How does increasing English proficiency drive international growth? Read on to find out how future-focused business leaders are gaining a competitive edge globally by investing in English language training.
The link between English language proficiency and global business growth is indisputable, and this presents leaders with an exciting opportunity to gain a competitive advantage.
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We know that English is the universal language of business, and globally, of us speaks it to at least a useful level ¨C that¡¯s 1.75 billion of us. And not just in person either ¨C it¡¯s also the language of emerging technologies and the internet, with almost .
Groundbreaking research has underpinned the importance of English at work. ÃÛÌÒapp¡¯s global research report, How English empowers your tomorrow, reveals stark figures confirming the vital role of English in business.
?Advances in technology, including a huge leap forward in AI, along with better connectivity, improved education, more outsourcing, political shifts and expanded customer bases have all played their part in transforming the international business landscape.
These trends are generating more international opportunities than ever before, but only the businesses that can effectively operate across borders will benefit.?Business leaders are responding by promoting English as the common language among diverse, global teams.
Better English has multiple benefits for your business, which cannot be overstated. Let¡¯s look at some of the leading benefits of investing in English language training for your team.
When employees are empowered to improve their workplace English skills, an uptick in confidence can be seen not only in their communication but also across a full spectrum of other skills.?English proficiency powers a multitude of soft skills including emotional intelligence (EQ), innovation, diversity of thinking, creativity, collaboration and adaptability at work. This is especially important in promoting collaboration across hybrid/remote teams that are often operating across borders and different time zones.
Higher-order cognitive skills such as complex problem-solving, originality, fluency of ideas and active learning are the currency of the future, and high-performing teams tend to demonstrate these skills in abundance.
Investing in your team¡¯s English proficiency has the power to strengthen teams, bolster teamwork and drive productivity. Takenobu Miki, TORAIZ Inc. President, Japan, says:
¡°Being able to speak English is directly linked to success in international business settings and is essential for communicating with people from diverse cultures and backgrounds. Proficiency in English can also expand our career possibilities and open up new professional opportunities.¡±
Using one common language among teams and ensuring employees feel comfortable and confident in their English proficiency brings everyone together.? A sense of unity and shared understanding will infiltrate every aspect of their work and will also feed into better cross-cultural understanding and greater awareness of cultural nuances.
This will have a positive effect on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives across your business and contribute towards a healthy culture of learning. All this can only lead to more cooperation and collaboration, a greater sense of belonging and a common drive to achieve shared goals.
Whether your customer base is established all around the world or you¡¯re breaking into new markets, English proficiency is key to success.
With better English skills, all the outward-facing functions of your business will benefit. This includes your sales team, who will feel empowered in every interaction with a new business prospect. Your customer support team will be able to deliver next-level aftercare service to your customer base. Your marketing team will have improved language skills which they can use to broaden your reach and build brand awareness across multiple countries and cultures.
No matter the team they belong to, better English skills will help your employees build strong and reciprocal strategic relationships, including with suppliers and other important external stakeholders.
Recruitment and talent acquisition leaders are improving their own English language proficiency to access wider, more diverse talent pools and identify candidates with strong English skills. Offering language training as an employee benefit signals to candidates their future employer¡¯s commitment to ongoing professional development. This not only increases the number of suitable candidates per role, but also improves retention rates once the position has been filled.
According to the?:
¡°To ensure that you are hiring the best people, you may need to accept some limitations on language capabilities and be prepared to provide training to meet both global and local language needs.¡±
ÃÛÌÒapp¡¯s Power Skills report?states that 58% of hiring managers currently test potential candidates' English language skills at the interview stage to ensure that they can seamlessly integrate into the corporate culture.?Increasing numbers of recruiters are incorporating language assessment in their hiring practices and advertising language training as a key benefit of a role.
You won¡¯t just attract the top talent, but you¡¯ll retain it, too. It¡¯s well known that job satisfaction is a key driver of good staff retention and engagement. ÃÛÌÒapp's research has identified a clear correlation between job satisfaction and level of English proficiency, with a 24-point difference between those with the lowest and highest levels of English. Indeed, candidates themselves understand the importance of language proficiency in the context of a global marketplace. They¡¯re taking a proactive approach by using language assessment tools to provide evidence of their English proficiency as part of their job search.
Eva Lopez, Learning and Development Associate, Publicis Global Delivery, says:
¡°Our workforce consists mostly of Generation Z and Millennials, and we want to retain this talent. We designed our Learning and Development program with English language training at its core, to meet both the business need to improve our employees¡¯ use of English at work, and to improve staff retention by offering language training as a benefit.¡±
In addition to soft skills, English is a vital core skill that enables learning hard technical skills, especially across the IT, technology, innovation and engineering sectors.?Frequently the training required for technical skills is either in English, or the programs themselves incorporate English.
The conversation around the future of a global workplace can focus on automation making workers obsolete, but??research reveals a different picture ¨C only one in five workers are in occupations that will shrink.?The future is about leveraging both human and machine capabilities so they can work together. That means human skills ¨C the ones that machines can¡¯t replicate ¨C are in increasing demand.
Our global research report,?How English empowers your tomorrow, urges leaders to take action:
¡°Employees are craving language training at work and employers ignore this request at their peril. They risk losing their talent to the 30% of organizations that have taken this employee feedback on board.¡±
Along with attracting new talent, English proficiency gives leaders the chance to offer their current workforce more opportunities for growth and career development.?Internal talent can be nurtured and promoted to international roles, meaning there¡¯s less risk of them moving on.
As well as opportunities for individuals, a collective proficiency in English positions your business favorably when it comes to seizing emerging market opportunities as they arise, wherever in the world they are.
CEO of EduGuide, Isaac Johnson, says:
¡°English is an essential skill for the future. English language training around the world has never been in such high demand. High-quality English training that uses technology to personalize learning should be the standard for every HR department and educational institution.¡±
A team adept in English is strategically positioned to capitalize on new prospects, regardless of their location. English is the core strength that gives your organization a competitive edge over your rivals.
So, with English proficiency delivering all these benefits and more, how do you implement language training in your own organization?
Show employees you¡¯re committed to building a culture of learning by implementing a plan and letting the team know that you¡¯re invested in their English language proficiency.
We¡¯ve developed a handy?step-by-step guide?on how to implement English language training in your organization which will help you get started.?Increasing numbers of recruiters are moving to a formalized, computer-based test such as?Versant by ÃÛÌÒapp?for a more inclusive, business-relevant assessment of English ability levels.?Then, Learning and Development managers are implementing programs to upskill all employees in business English, using relevant platforms such as?Mondly by ÃÛÌÒapp.
Find out more about how we can support your organization¡¯s international growth with ÃÛÌÒapp Language Solutions for Work.
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When you¡¯re teaching English to young learners, you might find that there are a few students in your class who are struggling. But sometimes it can be hard to tell why. Is it because their language level is low? Or are they finding classroom work difficult because of a general cognitive difference, like dyslexia??
Do you ever find it hard to keep students focused and on task? Young learners get easily distracted and it can be hard to find ways to keep them engaged.
So what can we do to get, and more importantly, keep our students¡¯ attention? Here are our five top tips.
Young learners have relatively short attention spans. In the classroom, it is rare to have the whole class fully engaged in something for a long time, since the children will have different interests and levels, so it is essential to plan a number of activities for each lesson.
The more variety you can include in the activities and tasks you plan, the easier it is to provide something enjoyable and relevant for each child. Choose short tasks and try to have a couple of extra activities up your sleeve if something you planned doesn¡¯t work well. However, don¡¯t worry if you don¡¯t have time to do them all ¨C you can always save them for a future lesson.
Another way of keeping students engaged is to mix up the classroom dynamics, having a combination of individual heads-down work, pair work, group work, and whole class discussions or games. When planning your lesson, consider how your students might feel at each stage. After doing some reading or quiet work, students may start to become restless, and this is the ideal time to get them up and moving about.
While you are in class, pay close attention to the mood of the class. When you sense that students are becoming distracted or bored, change the dynamics of the activity.
Ever notice that students become lethargic and show a lack of interest? Why not try introducing brain breaks at strategic points in your lessons? Brain breaks are short physical activities or games designed to get the blood flowing and to re-energize students to help them get ready for learning. They range from short activities that last a couple of minutes, to longer breaks that may be suitable if your lessons last more than an hour.
We can vary different aspects of the lesson using the previous strategies, but one thing that rarely changes is the role of the teacher! One way of keeping students involved is by giving them more responsibility and allowing them to take a more active role in their learning.
Peer teaching completely changes the classroom dynamic and has students teach their peers while you take a step back. For primary classes, ask one or two students to take charge of a ready-made activity, e.g. one from your course book. They should give instructions, demonstrate, monitor as necessary, and check answers.
When students are used to doing this, you can start to have them work in pairs or small groups to plan their own activities to use in class.
Of course, nobody is perfect and there will be times when you lose students¡¯ attention and they are not on task. For these occasions, you can use a wealth of classroom management strategies to regain the class's attention. Here are a few techniques:
Finally, if we want our students to be motivated and engaged in our lessons, we must show enthusiasm for what we are teaching. The more lively and animated you are about the lesson, the more the students will want to join you and learn.
There is a strong link between well-being and friendship, which is just as accurate for children as it is for adults. that children with stable friendships are happier, more able to cope with stress, and have higher self-esteem. Moreover, too, and children who experience friendship adjust more easily to school and perform better academically. School friendships are also a valuable way of learning social skills like sharing, resolving conflict, and engaging with peers positively.
Having friends is an important part of school life, and teachers can play a significant role in creating a positive classroom culture and helping children and young people to form friendships. How can you promote friendships between your students? Here are some ideas:
If there is an example of a good friendship in a book you are reading with students or in your lesson materials, draw your students¡¯ attention to it. For instance, The Jungle Book is an excellent example of a story about friendship. Encourage your students to think critically about the friendships that they read about. You can ask questions like:
By discussing friendship regularly in the classroom, your students will learn about the behavior and characteristics of being a good friend.
You can create lots of opportunities for students to build friendships with one another during class time. Design activities that call for pair or group work, and include at least one or two in every lesson. Focusing on a common goal or problem is a great way to encourage your students to bond with one another.?As a bonus, this collaborative way of working promotes important 21st century skills like communication and problem-solving.
Another way of promoting friendships between different groups of students is moving them around. Adjust your seating plan regularly to ensure that all your students interact with and work alongside different classmates, to promote positive, friendly classroom vibes.
Friendship is a social skill that children need to learn ¨C and you can help by teaching them. Be explicit about exactly what you expect from them. Saying, ¡°Be kind¡± is an abstract, vague concept that children might struggle to put into practice. Instead, give them concrete examples of behavior, such as:
When you see a student engaging in these behaviors, draw attention to them and praise them.
But to really convey the importance of school friendships and kind behavior, it¡¯s not enough to tell them. As the teacher, you must model the behavior you¡¯d like to see in your students. Be consistently positive and upbeat in your interactions with students, thank your learners when they offer help with something, and try to refrain from sounding impatient (even when you are!). All these steps will help to build a positive classroom culture where students feel secure, supported and happy.
Conflict is an inevitable part of school life, but you can help students to navigate arguments and other difficult situations in the classroom. If two students argue, you can help them to resolve it with the following steps:
Following these simple steps teaches children a framework for resolving conflict and gives them the tools to process strong emotions.
An excellent way to promote a positive classroom culture is to do friendship-focused activities with your students:
You could do a Venn diagram activity, where students work in pairs to discuss and write down things they have in common and areas of difference. It¡¯s good to pair students who don¡¯t spend much time together for this activity.
Another positive activity is a 'Honey Roast'. Give students enough squares of paper to have one for each of their classmates. Get them to write their classmates¡¯ names on the paper, and then, on the other side, write down a compliment or something they like about that person, for example, ¡°I like your handwriting¡±, or ¡°You always use kind words¡±. Collect the pieces of paper and read out some nice examples to the class. Alternatively, give them directly to the students to read to themselves.
