Foreign Language Acquisition in European Management Education

Abstract

This article deals with trends in language use in European management education, both current and long-term. Beginning with a survey of the history of management education in Europe, the article traces the explosive growth of the management education field in Europe in the last few years. The relative importance of language acquisition in European—as opposed to American—management studies is also noted. The differences in the type and degree of integration of language learning in business education between various countries and institutions were brought out through a 1985 conference held on the topic in Lyons, France. Through a survey of 14 European countries carried out in November 1989, the author ascertained that the integration of the two fields had progressed dramatically since 1985. The business and language faculties in many European business schools are melding as the former retrain to teach in foreign languages and the latter to teach business-related subjects. One language—English—has assumed continentwide dominance in management education. Thanks to faculty retraining, a new diversity can now be found in European business curricula.