Abstract
Although most Canadian university and college professors assume that international testing credentials such as IELTS, TOEFL, and CELPIP are suitable yardsticks to measure international students' language skills, the study presented in this chapter that adopted critical discourse analysis of international students' technical assignments suggests otherwise. Technical communication is different from cultural English, whereby the former measures students' technical skills in communicating highly scientific materials and cultural English may be used for interpersonal skills. The study used secondary data for data analysis and employed Bernstein's theoretical lens of elaborated code and restricted code. Findings revealed that 21st-century knowledge production, distribution, and its adequate reproduction are in the hands of well-rounded knowledge consumers in knowledge societies, and if the knowledge consumers are not well cognizant of their instrumental role in the knowledge economy owing to weak English language constructions, social inequalities will increase exponentially.
TopIntroduction
International students have garnered much attention from educators, policy makers, and administrators of higher education institutions (Andrade, 2006), let alone the broader Canadian education community (Zhang & Zhou, 2010). Most international students arrive in Canada with well-established skill sets in their respective fields, and they are an important source of revenue for the Canadian education sector. For example, the Toronto−Waterloo corridor alone generated nearly 80,000 high-tech employment opportunities owing to the sheer dedication, innovative approaches, and technological prowess of highly dedicated international students (Wachsmuth & Kilfoil, 2021). However, the same international students became a serious policy issue among policy makers, educators, and federal, provincial, and local politicians when such students are not accommodated professionally (Gopal, 2016; Sá & Sabzalieva, 2018). Some critics point to international students’ poor communication skills as the cause of such policy disjunction, while others blame Canadian higher education systems. This chapter argues that some international students have poor technical communication skills because language-testing bodies such as the British Council, the American Cultural Center, and Immigration Canada evaluate only cultural English (Aina et al., 2013) even though English-speaking countries’ higher education systems have become highly technical and industrialized (Andrade, 2006; Martinez, 2006). The most common language credentialing systems used by international students stem from International English Language Testing System (IELTS), Duolingo, the Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program (CELPIP), and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Although these gatekeeping language credentialing systems do provide thorough standardization, they do not facilitate the English-speaking language requirements nor address highly technical market trends (Martinez, 2006) needed by international students and more specifically a highly technical workforce. Most of these students are beleaguered because they bring poor language skills to their respective institutions of higher education (Zhou et al., 2021), resulting in an existential dilemma because of inappropriate language skills evaluated by language credentialing organizations (Hune-Brown, 2021) to meet highly demanding professional needs.
Almost all the language-testing credentialing administered by IELTS, TOFEL, and Duolingo revolves around cultural English needed to negotiate day-to-day social transactions (Freimuth, 2013). But the technical communication embedded in academic English and needed for survival in the highly tech-driven Canadian job market is diametrically opposite to what these international students expect from higher education institutions in Canada. On the one hand, it is highly technical and discipline specific; on the other hand, it demands very solid prior knowledge of the subject matter at hand. Technical language skills needed to survive, to innovate, and to thrive at any given workplace become crucial if these students lack technical knowledge (Caissie, 1978).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Restricted Code: Bernstein talks about restricted code as poor syntactic and semantic production of language from lower-working-class speakers. This could produce social class differences.
Technical Communication: Communication of scientific and highly technical knowledge. The processing of information in terms of technical communication should be clear and loaded with technical pieces or discipline-specific vocabulary, but most international students are not aware of this aspect of technical communication.
Technical English: Technical English is driven by technical jargon and is based on highly scientific content. In addition, technical English also relies on research-based vocabulary for technological innovation.
Critical discourse analysis: Critical discourse analysis is much informed by Fairclough’s three-dimensional model that encourages researchers to evaluate discursive events, discursive practices, and social structures. Here the critical analysis of texts such as grammar, structure, vocabulary, intertextuality, and rhetorical or literary devices is carefully executed to find critical nuances in the text.
Pedagogizing: Making the teaching and learning content pedagogically suitable for learners so they can consume knowledge easily and comfortably in knowledge economies.
Knowledge Economy: 21st-century societies live on knowledge as a staple diet as opposed to traditional economies of the bygone century. Traditional economies were sustainably inviable and depleted the natural resources to the point of national diversification drive; for example, Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 is one but a simple example of Saudi society’s hunger for knowledge.
Cultural English: A language with greater cultural than academic relevance. Much in cultural English flows from norms, values, and surroundings, and is thus easier to enact than technical English, which is more scientific.
Elaborated Code: This concept was promoted by Basil Bernstein, an English sociologist who denotes elaborated code to middle-class speakers who are linguistically proficient and can produce rich linguistic content. The speakers are able to produce abstract reasoning, critical thinking, and technical knowledge.