Language Awareness in Business and the Professions

Demonstrates that language awareness and discourse consciousness are key for critical thinking and communication in professional contexts.

Erika Darics (Edited by)

9781108484497, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 4 August 2022

260 pages
23.6 x 16 x 1.3 cm, 0.5 kg

The crucial role language plays in constituting our reality, and in achieving political influence and control, has long been known in scholarship. However, appreciation of the role of language in understanding our social realities and power relations has not been fully translated to education or even to research beyond linguistically focussed academic strands. Bringing together well-established scholars from a range of disciplines, this book demonstrates why language awareness and discourse consciousness should be considered a key skill in business and professional life, and looks closely at language in areas such as entrepreneurship, leadership, human resource management, medical, financial, or business communication, ecology, media, and politics. The authors demonstrate how the understanding of the minutiae of language use in a variety of professional contexts leads to knowledge that will empower future generations of professionals and enable them to develop a self-reflexive, critical, and more ethical practice.

Foreword Jonathan Clifton
Part I. Introduction: 1. Language awareness and discourse consciousness in contemporary life and work Erika Darics
Part II. Language Awareness in Business and the Professions: 2. Language awareness and leadership: more than a guide to communicating effectively Stephanie Schnurr
3. Linguistic style and crowdfunding success among social and commercial entrepreneurs: an example of a language study in the field of entrepreneurship Annaleena Parhankangas and Erika Darics
4. Challenging the discourse of newcomer socialization practices in organizations from a critical perspective Peter Kastberg and Marianne G. Dietlevsen
5. Language guides: an exercise in futility Dariusz Galasi?ski and Justyna Zió?kowska
6. Argumentative awareness as a driver of trust in investor relations and financial communication Rudi Palmieri
7. Language, discourse and ecosomatic awareness Arran Stibbe
Part III. Language Awareness in Education and Training: 8. Critical language awareness and business communication Almut Koester
9. A developmental model of critical thinking Dale Cyphert
10. Membership categorisation analysis: developing awareness of categories and their consequences Andrea Whittle and Frank Mueller
11. Sociolinguistic awareness in business professionals: breaking stereotypes and language myths Louise Mullany.

Subject Areas: Communication studies [GTC], Language acquisition [CFDC], Sociolinguistics [CFB]