The Language of Business: Some Pitfalls of Non-native / Native Speaker Interaction

Abstract

Why non-native speakers of English find it more difficult to communicate with native speakers than with each other? The author of this article will try to address the issue and present her approach of training learners of ESP to cope with some linguistic and pragmatic difficulties that can arise unintentionally between native and foreign speakers of English and share her experience gained while teaching ESP at tertiary level in Latvia. The paper addresses the issue of expanding foreign language learners’ competence of communicating transnational information. It reveals author’s effort aimed at assisting non-native ESP learners of Banking Institution of Higher Education, Riga, Latvia to encounter and tackle problematic areas of business English to communicate ideas skillfully and with confidence as globalization of modern business requires training of professionals who can function successfully and adequately in multinational environment.