This paper presents a model of language-based communication zones in international business communication. The model builds on Du-Babcock and Babcock's (1996) descriptions of expatriate-local personnel communication patterns by reconfiguring and adding new zones, which vary according to the language proficiency matches of the interactants. The eight new communication zones represented here can contribute to a more comprehensive framework that represents the dynamic, bi-directional, multiply influenced, and tmnsformational translation process integral to international business communication. Previous research has operated on the assumption that all participants within an international business communication setting function as fully proficient users of all languages being spoken, with no accounting for communication difficulties based on varying levels of language proficiency. This study asserts that there is, in fact, a language-competency variable that greatly impacts communication and communication dynamics within the eight identified language-based communication zones. Research-based incidents from four countries illustrate likely communication patterns in the language-based communication zones.

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This study describes and contrasts the communication behavior of Hong Kong Cantonese bilingual speakers as they interacted in comparable first- and second-language strategic formulation and decision-making meetings. Statistical analyses of 11 groups disclosed similarities in terms of volume, context level, and ideas; and differences in areas of turn-taking frequency, length of spoken time per turn, amount of felt information exchange, and degree of felt influence. A detailed analysis of one group revealed that different communication behavior patterns emerged in the domain of topic management for both Cantonese and English speakers.

This article is based on the theme of the 70th annual convention of the Association for Business Communication (ABC): past, present, and future. In traditional Chinese culture, 70 is a very significant number because it represents a crossroads and indicates that an organization has survived to old age but must now undertake a review to ensure its future existence. This leads me to the theme of my article, in which I examine the teaching of business communication within the theme of the conference: past (representing the establishment of business communication as a teaching area in the United States), present (a transitional period in which we are learning to communicate in a global and multidisciplinary environment), and future (perfecting communication techniques and reacting to new challenges and opportunities).In this article, I discuss the evolution of business communication teaching and the challenges we face in getting it right in the 21st century. In doing so, I show how the teaching of business communication has been characterized by stability (continually looking to find better and more appropriate ways to communicate) and change (adapting to the challenge of communicating in an expanding and increasingly complex, diversified, and fragmented global multidisciplinary communication environment). At present, we are going through a transition period in which we are adapting and learning how to communicate in this ever changing environment. Our challenge is to build on the fundamental principles and the foundation that were established in the past and develop new teaching methodologies, approaches, and techniques that will allow us to communicate more effectively and efficiently in the present and increasingly so in the future. My intention is to show how the teaching of business communication has changed and evolved over

This study builds on and contrasts with the earlier published framework of Du-Babcock by analyzing the topic management patterns and turn-taking behaviors of 10 additional groups of Hong Kong bilingual Chinese in their first-and second-language decision-making meetings. Although 8 of the 10 groups matched Du-Babcock's earlier findings, two groups did not and offered new reasons for such a result. The 8 replicating groups confirmed that different communication behaviors emerged in the domain of topic management for both Cantonese (first language) and English (second language) meetings, whereas the 2 nonreplicating group results indicated that second-language proficiency is likely a contributing factor that affects the topic management of Chinese bilinguals when participating in Cantonese and English meetings. This article discusses why the topic management patterns and turn-taking behaviors emerged as they did across these 10 additional groups. The article also suggests implications for international business communication practice and further research.