ABSTRACT
A major feature of ILT work was the collection and analysis of data in factories and public-service workplaces before training courses were established. There were three reasons for this initial survey work. First, employers, trade unions and the workers themselves were usually extremely sceptical that language training or cross-cultural training could be of any value and, in addition, such workplaces usually had no tradition or precedent for training at operative level or even for broader training for supervisory staff. It was necessary, therefore, to produce evidence for all parties that communication was relevant to improving shop-floor relations and that this in turn would make for a more effective and fairer workplace. Second, we often faced the most blatant expressions of racial prejudice and of hostility to black workers when we first started survey work, and we briefly describe this in section 2 of this chapter. So observation and its discussion and analysis with white people had to be a first step in changing attitudes and providing people with new strategies for perception and behaviour. This work was written up as a survey report for the employer and formally presented. This initial data collection and analysis was in itself a form of training and education. It was also necessary in order to establish with all parties the aims and objectives of the more formal training which it was hoped would follow. Third, the data and its analysis provided material for the training itself. However, data for this purpose did not all have to be collected at the ‘initial survey’ stage. Obviously, we could collect further data at any time in a variety of ways including from the participants themselves.
