CEF Professional Profile as an Instrument in Language Needs Assessment for Business Companies

Abstract

The switch form a centralized economy to free trade during the past two decades in Albania as well as efforts to be integrated into the European Union have led to the growing prevalence of English language, which has become the leading lingua franca for communication between experts not only at international but also national level, as various business documents, contracts, reports, etc. are largely used from Economics graduates in their daily work. This paper seeks to create a Professional Profile (P.P.)for business graduates employed mainly in manufacturing companies operating in international business. Using the P.P. of the Common European Framework of References (CEFR), it identifies English language skills that graduates of Economics, employed in business companies use more often in their working environments and the communication difficulties faced by employees in carrying out the required work. Through interviews, questionnaires and language audit, the study yields vast data on the communication situations mostly needed and used in companies in their everyday work. These data are an input for syllabus design in the field of teaching English for Specific Purposes since they lay the foundation of a syllabus which is based on the real need of the students and the labour market for English Language and communication