Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2018

Keywords

Content and language integrated learning, curriculum innovation, FB, social media communication, vocational English

Abstract

The rise of social media has affected how people do business and communicate. Companies interact with potential customers, share offers and promote sales, tracking instant Responses on the internet. Exploring how they do them with language can enable meaningful changes in the vocational English language curricula.

This study gives a descriptive analysis of 500 selected corporate FaceBook (FB) threads collected from the 100 Best Global Brands in 2017. It delivers a sizable collection of corporate FB posts categorised according to industry, business topics, language functions, etc. For contextual analysis, the three parameters ‘Field’, ‘Tenor’ and ‘Mode’ based on the Hallidayan framework (Halliday and Hasan, 1985) are used while the Language Analysis Framework for Writing (California Department of Education, 2015) is adopted for the analysis of language characteristics.

The findings reveal that a range of communication strategies, remarkably different from those in traditional business communication, are employed by corporates to boost FB traffic, achieve succinctness and innovation and build brand images. The study is significant to vocational and professional education and training as it facilitates close reference to exemplary authentic language materials of the best global brands. The unique characteristics of social media like spontaneity, interactivity and openness will also shed light on a new variety of topics, content and styles for vocational English training. The versatile nature of social media also makes the study a good stepping stone for any further joint research on content and language integrated learning (CLIL).

Source Publication

International Conference on Open and Innovative Education (ICOIE), The Open University of Hong Kong

ISBN

9789888439591

First Page

121

Last Page

133

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