The Importance of Vocabulary for Business Communication in Companies and Universities Published on August 7, 2017
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Ali Mansouri Writer, Researcher, Consultant
Vocabulary is by far the most sizable and unmanageable component in the learning of a language, whether one’s mother tongue or a foreign language. While there are 44 or 45 phonemes (basic sounds) in English, the Oxford English Dictionary contains about 450,000 entries; each entry may consist of many words. The contrast between the phonological and lexical (vocabulary) resources of English is, therefore, of the order of roughly 1 to 10,000. Few languages have as extensive a vocabulary as English, but in most cases, there would be fewer phonemes. A comparison between the vocabulary and the grammar of a language would yield a somewhat different result, but the discrepancy would still remain very considerable. It is a common experience that the grammar of any language can be mastered in a comparatively short time, whereas very few people will know more than 10% of the vocabulary of their language. This means that native speakers of a language acquire the rules of phonology (sound system) and grammar at a very early age, yet they will continue to increase the knowledge of vocabulary throughout their lifetimes. The difference between grammar and vocabulary is ultimately a matter of closed versus open sets. A closed set of items is one of fixed and small membership: e.g. the set of personal pronouns in English (I, you, we, he, she, it, they). An open set is one of unrestricted and indeterminately large membership: e.g. the case of adjectives in English. There are thousands Page 2 of 11
and thousands of adjectives which cannot be practically fixed in a closed set for learning the language. The open-endedness of vocabulary in natural languages is inevitable and undoubtedly necessary in order to cope with the creativity and the open-ended potential of the human mind. But this certainly poses formidable problems for foreign language courses which always have a limited amount of time and restricted budgets and, in many cases, scarce resources. These problems are made worse by the fact that the limited amount of time in these courses imposes severe restrictions on the exposure of students to the foreign language in the classroom. This is one of the reasons for the failure of English language courses in most foreign language situations. After many years of studying English as a Foreign Language, the students’ level of English is disappointingly very low and they are unable to engage in any meaningful natural communication with native or non-native speakers of English. This negative situation needs to be rectified if we want our students to reach a satisfactory level in the foreign language. First of all, vocabulary is essential to communication be it in first language (L1) or second language (L2) situations. It is true that without grammar very little can be achieved in communication but without vocabulary, nothing at all can be achieved. Vocabulary carries more information than grammatical structures as can be seen from the telegramic language. Vocabulary is thus to be recognized as a central element in foreign language courses even from the beginning stages. A good amount of vocabulary with a minimum of structure often makes for better reading comprehension and more efficient survival communication. It should be emphasized, however, that we do not wish to argue that grammar is less important than vocabulary. We only wish to emphasize the enormous importance of vocabulary for communication and that one major aspect of fluency in a foreign language is control over vocabulary. One repeated and justified complaint of most foreign language learners is that their vocabulary, even after several years of studying the foreign language, is inadequate for any real communication. Enough attention needs to be paid to the fact that there is not much value in
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being able to produce grammatical sentences if one has not got the vocabulary that is needed to encode one’s message. Business communication is the sharing of information and data between people within and outside an organization. This communication is done for the commercial benefits and for achieving the short-term and long-term goals of the organization. Effective Business communication is a critical path to success within any professional environment. Whatever the size of the company or organization or the nature of the service or product it deals with, communicating in a clear and concise manner with customers and people in general is an essential tool for success. Feedback is an important part of business communication. Immediate feedback can be obtained in any verbal or non-verbal communication, and misunderstandings if any can be avoided. There should be effective communication between superiors and subordinates in any organization, between employees and customers. It is essential for success and growth of any company or organization and communication gaps should be avoided. There are several methods of business communication, including: 
Face-to-face Communication which helps to establish a personal connection and is still very popular in marketing the products or services to customers. These interactions can portray a whole different message than written communication as tone, pitch, and body language is observed and needs to be meaningful and attractive. Information is easier to access and delivered immediately with interactions rather than waiting for an email or a phone call. Conflicts are also easily resolved this way, as verbal and non-verbal cues are observed and acted upon.
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Web-based communication for better and improved communication, anytime anywhere including the sending and receiving of emails. When using emails to communicate in the business world, it is important to be careful with the choice of words. Miscommunication is frequent as the reader does not have access to the non-verbal cues that are available in
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face to face spoken communication, the pitch, tone, body language and facial expressions.
Video-conferencing which allow people in different locations to hold interactive meetings
Reports are important in documenting the activities of any department and should be succeeded by a written follow-up.
Presentations are a very popular method of communication in all types of organizations, usually involving audiovisual material, of copies of reports, or material prepared in Microsoft PowerPoint.
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Telephone meetings which allow for a long distance speech.
Forum boards which allow people to instantly post information at a centralized location.
Choosing the right means and mode of communication plays a vital role in the effectiveness of the message being communicated. The main point to be considered here would be to evaluate whether the cost involved in sending the message would be commensurate with the results expected. Business communication has become a very common topic and a popular course in the curricula of colleges and universities all over the world as all graduates need general and specialized communication skills for their future jobs. Having communication abilities and skills enhances their confidence and their employability. Designing communication courses, especially for companies and universities, is not an easy task. There are a number of considerations that need to be taken into account: linguistic, pedagogical, cultural, psychological, and practical considerations including students’ future prospects. Some time ago, I designed three Communication Courses for A’Sharqiyah University in Oman.
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They were: English Communication Skills 1, English Communication Skills 2, English for Engineering Students, officially called “Technical Writing and Presentation�. They are still in use but with great distortion and have become almost useless because of the corruption of Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamad Al-Hajri. I will give a very brief account of them here. The first course, English Communication Skills 1, is taken by the students after passing the English Foundation Program which usually lasts for one year or two. It is an intensive English language course combining components of general communication skills and ESP (English for Specific Purposes) to help prepare students to cope with their academic studies conducted in English and to help them acquire the general communication skills needed in any organization. It is originally designed to offer students an ample number of opportunities to develop their English language abilities through systematic teaching, practical tasks, continuous assessment and a large amount of exposure to the English language in order to help them pursue their university studies in their specific areas of specialization and to help them meet the English Language requirements of their jobs in the future. The course consists of two components: a general core component designed to meet students’ general use of English for communicative purposes and a specialized component. The main objectives of the English Communication Skills 1 course are the following: 1. To prepare students for their academic studies in English in addition to the communicative use of English in different general settings and situations. 2. To deal with any language weaknesses in the students' general competence of the English language and help them cope with the language requirements and communicative demands of their academic specialized courses in the different colleges of the University. 3. To equip students with fundamental study and academic skills that are considered essential to attain high levels of achievement in their university studies. 4. To offer students a sound language background in English to assist them with the English language demands of their future careers.
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Teaching is made up of direct teaching, tutorials, presentations, practical assignments and individual and group presentation tasks or projects. Direct teaching consists of regular systematic explanations of all the areas that improve students' competence in the English language skills. Students are taught and trained on all language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing in addition to the language components of grammar and vocabulary. Students are given opportunities to engage in reinforcement practice activities of these skills and components and undertake to perform a number of assignments and projects. Students are assigned to tutorial groups for reinforcement, discussion, and follow-up activities. In the practical sessions, students are also required to engage in general and specialization writing tasks: report writing, descriptive writing, argumentative writing, persuasive writing, etc. The assignments, tasks, and projects take the form of individual, pair and group activities inside and outside of the classrooms. A number of international textbooks, workbooks, CDs, and videos for both the teachers and the students are selected for the course. One important component in these materials is the World English collection consisting of interconnected textbooks, workbooks, and videos published by Cengage Heinle, London. These materials represent a very stimulating approach to the teaching of English as a Foreign Language. The students are first exposed to the video materials which represent real-life situations in English-speaking countries and then are involved in many language and communication tasks. This approach is highly motivating and attractive to the students. They simply love learning English through this innovative approach which enables them to organize and maintain a system of recording vocabulary through a Vocabulary Log or a Vocabulary Notebook and also organize and maintain a portfolio of each student’s academic and communication activities. This up-to-date, interactive approach gives the learners valuable insights and training in effective communication techniques across all specializations. A TV set and a DVD player for playing language and educational films and videos are installed in each classroom; a CD/ tape cassette player for playing classroom CDs and tapes are also provided for each teacher. Students are provided with new laptops free of charge and are happy to download whatever videos or materials they want to practice in order to dig deep into the vocabulary and other aspects of language.
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The course is assessed by means of quizzes (4 quizzes), a midterm test, a presentation task (team work), class participation, and a portfolio which includes everything the student has done in the practical sessions (components-related tasks, activities, practice assignments) and a comprehensive final examination. English Communication Skills II continues with what the students have learned in the Foundation Program and English Skills I course. The four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing are integrated and developed for new uses of written and spoken communication such as writing essays, participating in classroom debates and working together to make a presentation about a topic related to the student’s major. TOEFL preparation is also integrated into the existing curriculum and is achieved through activities such as listening or reading and identifying main ideas, stated details, unstated details, etc. as in English Communication Skills 1. TOEFL structure practice is achieved through the grammar topics covered (and potentially expanded) in the integrated texts. Students are able to expand their knowledge of English vocabulary, structure, and reading comprehension. Integrating TOEFL practice into the course will also enhance students’ preparation for the TOEFL test which is an indispensable international benchmark. English for Engineering (Technical Writing and Presentation) The objective of the course is to prepare Engineering Majors for advanced academic course work through an integrated approach utilizing engineering related communication activities and advanced academic writing practices. The course covers high-priority engineering language that is useful in any branch of engineering (mechanical, electrical, civil, etc.) and focuses on skills such as working with drawings, describing technical problems and discussing dimensions and precision. This material is then utilized in writing activities such as essays, paragraphs, and other academically-focused tasks. Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to: ▪ Write essays that use different patterns of organization (Process Essay, Cause/Effect Essay, and Comparison/Contrast Essay) using both technical vocabulary and concepts as well as general academic topics. Page 8 of 11
▪ Write structurally sound paragraphs incorporating the three parts of a paragraph as well as effective transition signals, unity, coherence, and other elements of a good paragraph. ▪ Listen and understand the language used in technical discussions. ▪ Speak about technical concepts they have learned from situation-based speaking activities. ▪ Utilize new technical vocabulary and comprehend meaning and context. Students have commented positively on the essay feedback that they get and they enjoy getting the opportunity to rewrite the essay for a higher mark. Presentations are very useful for the students as they give them the chance to practice their language and talk about a topic in their specialization. These presentations help also break the psychological barriers that may hinder students’ communicative abilities and their desire to speak to an audience. Students enjoy the variety of topics, the visual elements, and the language used in these presentations. Small classes, however, are a necessary precondition for the successful implementation of the Presentation and Speaking components of the course. Any inflated number of students in a class like 38 or 40 will defeat the objectives of the course and will render these components a complete waste of time. All the teachers for the courses were native-speakers, mainly from the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. They were highly experienced and were experts in English Language Teaching methodology and testing. They were very hard-working and the University of A’Sharqiyah was really lucky to have had such excellent teachers. The communication courses were very popular among students who have always given positive feedback about them. Then came Abood Al-Sawafi (VC) and Hamad Al-Hajri, Assistant VC for Administration and Finance. The first one is good-for-nothing; the other is next to nothing! They started destroying everything in the University including these very useful and popular communication courses. Because they are ignorant, unqualified, money-minded and stupid, they canceled all the textbooks and teaching materials and replaced them by one textbook and tiny handouts illegally photocopied from the original textbooks and workbooks. They have reduced the communication courses to very traditional courses of a very simple grammar and a very limited amount of vocabulary and have inflated the number of students to more than 38 in each class. They have Page 9 of 11
been refusing to buy new editions of the textbooks and asked the teachers to re-use the old copies. The communication teachers were asked to teach 20 hours per week although their teaching load should be 12 hours per week like their colleagues in the colleges. Abood AlSawafi, VC, and Hamad Al-Hajri, Assistant VC, were stealing 8 hours per week from each teacher. The teachers were not compensated in any way for this difference. They were treated as Foundation Program Teachers in spite of the fact that they were teaching in the Colleges and had nothing to do with the Foundation Program. They were working very hard in the colleges even in the summer but they were illegally deprived of their summer allowances by Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamad Al-Hajri. The teachers used to take home piles of students’ written essays and assignments, even on weekends, to grade and evaluate! They got exhausted and frustrated and were unable to stand this nonsense from Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamad Al-Hajri. So they resigned and left. For the Academic Year 2015-2016, there were only two native-speakers who were able to handle any sort of communication courses for college students: one was an American teacher; the other a brilliant Canadian teacher. Without any justification or explanation, Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamad Al-Hajri did not renew their work contract for the Academic Year 2016-2017 and the University lost the last two teachers who may have been able to teach any communication courses, including business communication. Our Indians friends and colleagues are always ready to fill in the gaps for far lower salaries, less benefits, and a lot more “donkey work” Abood AlSawafi and Hamad Al-Hajri have always voiced their stupid and disgusting opinions that they do not care who teaches what as long as there is a “teacher” in the classroom to keep the student quiet and please them! This is the sort of damage unqualified and corrupt senior managers may inflict on companies and higher education institutions. Abood Al-Sawafi and Hamad Al-Hajri are not really interested in education or higher education. They are interested only in money and making profits to satisfy and appease the Board of Directors and Board of Trustees. Most of the members of these two boards are owners of brick and cement factories and have nothing to do with higher education. So after we had worked very hard in designing and implementing successful programs for business communication for many years in A’Sharqiyah University, two incompetent, stupid, reckless and corrupt senior managers have come to destroy everything. We just wonder how such stupidity can be allowed and tolerated in a higher education institution by the Ministry of Higher Education in Oman and the relevant educational authorities. A colleague
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of mine once said to me, “This is their country. They can do whatever they want.� What a disaster!
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