Language Needs in a Multilingual Situation: A Case Study of Petroleum Sector in Sudan

Abstract

This research is an attempt to assess English language needs among the staff of petroleum producing companies in Sudan. Such companies abound in staff coming from a variety of national backgrounds. As such they constitute a multilingual speech community. English is assumed to function as lingua franca, bridging the communicative gap stem up by the staff language backgrounds. Research data have been collected through a questionnaire. Particularly, subjects were asked to rank their need of English vis-à-vis different jobs pertaining to petroleum producing companies in Sudan. They were also asked to rank the most needed language skills. Results have indicated that subjects rank knowledge and use English language as necessary requirements of success of business. It has also been found that the significantly desired areas of needs are to communicate with foreign authorities, setting up anew division and to win contracts. Finally, it has been found out that there has been no difference in the ranking of skills in order of difficulty