Preparing Global South Accountants to be 'Superstar' Communicators

• Main Author: Tenedero, Pia Patricia P.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: communication skills; global communication; language ideologies in the workplace; multilingualism; Applied Linguistics; Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education; First and Second Language Acquisition; Higher Education; Language and Literacy Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/jeal/vol1/iss2/8; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/jeal/article/1023/viewcontent/RA_7.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

This paper investigates how universities in the Philippines prepare accounting students for communication in global workplaces. As an emerging global leader in offshore accounting services, the Philippines is seeing a growing demand for communicatively competent accountants who can be deployed globally. This trend consequently places a greater onus on the higher education system to produce accounting graduates who can communicate effectively. This paper examines what constitutes “effective communication” in the context of two Manila-based, top-performing accounting schools. Using ethnographic data, I examine how communication is entextualized in curricular documents and how these notions are enacted in classroom interactions. Analysis of the situated constructions of communication shows tensions in ideologies about English and Filipino, which are differentially valued relative to accounting students’ global opportunity and national identity, their future work and present learning, and their specialized knowledge and relational competence. The findings open new possibilities for the communication training of future globalized accountants.