Model of bilingual competence of an economist as a condition for a successful career in the sphere of Russian-Chinese business relations

Abstract

The article is devoted to the development and verification of a model of bilingual competence of an economist, which is in demand under the conditions of shifting business activity to the Asia-Pacific region and strengthening Russian-Chinese foreign economic ties. It examines the inadequacy of separately forming economic and language skills given the high contextuality of Chinese business culture, as well as the specifics of the Chinese language with its hieroglyphic writing and tonal phonetics, which requires restructuring of cognitive mechanisms for acquisition and formation of the professional conceptosphere, in which economic categories are comprehended through Chinese mentality and normative-legal environment. Bilingual competence is interpreted as an integrative construct including lexical-grammatical, communicative-pragmatic, and socio-cultural levels, as well as the ability to work with financial reporting, legal documentation, and negotiation scenarios taking into account non-verbal signals, hierarchies, and implicit meanings. A criterial structure for assessment is proposed (cognitive, operational, and axiological components), and the effectiveness of integrated subject-language training is demonstrated based on monitoring data from 2019-2023 in five universities (642 respondents: students, foreign economic activity graduates, and employers), which included standardized HSK testing, checking economic terminology, solving cases, and analyzing teaching materials. Statistically significant advantages of integrative training are demonstrated: final levels in economic vocabulary, skills, and motivation reach 84.92; 81.47; 79.18 points versus 68.74; 59.33; 62.45 in the traditional trajectory with comparable starting values. A non-linear relationship “language – market value” is identified: the profile of a bilingual expert (HSK 5 with high professional knowledge) is characterized by maximum indices of demand and remuneration, and the correlation of professional test with salary coefficient at HSK ≥4 reaches r=0.87. The frequency of critical communicative incidents decreases by 59-80% depending on the type of activity; the period to reach planned KPIs is reduced to 3,56 months with integrated training combined with internship and to 2,15 months with a year-long internship, while even without internship, the integrative trajectory is faster than the traditional one with internship. The article's material allows identifying features of a relevant educational model and practical indicators of its effectiveness for training personnel in Russian-Chinese business.