MOTIVATION TO USE FOREIGN LANGAUGE COMPETENCE ON THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR MARKET

The labour market in present Europe is characterised by cultural and linguistic diversity of the workforce and the workplace. Business operations get international dimensions and require the use of English and other foreign languages from Slovak university graduates if they want to establish themselves successfully on the international labour market. Studying foreign languages is part of the curriculum at most non philological faculties. Foreign languages are connected with the content of the subject study (foreign languages for specific purposes) to allow communication in the given specific field. For students the study of a specific language may present some difficulties because the language courses are usually set in the first semesters of their university studies, i. e. before students gain the basic economic content knowledge in their native language. The aims of foreign language competence are projected for the future professional needs of graduates, who may not yet be aware of the necessity and importance of these concepts in a foreign language and may therefore lack the motivation. Our paper focuses on the study of English for specific purposes (ESP) in economics and law studies. It explores the awareness of students of the present and future utilization of their foreign language knowledge and hence the motivation to study the specific, work-oriented and profession focused English. The research done by a method of questionnaire and interviews has been carried out on a group of economics and law students. The data collected show that students are motivated to study more than one foreign language at the university and are aware of their practical use on the labour market. The results should have implications for the curriculum and foreign language policy at universities in accordance with the policy of multilingualism of the European Union.