Page 64 - Making Instruction Work

chap 5 3/11/97 4:49 PM Page 52

52 making instruction work

Example #4: While conducting a recent workshop in Beijing,
China, one participant explained how important it was for
American expatriates to have a “working knowledge” of Man-
darin.“If they can’t work in Mandarin,” he said,“we can’t hire
them.”Because it was unclear just what “working knowledge of
Mandarin” meant, he carried out a goal analysis. Initially, his
list looked like this:

• Can communicate in Mandarin.

• Can understand the Chinese.

• Can read Mandarin.

• Can write in Mandarin.

Not bad, but the list still contained four fuzzies.After further
work, his description of “working knowledge of Mandarin”
looked like this:

• Can express themselves verbally in Mandarin well enough
to be understood by Chinese business people.

• Can repeat accurately what was said in Mandarin.

• Can read work-related reports and Chinese newspapers;
i.e., can accurately describe what is read.

• Can write reports and correspondence well enough to be
understood by Chinese business readers.
As you can see, the purpose of the goal analysis is to reveal
the meaning of vague terms and expressions so that you can
decide what to do to get more of what’s wanted.