Part Ⅰ The Field of Business Discourse 3
1 What Is Business Discourse? 3
1.1 What is business discourse? 3
1.2 A short history of business discourse 5
Profile：Mirjaliisa Charles 9
1.3 The hallmarks of business discourse research 13
Types of data 14
The link between data and methodology：multimethod research 17
Research purpose：description and prescription 18
English versus other business languages 19
The importance of the organizational context 21
1.4 Different approaches to business discourse research 24
Discourse and power 24
Profile：Karen Lee Ashcraft 26
Critical approaches and business discourse 27
Intercultural business discourse 30
1.5 Business discourse around the world 32
Profile：Gina Poncini 34
Profile：Janet Holmes 36
Profile：Sharon Livesey 40
Profile：Winnie Cheng 40
Profile：Judith Baxter 42
1.6 Summary 43
Further reading 43
Chapter 1 Tasks 44
2 Challenges in the Future 45
2.1 Towards transculturality 45
Rapport management 49
2.2 Media,technology and business discourse 58
Multimodality 59
Hypermodality 62
Multimodality for business discourse 68
2.3 From multimethod research to multidisciplinarity 69
Discursive strategies in multicultural business meetings 71
Identity and role construction：gender and discourse in management 72
Discourse and the projection of corporate culture：the mission statement 73
Discourse analysis and business meetings 74
Multidisciplinarity in the study of business discourse 77
Profile：Shanta Nair-Venugopal 79
Profile：Dalvir Samra-Fredericks 81
Profile：Rick Iedema 83
Profile：Lorenza Mondada 85
Further reading 86
Chapter 2 Tasks 87
Part Ⅱ Applying Business Discourse Research 87
3 Research-Based Business Discourse Teaching 91
3.1 Professionals and professors：substance or style? 91
Methodology 92
Findings and relationship with previous studies 93
How useful is survey research? 94
3.2 Teaching English to meet the needs of business education in Hong Kong 96
Methodology 96
A survey of business professors：teacher perspective 98
The interface between the academy and the business world：occupational perspective 99
The implications of the project：project recommendations 100
Research into practice? 101
3.3 A corpus-based study of Business English and Business English teaching materials 102
The Business English Corpus 103
Findings of the BEC/BNC corpus analysis 105
What is Business English? 107
The BEC and the development of teaching materials 111
3.4 Promoting intercultural communicative competence through foreign language courses 112
The business projects and tasks 113
The implications of the project 115
3.5 The CIBW and IBLC：a course in international business writing and the Indianapolis Business Learner Corpus 117
The research project 118
The CIBW teaching project 121
The ILBC-CIBW project：research into practice 123
Further reading 126
Chapter 3 Tasks 126
4 Research-Based Consultancy Work 127
4.1 The REFLECT project 127
Standardization versus adaptation? 129
4.2 Horizontal corporate communication 131
Methodology and findings 132
Implications 134
English as a corporate language：strategy or hegemony? 135
4.3 The Language in the Workplace(LWP)Project 138
Areas of interest 139
Business discourse research in authentic settings 142
4.4 An ESP programme for management in the horse-racing business 143
Findings and implications 145
ESBP or business discourse? 146
4.5 Forms as a source of communication problems 147
Methodology and findings 148
Implications 149
A way forward for business discourse research 151
Further reading 152
Chapter 4 Tasks 153
5 Research-based Teaching Materials 154
Introduction 154
5.1 A brief survey of published teaching materials 155
5.2 Practice-driven approaches 160
5.3 Theory-driven approaches 164
5.4 Data-driven approaches 166
5.5 Commentary 171
Further reading 172
Chapter 5 Tasks 172
Part Ⅲ Researching Business Discourse 175
6 Themes and Research Strategies 175
Introduction 175
6.1 Corporate communicative practices in Brazil 176
Methodology 177
Main findings 178
Implications and relationship with similar studies 178
6.2 Email and English in an Anglo-Dutch multinational 181
Methodology 181
Main findings 183
Implications and relationship with similar studies 184
6.3 Between text and context：the mission statement 185
Methodology 186
Main findings and relationship with similar studies 188
Implications of Swales and Rogers'study 189
6.4 English in Dutch iob ads：evaluation and comprehension 190
Methodology 192
Main findings and relationship with similar studies 194
Studying the use and effects of foreign languages other than English in advertising discourse 196
In conclusion 198
Further reading 198
Chapter 6 Tasks 199
7 Research Methodologies,Frameworks and Project Ideas 200
7.1 Investigating the business environment：studies of business discourse in context 200
Business discourse practices and communication needs in organizations：quantitative approaches 201
Business discourse practices and business discourse in context：qualitative approaches 205
Investigating context：the impact of ICT and new media on corporate practices 208
7.2 Researching written business communication 213
Survey-based research into business writing：quantitative approaches 213
Identifying text typology：genre-based studies of writing 217
7.3 Researching spoken business discourse 221
Studying business talk：approaches inspired by CA(Conversation Analysis) 221
Studying business talk：approaches inspired by pragmatics and speech act theory 227
Studies of business negotiation 231
7.4 Investigating text quality and text production：studies in(business)document design 234
Text evaluation：testing a public document in a multilingual context 235
Text production：the collaborative construction of a new text form 239
Further reading 242
8 Research Cases 244
8.1 Customer-friendly e-service?How Dutch and American companies deal with customers'email inquiries 244
Introduction and aims 245
Method 246
Data 246
Analysis 248
Main findings 248
Commentary 251
8.2 Standardize or adapt?Audience reaction to localized product advertisements 252
Introduction and aims 252
Method 254
Main findings 256
Commentary 257
8.3 Tailor-made teaching：the English workplace needs of textile merchandisers in Chinese Hong Kong 258
Introduction and aims 258
Method 259
Main findings 260
Commentary 263
8.4 English as a lingua franca in corporate mergers 264
Introduction and aims 264
Method 266
Main findings 267
Commentary 271
8.5 The use of metadiscourse in the CEO's letter 272
Introduction and aims 272
Method 274
Main findings 275
Commentary 277
8.6 A multimodal analysis of text and photographic themes in annual general reports 278
Introduction and aims 278
Method 279
Main findings 281
Commentary 282
8.7 Investigating international audience reaction to the annual report in English：UK-based financial analysts'response to Dutch-English and British letters to stakeholders 283
Introduction and aims 284
Method 286
Main findings 288
Commentary 289
8.8 Social media in corporate communications：an analysis of the corporate blog as a relationship-building tool 290
Introduction and aims 291
Method 293
Main findings 294
Commentary 295
8.9 The storytelling organization：a narrative analysis of change accounts 297
Introduction and aims 297
Method 298
Main findings 300
Commentary 300
8.10 What's your style?Does adapting communication style to local audiences make business newsletters more effective? 302
Introduction and aims 302
Method 304
Main findings 306
Commentary 306
Part Ⅳ Resources 306
9 A Guide to Resources for Business Discourse Research 311
9.1 Books,edited collections and special issues 311
Book-length studies 311
Edited collections 312
Recent journal special issues(from 2002) 314
9.2 Journals 314
Business and corporate communication journals 314
Other relevant journals which publish papers on Business Discourse and its sub-fields 316
9.3 Professional associations 318
Specially devoted to business discourse 318
With an interest in business discourse and business-related language teaching 318
With an interest in culture,communication and management in international business 319
9.4 Principal conferences and workshops 319
Other relevant conferences and workshops 319
9.5 Email lists and bulletin boards 320
9.6 Databases and abstracting journals 320
9.7 Corpora 321
9.8 Postgraduate courses at Masters and PhD level 321
References 323
Index 357