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, Germany in 2005:
1. Most business English training involves English teachers visiting companies once
or twice a week or employees attending language schools. E-learning is growing as an
alternative for learning business English.
2. 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.
3. 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.
1. The business English learner is an adult, not a high school student.
There is increasing evidence that adults are better language learners than children,
when all language skills are considered. This is true even for older adults,
see The Older Language Learner by Mary Schleppegrell.
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.
TheLinguist.The ability to choose content of personal interest is motivating. The lack of pressure
to perform instills confidence in the minds of these adult learners. Most learners at
The Linguist have studied in classrooms or other e-learning systems before, using
traditional methods. In general, the freedom to direct one's own studies at one's own
pace increases enjoyment, decreases stress and ensures continued improvement in
business English.From the perspective of the employer, the most important criterion in evaluating
a business English learning program should be the learning activity level of the
learners. Employees may have different English levels, or even different aptitudes
for language learning. What matters is that employees devote enough time to their
studies to actually improve