ارزیابی عملکرد James

The role-play in the previous step highlighted that James lacked crucial skills for communication in English as a lingua franca and, more widely, in international business communication.

Let’s now evaluate James’s performance in more depth. James was clearly rather unsuccessful in making Corinne enthusiastic about the new flavours of tea.

Knowledge and awareness of the audience
James has shown little in terms of knowledge and awareness of the audience. He worked from the assumption that Corinne would know key terms such as ‘Lemon Curd’ and ‘Guinness’, their cultural meaning and how they might help sell the new tea flavours. He made no effort in decoding these terms and addressing Corinne’s possible gaps in knowledge of his base ingredients of his teas. He also failed to pick up and adequately react to a request to slow down his delivery. Finally, he did not plan his pitch from Corinne’s perspective. For example, he did not point out in which market segments these teas might sell well in (e.g. big hotels, expat communities).

Knowledge and awareness of the self
James was very nervous, which may be understandable in a high-stakes situation. This may have contributed to the high speed delivery of the pitch which didn’t take any account of Corinne’s likely level of understanding. The fact that he subsequently ignored Corinne’s request for clarification, also shows that he had little awareness of whether his communication practices helped him convey the intended meaning and of the impression he would have made on others. Altogether he seemed to have little control over his emotional state and little ability to adjust his delivery as necessary.

Communication skills
On a practical level, James’s communication skills were lacking in many important aspects. He didn’t accommodate his language choices to Corinne’s likely level of knowledge and understanding of culturally significant ingredients, he didn’t decode relevant jargon for Coreen, and he showed no flexibility in adjusting how he might go about his pitch.

Action plan
The last step of the evaluation tool is the development of an action plan. Try doing this for James’s situation.

Here are prompts for what you may want to consider:

- What can James do to communicate more successfully in the future?
- How can he prepare?
- What resources will he need? Who can help him? Where can he find opportunities for practice?
- What can he do while the interaction is ongoing?