rarely do homework or any type of revision between classes. Language acquisition can only increase with the frequency of exposure to the new language. Such exposure would be provided by revision at home of the material from the previous class. However, Spanish students, whose working day often finishes later than their European counterparts, rarely do self-study complaining from tiredness from the working day and insufficient time for family and social life.

Cost is an important concern for companies who have subscribed to programmes of in-company business English language training.

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1.2 Personal interest in this area of study.

As an English language teacher in Spanish businesses I am naturally concerned about the efficiency of the language teaching methods I use. I feel there exists an erroneous tendency to automatically apply previous teaching methods and strategies to new language learning contexts. The successful boom in English academies across Spain and past success in providing language training to the Spanish population has set a precedent. In many cases, academies also try to cash in on the needs for language learning among professional business people simply by transferring the academy classes to the workplace. The observations made above are some reasons why this approach is not always successful.

Fortunately, some companies, such as CUP, are now beginning to specialise; dedicating their entire business activity to the area of business English teaching. Modern applications, especially among new technologies, are now being experimented with in businesses as alternatives to the academy-style class environment. Examples of these are the Tell Me More business programmes which combine PC English language instruction with face-to-face teaching and with the advantage that the latter can be reduced thereby freeing the learner/worker from such a rigid classroom timetable. Another innovation has been the introduction of online language instruction using programes such as Webex. Here, the student is restricted to a timetable as the class is given via the software by a real-life teacher using online whiteboards, online handouts, listening activities, video and real time conversation practice teacher to student(s). The advantage to the student using Webex is that he/she is not restricted by place; being able to “attend” the class wherever an Internet connection is available. Classes via Webex are often interesting for travelling executives who would like to maintain consistent language instruction.

In consideration of the perceptions and comments above I have developed my own programme for language instruction in the area of business email writing - a fairly recent but progressively essential area for communication between companies. I offer this programme (or programmes as there are two: English Assistant Business (for learners of English) and its sister programme Spanish Assistant Business (for learners of Spanish) as an integral part of this dissertation. I suggest the examiners install and open English Assistant Business while reading this study to better understand the explanations given below. Some of the screens below refer, in fact, to Spanish Assistant Business but the sister programme offered uses similar tools and layout (obvious differences are connected with the necessary linguistic considerations working from Spanish to English).

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2. Description of the Assistant programmes.

2.1 Programming languages and external software used.

The Assistant Programmes (APs) comprise Spanish Assistant Business and English Assistant Business. The programmes are written in Hyper Text Mark-up Language (HTML) and Javascript.

HTML is designed for viewing in PCs or as online Internet pages via browser applications such as Internet Explorer (IE). It allows us to view text, headings, paragraphs as well as embedded images (which in the Assistant Programmes are used for descriptive links to help pages or to facilitate use of the programmes by non-verbal prompts). HTML lends the Assistant Programmes an attractive and user-friendly interface together with the essential hypertext links to transfer the user instantly to a desired section of the programme.

HTML also allows the inclusion of dynamic elements such as Javascript applets, which in the Assistant Programmes enable user controlled actions such as transfer of text from one page to another, erasing unwanted symbols, remembering unfinished user-written texts on closing down the programmes and recalling the same text when the user re-opens the Assistant to continue work. The latter action is carried out by placing a small file on the user's PC - known in the trade as “baking cookies”. Javascript is also used in the Assistant Programmes to provide user-friendly page layout by hiding lengthy instructions until the user calls them up. However, by far the most important Javascript tasks in the Assistant Programmes are scripts which allow instant in-page word and phrase search; in some cases a user can instantly locate a phrase within a page of several thousand words thereby saving time and the arduous task of searching lists in alphabetical order (such as in hard copy dictionaries).

All the pages of an Assistant Programme are included within an ebook software package (ESP). The ESP provides three functions:

It allows the user to maintain the complete Assistant Programme in one executable file (file denomination .exe). In this way Assistant Programme sub-files cannot be lost, erased by mistake or accidentally altered, which would lead to error messages and malfunction of the Assistant Programme programme.

An ESP equips the Assistant Programme with a user-friendly interface. Usually, the author of the programme can choose which menus are most suitable from the ESP and erase unnecessary or redundant buttons and tools which might confuse the user.

An ESP offers the author of the programme total security. All files are encrypted using complex algorithms which means the copying of the files by unauthorised users should not be possible. In fact, the author has the choice of allowing the end-user to copy and print pages of the programme or locking selected pages or the entire programme rendering them read-only pages.

Furthermore, the author has control over the programme's distribution. Algorithms can be set in the ESP to authorise the programme to be opened on one PC only. This is done via a password which links to the computer's IP number meaning that if the programme is passed to an unauthorized PC, it is rendered useless.

2.2 The Assistant Programme layout.

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