Impact of English Language Training on Linguistic and Cultural Identity of Call Center Employees

Authors

Mitima Jean-Paul Zagabe, University of the Philippines Open UniversityFollow

Abstract

The Call Center Industry in the Philippines has been attracting employees from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Such industry requires employees to have a strong command of the English language. More specifically, American English serves as the model for English language requirements. The problem is that these requirements may have a negative impact on linguistic and cultural identity of Filipino employees. This study explored the Filipino English language trainers’ integration with the American culture and language and whether this has any influence on the way they teach the language. It also investigated whether the Call Center Industry training has any impact on the language and cultural identity of employees. Methodologically, this study was a critical ethnography that was conducted by an experienced customer service representative. The results of the study can be useful to socio-linguists, school administrators, psychologists, families and educators, the Philippine government, the business process outsourcing employers, managers, and agents.

Keywords

Acculturation, Approach, Call Center Industry (CCI), Cultural Identity of Filipinos, Customer Service Representatives (CSRs), Method, Native Speakers of English or NSE, Philippine English (PE), Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL), Strategy

Author Bio(s)

Mitima Jean-Paul Zagabe, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is graduating with a Master of Arts in Language and Literacy Education from the U.P. Los Baños Open University. He has been a missionary and has lived in the Philippines since August 2004. His education includes Filipino and Language Studies, Philosophical and Theological Studies, and cultural immersion in a Catholic Parish in Metro Manila. He is a teacher, a part-time tutor in French, and an employee in the BPO sector as a French-English Customer Support Representative (CSR) in Clark Economic Zone in Pampanga in 2008 to 2009 and then as a CSR in Metro Manila from 2009 up to the present. He has also performed the tasks of a Technical Trainer and he is a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in his current company in Metro Manila. Correspondence regarding this article can be addressed directly to: mitima78@gmail.com.

Publication Date

12-25-2017

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.46743/2160-3715/2017.3438

Recommended APA Citation

Zagabe, M. J. (2017). Impact of English Language Training on Linguistic and Cultural Identity of Call Center Employees. The Qualitative Report, 22(13), 3461-3480. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2017.3438