Outsourced call centers and English in the Philippines

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2268882
AutoresEric Friginal (0000-0001-5956-3674, Northern Arizona University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2007
Volumen26
Número3
Páginas331-345
Fecha de publicación2007-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWorld Englishes (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0883-2919 • E-ISSN: 1467-971X
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-971x.2007.00512.x
OpenAlexW1999041706
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas30
Referencias citadas9

The influx of outsourced call centers from the United States to the Philippines since the late 1990s has paved the way for the creation of thousands of jobs for Filipino professionals who are able to communicate in English and provide telephone-based customer services to American customers. The Philippines has become one of the major centers for outsourcing because of its tradition of bilingual education, affinity to the American culture, and cheap labor market. This study examined the effectiveness of micro language policies of a US-owned call center relative to the variety of English spoken in the Philippines in preparing Filipino professionals to work in outsourced call centers. The relationship between ESL proficiency and success in delivery of support was also analyzed by comparing English communication and transaction monitoring scores of Filipino customer service representatives (N = 74) collected for over a period of seven months in 2003-4. Although the initial English scores of participants were below the expected level of proficiency set by the call center company, assessment data indicated that with proper training and effective language-based programs, the participants exhibited improvement in English during transactions. ESL proficiency, however, only accounted for 10 per cent of the variability in the transaction monitoring scores of the participants

American English · Business · Call centre · Database · Database transaction · Language proficiency · Limited English proficiency · Linguistics · Medical education · Outsourcing · Pedagogy · Political science · Service (business · Set (abstract data type · Telecommunications · Telephone call · Variety (cybernetics · Computer Science · Emotional Labor in Professions · Labor Movements and Unions · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Medicine · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence · Marketing