Economic

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Although English has become a major universal world language in the increasingly globalised world, knowing how to use more than one language is still important for jobs and businesses (Kasselmann, 2007). According to Grin, Sfreddo and Vaillancourt (2010), there are increased productivity, costs and profits in businesses with multilingualism; Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) surveyed who used more languages in export had a larger demand for export, high turnover rates and more customers (as cited in Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages Aotearoa New Zealand [TESOLANZ], 2012).

Habib (2011) examined the small and medium enterprises of Swedish, Danish, German and French Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and found that multilingual skills and the success of export were linked. In the study, Swedish SMEs were found to be using fewer market languages in export – 3 market languages, compared to the German and French SMEs who used up to 12 and 8 market languages respectively. It was reported that the SMEs who used more market languages in export had a larger number of export countries, with high export turnover rates as well as more foreign customers, in contrast to SMEs that used fewer market languages. Thus, multilingualism is a useful tool in the economy.

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