Language Group for Global Professional Communication aims to promote excellence in teaching and research of professional languages for global citizens. Originally named the ‘Penn Business Language Group’, this group was first created by Dr. Betty Slowinski in the mid 1990’s to promote the teaching of languages for business purposes and to provide instructive presentations and workshops to help the appointed language faculty further develop their literary background to be able to teach business-specific language and content. In 2006, Claire Babanoury, directing the French Language and Culture Program at the Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, took over the coordination of the group under the auspices of the Penn Language Center and strengthened the group in organized meetings and workshops. As the number of business language instructions and other professional language courses grew at Penn, a reassessment of the group’s needs was deemed necessary. Consequently, in an effort to better cover the wider range of languages offered at Penn today and their professional applications, the group underwent a reorganization, introducing new leadership of Claire Babanoury from the Lauder Institute and Haewon Cho from the School of Arts and Sciences (SAS). The name of the group was modified to ‘The Penn Language Group for Global Professional Communication’ to correspond to the wider service of the group covering faculty teaching languages for, not only business, but also health, and law professions at Penn.
Mission Statement based on a faculty survey conducted in 2014:
- Identify and share information on best practices, teaching materials, current methodologies and uses of technology for pedagogical purposes; contribute to develop innovative teaching materials such as simulations or case studies
- Gather and disseminate the research conducted in the fields of teaching languages for the professions and global professional communication
- Inform Penn language faculty on upcoming conferences or workshops in the field, existing grants and new trends
- Organize and facilitate on-campus events such as talks, workshops and panels on topics related to the fields of business, health and law and other professional communication
- Facilitate access of Penn faculty to the Philadelphia global network of companies, associations, and organizations conducting operations internationally
- Create, enrich and maintain a dedicated website to help implement all of the above