University of Johannesburg: ESL Employees' Communication Challenges

This minor dissertation investigates the communication challenges faced by English Second Language (ESL) employees in the South African workplace. The study explores the impact of language barriers on communication, career progression, and overall job satisfaction. The research examines the experiences of ESL employees, considering factors such as English proficiency levels, educational background, and work experience. The dissertation includes a comprehensive literature review, a detailed research methodology, and analysis of findings based on survey data. The study highlights the importance of understanding and addressing the communication challenges faced by ESL employees to foster a more inclusive and productive work environment. Recommendations are provided for both individuals and organizations to improve language skills and communication competency. The research concludes with suggestions for future research in this area.

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a
COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES OF ENGLISH SECOND
LANGUAGE (ESL) EMPLOYEES
By
HT TENG
MINOR DISSERTATION
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree
MAGISTER COMMERCII
In
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
in the
FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT
at the
UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG
Supervisor: Dr. D Groenewald
2015

Abstract
Despite the substantial predominance of ESL (English Second Language) employees
over native English language speakers in the South African workplace, there is not a
good understanding of the communication challenges these people face in the course
of their working lives. Limited language skills lead to a wide variety of communication
challenges for ESL and LEP (Limited English Proficient) workers, both at a personal
as well as an organisational level in the workplace. From the findings presented in this
research, it is evident that both English proficiency level and the extent of the
communication challenges experienced can be addressed to facilitate the rate at
which language skills impede ESL employees’ integration into an organisation from
the start of their working careers to the present time. Therefore, one can conclude that
every effort, from either individuals or organisations, counts in developing their
language and communication competency.

Declaration of original work
I certify that the minor dissertation submitted by me for the degree of Master of
Commerce (Business Management) at the University of Johannesburg is my
independent work and has not been submitted before for a degree at any other
University.
HUNG-TING TENG
(NAME)

Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1
1.1 BACKGROUND .......................................................................................................... 1
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT .............................................................................................. 3
1.3 RESEARCH PURPOSE, OBJECTIVES AND PROPOSITION ................................................ 4
1.4 OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................... 5
1.5 OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................. 7
1.6 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ....................................................................................... 7
1.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................... 9
1.8 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................ 9
1.9 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................. 11
2.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 11
2.2 ROLE OF COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE .............................................................. 11
2.3 ENGLISH LANGUAGE USAGE IN SOUTH AFRICA ......................................................... 16
2.3.1 STAGES OF STUDYING ........................................................................................................ 18
2.3.2 STAGE OF WORKING ........................................................................................................... 20
2.4 COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES OF ESL WORKERS ................................................... 21
2.4.1 ‘LOST IN TRANSLATION’ ....................................................................................................... 21
2.4.2 CAREER CONSTRAINTS ....................................................................................................... 23
2.4.3 LANGUAGE SEGREGATION WITHIN THE ORGANISATION .......................................................... 25
2.4.4 COMMUNICATION GAP AMONG ESL WORKERS ..................................................................... 26
2.5 OVERCOMING COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES .......................................................... 27
2.5.1 ENGLISH LITERACY PROGRAMMES AND TRAINING ................................................................. 29
2.5.2 FREQUENT USE AND PRACTICE OF ENGLISH ......................................................................... 31
2.5.3 IMPROVING HOME LANGUAGE LITERACY ............................................................................... 32
2.5.4 USE OF NON-VERBAL TOOLS ............................................................................................... 33
2.5.5 PRACTICE OF MULTI-CULTURAL MANAGEMENT ..................................................................... 34
2.6 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 35
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................... 37
3.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 37
3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH AND DESIGN ......................................................................... 37
3.3 SAMPLING.............................................................................................................. 39
3.4 DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................. 40
3.5 DATA ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................... 43
3.5.1 DATA VALIDITY ................................................................................................................... 44
3.5.2 DATA RELIABILITY ............................................................................................................... 45
3.6 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 46
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH FINDINGS .............................................................................. 48

4.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 48
4.2 RESPONSE RATE .................................................................................................... 49
4.3 DEMOGRAPHICAL RESULTS ..................................................................................... 50
4.4 COMPARISON OF EDUCATIONAL LEVELS ................................................................... 53
4.5 COMPARISON OF DURATION OF ENGLISH-BASED EDUCATION ..................................... 55
4.6 COMPARISON WITH ENGLISH-BASED WORK EXPERIENCE........................................... 58
4.7 COMPARISON AT DIFFERENT TIME POINTS ................................................................ 60
4.8 OTHER FINDINGS .................................................................................................... 63
4.9 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ....................................................................................... 66
4.10 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 68
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ......................................................................................... 71
5.1 MAJOR FINDINGS .................................................................................................... 72
5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................................. 75
5.3 RECOMMENDED FUTURE RESEARCH ........................................................................ 78
REFERENCE LIST ......................................................................................................... 79
APPENDIX A- LETTER TO SURVEY PARTICIPANTS ............................................................ 88
APPENDIX B- SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................................... 89
APPENDIX C- SAMPLE POPULATION ............................................................................... 95

List of Tables
TABLE 1:1 SOUTH AFRICA HOME LANGUAGE BREAKDOWN AND MOVEMENT ................................................. 2
TABLE 2:1 2008 NIDS SELF-ASSESSED ADULT READING & WRITING ABILITY IN ENGLISH .............................. 17
TABLE 2:2 JOB PERFORMANCE OF LEP WORKERS VS ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORKERS ................................ 23
TABLE 4:1 RESPONSE RATE ..................................................................................................................... 49
TABLE 4:2: AVERAGE RESPONSE RATE IN EACH SECTION ......................................................................... 49
TABLE 4:3 NATIONALITY AND RACE GROUPS COMPOSITION ....................................................................... 50
TABLE 4:4 LANGUAGE COMPOSITION ........................................................................................................ 50
TABLE 4:5 HIGHER EDUCATION PROFILES ................................................................................................. 51
TABLE 4:6 AREAS OF EMPLOYMENT .......................................................................................................... 51
TABLE 4:7 DURATION OF ENGLISH EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE AND ENGLISH WORK EXPERIENCE ....... 52
TABLE 4:8 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVELS, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES IN
COMPARISON TO EDUCATIONAL LEVEL .............................................................................................. 53
TABLE 4:9 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVELS, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES IN
COMPARISON TO DURATION OF ENGLISH-BASED EDUCATION .............................................................. 56
TABLE 4:10 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVELS, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES
COMPARED WITH ENGLISH-BASED WORK EXPERIENCE ....................................................................... 58
TABLE 4:11 ENGLISH PROFICIENCY LEVELS FROM COMMENCEMENT OF EMPLOYMENT (B) UNTIL THE
PRESENT (P) ................................................................................................................................... 61
TABLE 4:12 DEGREE OF HELPFULNESS OF PERSONAL ACTIONS TO OVERCOME COMMUNICATION
CHALLENGES................................................................................................................................... 64
TABLE 4:13 DEGREE OF HELPFULNESS OF IMPROVED ENGLISH PROFICIENCY IN WORKPLACE ...................... 65
TABLE 4:14 ESL EMPLOYEE SUPPORT FOR FURTHER EDUCATION & TRAINING ............................................. 65

List of Figures
FIGURE 2:1 INTEGRATED COMMUNICATION MODEL .................................................................................... 12
FIGURE 2:2 COMMUNICATION CHANNEL RICHNESS SCALE ......................................................................... 14
FIGURE 4:1 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVEL, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES
COMPARED TO EDUCATIONAL LEVEL ................................................................................................. 54
FIGURE 4:2 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVEL, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES
COMPARED WITH DURATION OF ENGLISH-BASED EDUCATION ............................................................. 56
FIGURE 4:3 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVELS, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES IN
COMPARISON TO ENGLISH-BASED WORK EXPERIENCE ....................................................................... 59
FIGURE 4:4 AVERAGE ENGLISH COMPETENCY LEVELS, COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHALLENGES AT
DIFFERENT TIME POINTS .................................................................................................................. 61

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
South Africa has become known as the rainbow nation because of the rich cultural
diversity of its population, which originated from many parts of the globe as settlers
and immigrants over a period of more than 350 years. The country's democratic
constitution recognises 11 official languages, all of which are guaranteed equal status
(South African Government, 2004). English is the language most commonly used in
South Africa, especially among the educated, and has become the primary means of
communication in government, business and commerce, and among individuals from
varied linguistic and ethnic backgrounds (Gough, 2009).
According to the 2011 National Census report (StatsSA, Census 2011, 2012), isiZulu
is the mother tongue of 22.7% of South Africa's population, followed by isiXhosa at
16%, Afrikaans at 13.5%, English at 9.6%, Setswana 8% and Sesotho 7.6%. The
remaining five official languages are used by less than 5% of the population. Despite
the fact that English ranks fourth on the list, when comparing statistical data from the
2011 Census and the 2001 Census (StatsSA, 2012) one notices that English had the
highest growth rate of 1.40% as the language spoken at home in the country, whereas
many official languages had a growth rate of less than 0.5% or even went into
negative growth. Regardless of this above average growth, as depicted in Table 1:1,
what is significant is that the mother tongue for the majority of South Africans, 90.4%
of the population, is a language other than English.

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Table 1:1 South Africa Home Language Breakdown and Movement
Language
2001 2011 Movement
Number % Number % Number %
Afrikaans 5 983 426 13.30% 6 855 082 13.50% 871 656 0.20%
English 3 673 203 8.20% 4 892 623 9.60% 1 219 420 1.40%
isiNdebele 711 821 1.60% 1 090 223 2.10% 378 402 0.50%
isiXhosa 7 907 153 17.60% 8 154 258 16% 247 105 -1.60%
isiZulu 10 677 305 23.80% 11 587 374 22.70% 910 069 -1.10%
Sepedi 4 208 980 9.40% 4 618 576 9.10% 409 596 -0.30%
Sesotho 3 555 186 7.90% 3 849 563 7.60% 294 377 -0.30%
Setswana 3 677 016 8.20% 4 067 248 8% 390 232 -0.20%
SiSwati 1 194 430 2.70% 1 297 046 2.50% 102 616 -0.20%
Tshivenda 1 021 757 2.30% 1 209 388 2.40% 187 631 0.10%
Xitsonga 1 992 207 4.40% 2 277 148 4.50% 284 941 0.10%
Sign
language
n/a n/a 234 655 0.50% 234 655 0.50%
Other 217 293 0.50% 828 258 1.60% 610 965 1.10%
TOTAL 44 819 777 100% 50 961 442 100% 6 141 665 0%
(Source: Census 2011)
Further contributing to the linguistic diversity of the country is the steady influx of
immigrants into South Africa. According to the South African Demographics Survey
2009/2010 report, there were approximately 64 000 international immigrants to South
Africa between 1994 and 2004 (SAIRR, South Africa Survey 2009/2010-
Demographic, 2010).
In the 2011 National Census, published by Statistics SA (2012:55), there is an
economically active population of approximately 18.7 million people in South Africa.
Therefore, extrapolating from the mother tongue statistics in Table 1:1, this would
imply that a total of 16.9 million (90.4%) employees in all corporate sectors across the
country are English Second Language (ESL) speakers who are required to use
English for performing tasks and communicating on a daily basis. Given the

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dominance of English in South African workplaces, a better understanding of the
implications of this phenomenon is required. The problems, objectives, proposition,
literature and methodology overview, ethical considerations as well as limitations of
the research are explored in this chapter.
1.2 Problem statement
Research conducted by Wambui, Wangombe, Muthura, Kamau and Jackson
(2013:213) on workforce diversity in Kenyan businesses, reveals that employees and
managers can experience difficulties in communicating with one another, when
organisations hire employees whose first language is neither English nor Kiswahili.
Language barriers are likely to cause communication difficulties which can lead to
confusion, frustration, fear, helplessness and anxiety for the affected individuals, as
pointed out by Dawson, Madera and Neal (2011:2). Bechan and Visser (2005:76)
found that in the South African banking environment the main cause of conflict in the
corporate environment is different communication styles, and the use of English as
the language of commerce has caused resentment within some cultural groups.
From the studies above, it is evident that given the predominance of ESL employees
in the South African workplace, using English as the only communication medium can
be a significant challenge for ESL employees in terms of speaking, listening, reading
and writing. Wambui et al. (2013:213) warn that misunderstandings and a decrease in
productivity are the likely results of communication difficulties. A better understanding
of the communication and language challenges perceived and experienced by ESL
employees in the work environment is therefore necessary.

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If certain actions such as literacy education are implemented in the workplace for the
purpose of empowerment and transformation, doors of opportunities for employees
would be opened to provide them with the chance of a better future (Gallo, 2002).
Whether these actions would minimise the impact of communication challenges and
benefit both individuals and organisations is yet to be verified and will be explored in
this study.
1.3 Research purpose, objectives and proposition
The purpose of this study is to explore the communication and language challenges
perceived and experienced by ESL employees in the work environment. Although
communication and language abilities can be developed and improved over time an
understanding of the perceived challenges encountered by ESL employees during the
course of their working careers is necessary.
The primary objective is to investigate the language challenges perceived and
experienced by ESL employees in the working environment. Allied to this is the extent
to which language challenges change over time. As English proficiency levels are
closely associated with the degree of communication challenges faced by ESL
employees, it is therefore important to investigate the impact English proficiency
levels have on communication challenges encountered by ESL employees over the
course of their working careers. The secondary objectives are:
 to investigate the change of English proficiency during the course of the
working careers of ESL employees;