Language skills and labour market returns

2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-241
Author(s):  
Svetlana Ridala

Abstract Increased migration, global trade and the introduction of digital labour platforms call for a better understanding of the mechanisms that can enhance economic and labour market outcomes in the face of increasing disparities in culture, language and identity. The article contributes to the literature on labour market returns on language skills, which is very heterogeneous and context-specific, by carrying out a systematic review of that literature. The meta-regression analysis estimates the returns on language skills that come from socio-economic, institutional and ethnolinguistic factors along with controls for the study design. The meta-regression results for the labour market returns that stem from knowledge of the local state language, a significant local minority language or the business language provide evidence that knowing the more influential language is associated with higher labour market rewards. Linguistic diversity has a negative effect on the returns to skills in the business language but increases the returns to the local state language. Urbanisation has a negative, though quantitatively modest, effect on returns to language skills in the business language, whilst the GDP level increases the returns to minority language skills and unemployment increases returns to skills in the business language and the local state language.

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marita Jacob ◽  
Michael Kühhirt ◽  
Margarida Rodrigues

AbstractThe potential benefits of increased international experience abound, ranging from enriching cultural understanding to an improvement of language skills and intercultural competence. At the same time, empirical evidence is mixed, particularly with regards to how well international experience translates into individual returns on the labour market. This article examines the association between studying abroad and early labour market outcomes in a comparative perspective aiming to shed light on why labour market returns differ across countries. We expect labour market returns to vary with specific country characteristics such as demand for international experience and competition among graduates at labour market entry. In our empirical analyses, we use data from 13 European countries that provide information on graduates’ early labour market outcomes. We find a large variation in the impact of studying abroad on both wages and attaining a higher service class position. Generally, the labour market returns to international experience are larger in countries in Eastern and Southern Europe with poorer university quality, higher graduate unemployment, and fewer students abroad.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suman Kothakonda

<p>My main goal is to focus on the importance of multilingual education through translanguaging pedagogies in Telangana schools especially in the areas of minority linguistic communities. India is remarkably well-known for cultural and linguistic diversity. In such a context, it is difficult to implement the right medium of instruction in which the students’ home language is different from the school language. Though there are many factors involved in delivering quality education, language plays a significant role in teaching and learning across the world. The majority of the schools encourage dominant language(s) in teaching and learning in Indian states. As a result, students of non-dominant language(s) are totally out of the classroom conversations and they slowly come to know that their languages are less prestigious and not used in schools. This leads them to show less interest in learning. Non-dominant language(s) are pushed out of important domains and such languages are impoverished with limited functions in India. In this paper, I discuss the complexity which lies in providing the right media of instruction to heterogeneous students in Indian classrooms and also explores the students’ language(s) proficiency levels in two target languages. Finally, I explain some ways to develop students’ linguistic and cognitive skills in such a multilingual environment. Two schools were, for this study, visited to understand the language(s) scenario in the Telangana region. The data was collected from 15 students who were in the IX class.Apart from this, we interacted with teachers to get their opinions on various topics in relation to students’ language skills as well as multilingual education. Extensive individual interviews and long conversations were conducted from classroom teachers in relation to students’ language skills in three languages. The data was collected through a variety of sources in order to illuminate multilingual education in Telangana schools. Oral and written samples were collected from the participants in two languages L2 & L3. In the process of data collection, each student performed spoken as well as written tasks. Oral tasks consist of discussions, role-plays, and one storytelling task based on the provided pictures. Written tasks consist of reading, listening, and writing (vocabulary, grammar, and sentence meaning). The result of the collected data reveals the proficiency levels of students in L2 & L3. The empirical data, interviews, and conversations revealed the significance of LI in schools at the right time. </p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 167-191
Author(s):  
María Miyar-Busto ◽  
Fco. Javier Mato Díaz ◽  
Rodolfo Gutiérrez

Transferability of human capital is a key issue in the analysis of immigrants’ integration in the destination country, according to both empirical and theoretical literature. In addition to the problem of recognition of immigrants’ educational credentials and their lack of social networks, language is highlighted in the literature as a crucial factor regarding human capital transfer. This paper considers the role played by Spanish language skills in the integration of migrants into the labour market in Spain. It takes advantage of the fact that about half of the immigrant population have Spanish as their native language, and of the diversity levels of fluency in Spanish among the remaining immigrants. Using the Labour Force Survey special module on the labour market situation of immigrants (INE 2015), the research has two purposes: first, to measure the direct effect of language skills on employment outcomes; and second, to analyze the complementary vs. substitution hypotheses regarding the interaction between Spanish language skills and educational credentials as determining factors for employment. The results confirm that skill levels in Spanish have a significant role regarding access to employment. Regarding the complementary vs. substitution hypotheses, interesting gender differences appear that confirm the striking contrasts in the Spanish labour market for female and male immigrants. For men, their level of Spanish acts as a complement to their educational qualifications in helping them to obtain employment, but this is not the case for women. However, female immigrant workers seem to obtain higher employment returns on their educational qualifications than men when it comes to avoiding very low-skilled jobs.


Author(s):  
Piven N.M.

Мета роботи – дослідити проблеми функціонування державної мови в сучасному бізнес-просторі, оскільки відомо, що тривалий час представники приватних бізнес-компаній нею майже не послуговувалися; відповідно до цього було поставлено завдання: сформулювати основні етапи опанування української мови як державної для фахівців зазначеної категорії осіб.Методи. У дослідженні використано теоретичні методи (аналіз стандартів і стану функціонування державної мови в різних галузях господарства); ретроспективний аналіз власного педагогічного досвіду з організації й проведення навчальних занять; емпіричні – педагогічні спостереження, тестування й спеціальні завдання для діагностичного зрізу рівня знань працівників бізнес-сфери; статистичні методи для кількісного та якісного аналізу отриманих емпіричних та експериментальних даних.Результати. З’ясовано, що тема функціонування державної мови в бізнес-сфері залишається малодослідженою. Мате-ріалом послугувала практична мовна діяльність групи слухачів одного з приватних підприємств. Проаналізовано загальну характеристику слухачів, рівень володіння державною мовою перед навчанням і після, розроблено шкалу оцінювання рівня мовних навичок. Зазначено, що в російськомовному середовищі серед представників великого й малого бізнесу виникають труднощі стосовно україномовної комунікації, спричинені низьким рівнем мовленнєвих умінь і навичок, відсутністю необхід-ної лексичної бази, наявністю суржику й росіянізмів тощо.Висновки. У результаті навчального процесу було визначено основні етапи опанування української мови як державної. Заува-жено, що важливе місце в підготовці слухачів належить мотиваційному та базовому етапам; надано методичні рекомендації сто-совно їх мовної підготовки. Доведено, що навіть при низькій мовній базі, але за умови високої мотивації можна досягти достатньо-го рівня мовленнєвих знань, умінь і навичок для подальшої професійної діяльності й комунікації державною мовою. The purpose. The objective of the article is to study the problems concerning state language functioning within current business environment. It is known that for a long period of time representatives of private businesses have hardly ever used it. It caused the necessity to define the basic stages of Ukrainian language acquisition as a state one by professionals in business sphere.Methods. The set of scientific methods are applied in the article: theoretical (analysis of standards and status of state language functioning in different economical spheres); retrospective analysis of own pedagogical experience in educational process organization and training sessions; empirical (pedagogical observations, testing and special sessions to detect the level of expertise among business sphere representatives; statistical methods (qualitative and quantitative analysis of empirical and experimental data received).Results. It is found that the issue of state language functioning in business sphere is still poorly investigated. Practical activity by the employees of a private enterprise is served as a ground for this study. General characteristic of trainees, their level of state language acquisition before and after training is analysed, and the evaluation scale of language skills level is developed. It is noted that in Russian-speaking environment representatives of large-scale and small-sized businesses face a lot of challenges while communicating in Ukrainian, caused by low level of language skills, lack of necessary basic vocabulary, existence of surzhik (mixed Russian-Ukrainian dialect) and russicismes (use of Russian words instead of Ukrainian ones).Conclusions. The educational process resulted in defining the main stages of Ukrainian acquisition as a state language. It is emphasized that it is motivational and basic stages that play the important role in preparation of trainees which led to developing methodical recommendations concerning state language acquisition. It is proved that in spite of a low level of language improved motivation helps business people achieve sufficient level of language knowledge and skills for further professional activity and communicating in state language.


Author(s):  
Adekunle Orelope Koleosho ◽  
Folajimi Festus Adegbie ◽  
Ayooluwa Olotu Ajayi- Owoeye

Sustainability of shareholder’s wealth has been a subject of discussion globally due to various decisions of the managers and the effect it has on company’s performance. Various corporate actions and information about the companies are disseminated over time and studies have shown the effect on shareholder's wealth. This study examined the effect of capital market returns on sustainability of shareholder's wealth in Nigeria Listed Companies. The study adopted ex-post facto research design. A sample of 57 companies from a target population of 168 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as December 2018 was randomly drawn across the various market sectors for the panel data. The study used secondary data from the NSE, CBN and companies’ data on the Bloomberg Terminals. Validity and reliability were premised on the statutory audit of the financial statement. The study adopted descriptive and inferential (Regression and Correlation) statistics to analyze the data. The study found that the stock market returns indicators (dividend per share, earnings and Leverage) have joint and statistically significant relationship with market price per share: DPS, EPS and LEV with Adjusted R2 = 0.738, F(3, 796) = 54.74, p = 0.108 > 0.05. The study concluded that stock market returns measured by dividend and earnings have a significant effect on the shareholders' wealth while leverage exerts a negative effect on Market Price per share. The study recommended that the management of the companies should embrace the payment of dividend to shareholders while ensuring the growth of earnings over the period to sustain shareholder's wealth.


Multilingua ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 33 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorte Lønsmann

AbstractThis article draws on a study of language choice and language ideologies in an international company in Denmark. It focuses on the linguistic and social challenges that are related to the diversity of language competences among employees in the modern workplace. Research on multilingualism at work has shown that employees may be excluded from informal interactions and from access to power structures on the basis of language skills in the company’s language(s). The data discussed here show that in the modern workplace, employees’ linguistic competences are diverse; international employees often have competence in the company’s lingua franca but lack skills in the local language while some ‘local’ employees lack competence in the corporate language (typically English). This can lead to the sociolinguistic exclusion of either group. In conclusion, the article relates these processes of exclusion to two language ideologies: one about an essential connection between language and nation and one about a hierarchy of English users.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document