English is the international language of business. English is used to do business across international boundaries. People from different language backgrounds work together in corporate offices and use English as their common means of communication. It is not surprising therefore that there are millions of people who need to learn English for business communication. Companies and organizations around the world spend a great deal of money and time to help their employees learn business English.
Is there a satisfactory ROI (return on investment) for English language training in corporations or organizations?
Could the return on investment for business English be improved? According to information presented at a conference on language training for business called Sprachen und Beruf in Duesseldorf,Business English: New approaches are needed to increase the ROI in corporate English learning Articles china in 2023;
Most business English training involves English teachers work abroad visiting companies once or twice a week or employees attending language schools. E-learning is growing as an alternative for learning business English.
Organizations usually allow employees to study business English during working time. Surprisingly most employees do not like studying on company time because they are too busy working. They prefer to learn English on their own time.
Even employees involved in company-sponsored business English courses usually spend little more than one hour a week studying on their own.
What does this mean? The preferred approaches for business English learning are on-site instruction or off-site schools. Yet these are largely perceived by employees as distractions from their main job. These activities also represent a loss of productivity for the employer, thereby adding to the cost of these programs.
Is there a good ROI in this investment? Employees usually recognize that they need to improve their own level of English proficiency. Yet one or two hours of group instruction, followed by one hour of self-study per week, will not usually bring about a meaningful improvement in business English skills. Results presented at Sprachen und Beruf indicated that it took 18 months for any improvement in business English language skills to become noticeable, in the best cases.
How Can E-learning Deliver Greater ROI?
E-learning is often considered as an alternative because of its greater flexibility and lower cost. However, existing e-learning models have experienced a rapid drop-off rate amongst learners. The reason is that most e-learning systems have simply tried to deliver classroom teaching methodology online. This is the case with some leading English language e-learning providers.
To improve the ROI in learning business English, it is necessary to adopt new approaches that take into consideration two essential characteristics of the business learner.
There is no age barrier to language improvement. However, many adults have come to believe that they are already past the optimum age for language learning. These attitudes represent a major obstacle to effective language improvement. Forcing adults to do the kinds of drills found in a typical business English course, that were developed for use in traditional classrooms, will only increase the adult learner's resistance to language learning.
Business English learning needs to be built around the strengths of the adult learner. The adult has a wide range of knowledge and experience. Learning activities should focus on interesting content that is meaningful to the business learner. The learner should be allowed to choose what to study. This meaningful content should include but not be limited to content containing English for business communication. Business English vocabulary is often the easiest to learn, and should be learned from content that is relevant to the business English learner's area of activity. In addition, the business English learner should be allowed to explore a wide range of content in English to improve broad English communication skills. The choice of learning content should be the learner's.
The initial priority in improving English skills should be on increasing the understanding of written and spoken English through intensive listening and reading activities. This is in line with recent views about the importance of meaningful input to language acquisition.(see Krashen et.al.)
Efforts to improve accuracy in English writing and speaking must be integrated with intensive reading and listening to English content that is meaningful to the learners. If not, theoretical or abstract instruction can be counterproductive, creating negative attitudes amongst learners. There is considerable evidence that grammar instruction and error correction do not lead to improved accuracy or fluency in expression. See Grammar Correction in ESL student writing: How effective is it? by Shawn Loewen.
