Communicative Competence and Challenges of Call Center Agents

Communication plays a very important role in the lives of the people. As a matter of fact, according to Brennan (1974), the ability to communicate helps people to build relationships. Moreover, they need to communicate in order for them for them to sustain the relationship that has been built. Communication pertains to the sharing of ideas, thoughts, information, and messages with other in a specific location and time. The information conveyed can include facts, ideas, concepts, opinions, beliefs, attitudes, instructions and even emotions (Wolvin & Coakley, 1991; Maguire, 2006; Lundsteen, 1979; Littlejohn & Foss, 2008; Janusik, 2010; Imhof, 2010; Hackman & Johnson, 1991, 1994, & 2009; Griffin, 1994 & 2009; Craig, 2009; Brownwell, 1990 & 2010; Bornmann, 1996; Barrett, 2010; Barge, 1994; Moran, 2010). This only means that communication is essential to achieve understanding between/among the people who are talking or conversing.

In the present era, it is very conspicuous that communication is an important aspect in order to succeed in business. People who have good and excellent communication skills as well as interpersonal skills can easily land a job. Crosling and Ward (2001) claim that effective oral communication skills and social interaction could lead to occupational achievement because good communication skills would contribute to the process of acquiring new skills, resulting to continuous learning and rapid solutions to problems.

In the call center industry, the agents are compelled to speak in English for the reason that their customers native speakers of English. Therefore, this only means that the agents must have language competence which is defined by Chomsky (1965), as the speaker/listener’s the tacit knowledge of the structure of language that makes him/her understand what the other person is saying. On the other hand, the agents must possess communicative competence. According to Hymes (1972), communicative competence pertains to the use of language and not only “the tacit knowledge of the structure of language.” Moreover, it encapsulates the competence of language use appropriate to the other participants of the interaction and suitable to the social context and situation.

According to Blommaert (2005), language matters to people; hence, they invest in language. Bartser (1982) claims that language is an “indispensable and universal component of the cultural system and sociology,” this proves that communication is needed anywhere most especially in the call center. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry or call center is one of the most robust industries in the country as of today. As a matter of fact, the call center industry is heralded as the newest sunshine industry in the country, earning around US$ 1 billion in 2005 (Alava, 2016; Mercado 2015). Chanco (2017) states that, “The BPO industry is expected to earn $40 billion revenues, 7.6 million direct and indirect jobs, 500, 000 jobs outside of the National Capital Region, and cover 15% of the total global outsourcing market by the end of 2022.” This only strengthens the fact that BPO is one of the fastest growing industries in the Philippines. However, the ability to communicate using the English language is one of the bare minimum requirements to become a highly proficient agent. This means that competence in grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary including idiomatic expressions that are commonly used by the native speakers are necessary. Furthermore, Torres (2016) and Pu (2013) affirm that English is the universal language and for this reason, it is considered as the language of the latest business management in the world; hence, many nationalities such as Japanese, Chinese, Turkish, Koreans, among others, study English for their careers and further studies. Kachru (1986) stated that there are more nonnative speakers of English compared with the native speakers in the world. This means that English is used to make transactions so that entrepreneurs would understand each other. Manivannan (2006) said that the English language is used in transacting throughout the globe. It is a means not only for international commerce; it has become increasingly relevant for inter-state commerce and communication.

In the Philippines, Filipinos are accustomed to communicating using the English language because it is used in both formal and informal occasions. As a matter of fact, almost all Filipinos have the ability to speak first, second, or even third language (Lewis et.al.,2013). Moreover, they speak with a clear American accent or people who are working in the call center industry call it a neutral accent.

Despite the fact that English is used as either a second language or a foreign language in the Philippines, there are still variations on how they use English compared with the Native American speakers. The level of fluency of the professional Filipinos when it comes to speaking the English language does not meet the English proficiency expectations of many American call center clients and customers. There is a multitude of communication issues when it comes to speaking with customers have already been identified (Forey and Lockwood, 2007). Therefore, the communication issues between interlocutors might be the reason for the BPO industry in the Philippines to stop growing. As a matter of fact, former Senator Roxas (2006) asserted that the lack of English proficiency among Filipinos will be the primary reason for the non-expansion of the BPO industry.

Challenges especially in terms of communication or language proficiency could be addressed as early as today so that these will not hinder the continuous growth of this industry in the country. In addition, eloquence using the English language does not only guarantee that the BPO or call center companies will not pull out their businesses in the country, it will ensure that the communication between interlocutors will be smoother and better.

Theoretical Support

This study is anchored on theories on English for Specific Purposes (ESP), English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), Verbal Communicative Competence, and Language Drift. English is the language of business, science, and education. Bolton (2008) states that English is now an Asian Language; many nationalities all over the globe more specifically Asians study English and it has now many varieties such as Singlish for Singaporean English, Japlish for Japanese English, Korlish for Korean English, Filipinisms or Filipinoisms for Philippine English, and many more. They study English because of its relevance in the business industry.

Hence, the concept of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) comes in. “ESP is the area of inquiry and practice in the development of language programs for people who need a language to meet a predictable range of communicative needs (Swales, 1980, 1990, 1992; Robinson, 1991; Love, 1991, 1993; Hopkins and Dudley-Evans, 1988; Tarone, Dwyer, Gillette, & Icke, 1981; Bhatia, 1997, 2004, 2008, & 2010).” This concept is very much applicable in the BPO industry for the reason that the representatives need to have knowledge of English and be able to converse using it so that the customers will understand them and vice versa.

Under the umbrella of ESP is English for Occupational Purposes (EOP), which refers to the specific ways English is used at work and professional situations. This means that there are specific types of English that must be used depending on the nature of the job. For instance, in the academe, formal English must be used because people who are working there have to be polite and professional in dealing with one another. On the other hand, in the BPO industry, it is conversational English. Thornbury and Slade (2006) define conversation as the daily use of language or the language that the people use every day and this is ubiquitous. Also, conversation is a kind of speech events which way different from discussions, lectures, formal speeches, and court trials (Richards, 1980; Cathcart & Olsen, 1976; Sacks, Schegloff, & Jeffeson, 1974). According to Hymes (1972), Verbal communicative competence (VCC) pertains to the competence of language use appropriate to other participants of the communicative interaction, and appropriate to the given social context and situation.

Learning English does not only happen at school. There are several venues where English is learned. One of which is in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or the call center industry. In this setting, it is taught how the native speakers use the English language at a conversational level. This encapsulates the way native speakers liaise and shorten words, common idiomatic expressions, proper pronunciation, descriptive grammar, and among others are topics being covered during communication training. In this sense, the trainees or representatives will be more familiar how the native speakers especially Australians use their language. This concept is associated with English for Specific Purposes or ESP.

Many countries have seen the relevance of the English language in business and education that was why the concepts of ESP and EOP were developed and because of this, they have started to study it and they have also produced several varieties. The kinds of English that other nationalities use are not completely synonymous to what the native speakers use. There are several factors that affect why variations happen, such as culture, the interference of the mother tongue that leads to transliteration, among others. In 1921, Edward Sapir introduced the concept of “Language Drift.” This means that if there are people who are using the same language such as English and they are not part of the same locality or they are from different countries, then, there will be variations in terms of their speech habits especially on pronunciation, choice of words, syntax, and so on. This concept was adapted by Malicsi (2009) who said that “language drift refers to random changes in forms and rules that diffuse throughout a speech community through cultural transmission” (p.29). This explains the existence of the variations of English among nonnative speakers of it and this is caused by different factors such as culture.

Philippine English or Pinoy English is one of the variations of English. There are several pronunciations, words, phrases, and sentences that Filipinos use but native speakers do not; hence, Malicsi (2009) said that Pinoy/Philippine English is considered as an English dialect and the type of English that educated Filipinos use. The study focuses on the communicative competence and challenges of call center agents in business process outsourcing industry. Business Process Outsourcing is one of the fastest growing industries in the Philippines for the reason that Filipinos can eloquently communicate in English and can provide excellent customer service. Now, the Philippines has its variety of English known as Filipinism or Philippine English which is not entirely synonymous to Australian English, and this might be the main reason why many call center agents are experiencing communication challenges in understanding their Australian customers and vice versa. The different varieties of English pertain to the concept of World Englishes which is a term formed for emerging localized or indigenized varieties of English, and Philippine English is a constellation of this concept (Kachru, 1997). This only exhibits that apart from British and American English, there are other varieties of English that also exist and one of which is Australian English which is also based on British English.

However, according to Friginal (2009), if the customers utter “What did you say it was?” or “I didn’t understand you, could you repeat that?” These are indications that the callers are challenged in understanding the agents and because of this, they need some clarifications. It also exudes the inability of the representatives to understand the specific information, to pronounce words based on “standard” English phonology, and to use vocabulary that matches the callers’ background, and among others. This also shows that there are several factors that may impede understanding between Australian callers and Filipino agents. However, what do the agents do in order to gain understanding of what the customers are saying if they are in this kind of situation? This seems to be a burden among many agents since it calls for explicit knowledge of English. The present paper focuses on the Language used by the call center agents during break. Specifically, it seeks to answer the following questions.