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The present study is an attempt to offer a bird’s eye view into the relationship between professional English, meaning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for General Purposes (EGP) or 6General English (GE), stressing the difficulties that may appear on the road. There are opinion discrepancies regarding the differences that exist/do not exist between Business English teaching and General English teaching. Therefore, the general purposes and distinctive features are examined to draw a parallel between ESP and EGP to present their common and specific characteristics.

A pandemic was declared last year, and it has changed our lives forever. It has resulted in many unusual but necessary actions and measures and Coronavirus has led to an explosion of new words and phrases, both in English and in other languages. Language is meant for communication. Communication can have literal and figurative meanings. Idioms are a type of figurative language. They do not always and necessarily make sense literally. Learning idioms is fun, especially when you compare English idioms to the idioms in one’s native language. English is a language particularly rich in idioms and they were extremely used in the present health circumstances as this new vocabulary helps us make sense of the changes that have suddenly become part of our everyday lives. Linguists are analysing these idioms and metaphors with a special attention paid to how effective they really are in encouraging compliance with public health advice, as well as issues of translation, and access to healthcare. The paper intends to present some of the most frequent expressions, idioms and perhaps metaphors that piled up in the very recent vocabulary

In a world increasingly trying to erase past inequalities and discriminations, words must communicate intent as much as ideas. We live in politically correct cultures, where unspoken rules of respectability govern conduct in cross-cultural interactions, meaning interactions among people of different races, genders, or religions. Therefore, it is essential to use politically correct language to avoid offending the audience. Even if it is not intended, failing to do so can have devastating effects professionally and personally. As it is frequently seen in the media, writing or speaking without using politically correct or inclusive language can have a negative impact that proves impossible to take back, especially in today’s age of social media and online content sharing. Politically correct means expressing yourself using neutral, unbiased, and inoffensive language that does not degrade, demoralize, or discriminate against another person or group. Inclusive language considers all perspectives without exclusion, inferiority, or stereotyping. Conspicuous prejudice and discrimination in the workplace are far less acceptable today. Laws now protect traditionally underrepresented groups from flagrant discrimination in hiring and promotion, and political correctness has reset the standards for politeness and respect in people’s daily interactions. Yet, in spite of the progress mentioned, political correctness is an equivocal term. While it has helped many traditionally underrepresented employees to experience their workplace as more inclusive, the rules of political correctness can prevent employees from developing effective relationships across differences that might divide groups. The paper attempts to analyze the rise and enforcement of political correctness rules related to the ongoing economic processes in the new economy of the world. In this new economy, the organizational boundaries between states and firms become unclear and, apart from conceiving a new vocabulary able to express the changes the firms are undergoing, when speaking or writing, all members of the audience should be included and addressed using inclusive language.

Are letters still important? Are business letters as the classic means of communication needed and important to be taught during language classes these days? Or should the new and modern means of communication prevail over the classic written pieces of paper? This article discusses the findings and implications of an investigation meant to answer these questions about the role of business correspondence in English (i.e. email, letters, memos, faxes) and this is done as a case study addressed to the local door market. The results are based on four sources: 1. a questionnaire that had two versions: an online survey sent by email to 150 alumni of The Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea and to 8 companies and professional associations, and a paper-based version distributed to 80 professionals, who included students undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate programmes; 2. semi-structured interviews with 8 professionals, 3. analyses of 25 email chains comprising 190 separate messages, and a “week-in-the-life” case study. All these cover half a year span of investigation. This research comes with relevant information about the role of email versus letters, memos and faxes in the globalised workplace, the purposes and characteristics of these text types, and the challenges that Romanian professionals experience when writing business correspondence in a second language. The article argues that the irrelevance of the traditional approach of business English courses (letters, memos, faxes) when it comes to the needs of modern-day professionals and need for email and netiquette focus as the core of updated instruction.

The aim of teaching a foreign language is to make students able to communicate well. Speaking is one of the four skills of teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process. As a consequence of the fact that the communicative approach is increasingly used in EFL situation, we underline the importance of students’ communicative competence. Learners have serious problems in mastering the communicative skills due to the fact that curricula pay more attention to English grammar, reading and vocabulary. Listening and speaking skills are not considered as important parts of many course books and teachers do not seem to pay attention to these skills while designing lessons. Speaking levels of learners are different from each other as this ability is affected by crucial factors. In many English language classes, the methods focusing on grammar are used for teaching and this method has proved inadequate to the demands for producing efficient English speakers. Speaking is a complex and dynamic skill that involves the use of several simultaneous processes and a speaker needs to almost instantly activate knowledge and skills. In spite of its undisputed importance, speaking has been a rather neglected skill in second language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment. It is now widely accepted that speaking should be the basis of teaching practice and this is a serious challenge for English teachers; however, it is crucial in the development of English language communicative competence. However, there has been an increased focus on the speaking ability because of its perceived importance in language learning and teaching. This paper will briefly analyse the causes that create difficulties in speaking classes, in particular in the case of the advanced level of foreign language proficiency students. The difficulties examined concern the choosing of the appropriate framework and approach and suggest some speaking activities which seem appropriate for advanced language learners. Finally the paper will focus on a particular case that of preparing students for speaking tests they may sit for.

Style is a crucial element of business communication, since the writer has to manage to obtain a balance between being pleasant and being polite. People use business writing to ask for a job, to inquire about different opportunities, to ask for price quotations, to get into business with partners etc. It is to the writer’s advantage to learn how to write in a business style because it is an important part of most people’s everyday life. Nowadays, due to the development of international business partnerships, business people in Romanian and not only are faced with the necessity of writing and translating official business papers from English into Romanian because English is considered the language of world business relationships. In comparison with literary texts, the texts of official documents are highly standardized. This refers to both the structure of the whole text and the arrangement of special paragraphs. The language of business documents is characterized by specific terms and expressions and also by certain grammatical and syntactical patterns. The literature in the field has showed vastly subjective approaches, yet these approaches are not all the time in accordance with existing rules of formal English. Also, there are no accepted criteria for changes that should be taken into consideration. Therefore, the main problems of people who write business documents are: how should they write it to sound correctly? How formal should they be in the content of documents, if even English-speaking people have difficulties drawing a line between formal and informal English? The aim of this paper is to investigate the stylistic peculiarities of official business documents. It starts with introductory notions regarding style and stylistic and it continues with the relation between language and its function in social settings. The second part of the paper provides a stylistic analysis of the most common features seen in business documents.

A growing segment of Romanian women are becoming passionate about fashion, therefore they are increasingly interested in fashion magazines and products. The incredible prevalence of English in Romanian media – both in written and spoken form – is at first shocking to a native English speaker. Phrases that seem to make no sense or that are not relevant to what they are attached to are seen everywhere: on t-shirts, as part of television advertisements, and in Romanian magazines. In this paper we assert that the English in Romanian media (fashion magazines) is more complicated than that; sometimes it is mainly decorative but it is able to communicate as well. Over the years, there have been many studies which dealt with anglicisms in Romanian, especially in science and information technologies. Yet, in spite of the growing number of English terms incorporated daily by the language of fashion, this has received less attention in lexicographic and terminological studies as compared to other areas, such as science and business. There are many reasons for which Romanian has not only adopted English words with new meaning and usage, but also incorporates other forms based on English patterns which users seem to consider more attractive or more accurate. More specifically, this paper analyses how English mixing contributes to self-distinction through fashion. We will analyse the Romanian language of fashion in three Romanian fashion magazines- ELLE, Harper’s Bazaar and Marie Claire -, which has for some time been using English words with different meanings, or even created Romanian words that look like and are pronounced like English words. The result of this study shows that these English mixings depend on the fashion-related quality of the selected magazines. The findings of this study imply that English is regarded as a ‘stylish language’ and that this general recognition leads to the acknowledgement of the prestigious status of English in Romania.

The paper presents the results of a survey carried out at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, in order to identify attitudes, beliefs, motivation and self-responsibility among students when it comes to learning the English language. The main issue investigated was motivation set at the basis of the learning process together with students’ attitudes regarding the use of English in the Romanian social and educational context, as well as the use of the English language in general. A valid questionnaire was designed and tried to a convenient sample of students; the results of the study are discussed in terms of the principal components that were established including attitude towards motivation, self-responsibility, and language learning approaches. Research and experience show that English is of utmost importance in the academic and future professional lives of students majoring in economics. Therefore, this paper provides some theoretical aspects of motivation, beliefs and responsibility in the context of second language acquisition.Among the important achievements of the study we should mention the observations of students’ behaviour concerning responsibility. It appears that most students are not ready to take complete responsibility for learning. They are either afraid of the teacher, or feel embarrassed, and are ashamed to openly utter their ideas. Thus, teamwork and pair-work facilitate the effective learning of the foreign language and encourage students’ collaboration. The teacher is not the central actor, the controller anymore; s/he becomes the facilitator and source of knowledge. It is important for the teacher to know the basic needs of his/her students and cater for these according to level of their importance, to be aware of the reasons that propel students towards learning, improving or just surviving English as a foreign language.