A Study On The Language Use In The Communication Practices Of Commercial Bank Of Ethiopia
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Date
2020-01
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AAU
Abstract
The present study investigated the use of language in the communication practices of Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in the context of business transactions of the Bank. Mixed research design that constitutes convergent mixed method was used to hold the analyses of the study. Qualitative and quantitative data have been used to regulate the study. The qualitative data were collected in in-depth interviews, observations and document analyses. In the quantitative part, questionnaires were used to collect the data and descriptive statistics focused on frequencies and descriptive that indicate aggregate mean values have been used to analyze the result. The finding suggests the Bank used only Amharic and English languages as its major working languages in Addis Ababa where it served heterogonous groups of customers. It also revealed the Bank used Amharic and/or English which had the same contents in their written and spoken forms for all customers that lacked legibility and clarity which could fit to the socio-linguistic variables of the customers. The qualitative data also revealed that the Bank did not use persuasive languages and the workers lack competence of business language skills to attract new customers according to socio-cultural background of the customers. Added to this, the quantitative data also revealed that 123 (66 1 %.) of the workers did not know any other Ethiopian languages where they served 100 (33.0%) of the customer respondents who were poor in Amharic. Moreover, to confirm the results found in the qualitative data, the overall aggregate mean values of customers’ responses for the clarities of the language used by the workers of the Bank on five points Likert scale, showed the customers could not clearly agree to the maximum level with the clarities of the language used by the Bank or workers of the Bank (M=3.5 (N=273, SD=1.213). In similar context, the aggregate mean values for the overall quantitative data of workers using different communication strategies to solve language problems showed the workers use different communication strategies moderately with their customers in their language use where a high level of using different strategies was expected ( M=3.00 (N=180, SD=1.271). Finally, the qualitative data result from interviews and observations provided the Bank was honest in its service delivery though the data also revealed that there were some public discourses such as the Bank’s being busy, serving the interest of the government and rich people which had negative implications. Based on these facts, it is recommended the Bank should revisit and restructure the use of language in its communication practices. It should also use the language according to the context of its heterogeneous customers. Ended, it is important to provide induction and continuous trainings on how to use language in business communication and solve language related issues to its workers.
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The use of language