English competence in corporate world
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Rezina Sultana
HE looked thoroughly professional and seemed to be brimming with confidence with his made-to-measure suit and neck tie. He seemed to have the likeness of the ultimately successful go-getting corporate official. But his confidence level started to dwindle as soon as he lost a word or two from his entirely memorized presentation on current level of company sales in the corporate boardroom. And before he finished his presentation, the previously 'perfect' man was in total shatters.
In fact, English competence is a must in today's corporate world - few companies are able to exist without it. Teaching in today's English as Second Language corporate classroom requires a "Cool Corporate English Consciousness". Because of the emergence of multinational companies and globalization there has been a swelling demand for corporate English training all around the world. Besides, English has long been established as the standard language for international business.
A corporate English trainer has a specialized skill development position in a corporation where the goal is to help improve the "communication skills" or "interaction skills" of the corporate personnel. The term is generic and could be applied to nearly any skill whether technical, physical or otherwise, but is most often used to refer to 'soft' skills like getting along with others, effective communication, motivation, leadership, management and so on. Also, the role is not solely reserved for corporations; other organizations such as non-profit groups can also make good use of a corporate English trainer's services.
In order to effectively support the team, corporate trainers must be engaged with the business of the business they are supporting. In other words, trainers should not operate in a bubble - away from the realities facing their clients. The trainers should build the trust that they can have a significant positive impact.
Bangla, as the mother tongue always has a special value and undoubtedly no language can compensate one's own in expressing emotions and sharing feelings and ideas. But when we talk about professional arena, we just cannot ignore the role of good knowledge of English. It has been observed that the professionals of different levels are not always equipped with good English skills. However, this very language is also creating class divisions among the professionals. A technical person may have very good grasp at his/her on subject of specialization , but just because of his/her poor English skills, s/he often fails to be a competent candidate, whereas, professionals who have a strong English background prove him/herself by putting in positive contributions. These divisions happen only because of their various educational backgrounds.
Report writing, memorandums, proposals or various business applications or letters are always needed to be written during office time. Since written communication is the media of creating impressions about an employee, even a small mistake can create a negative impression on the clients or colleagues on the other side. So, it is important that the professionals must have confidence to express themselves in English properly. Proficiency in speaking is another area to get attention.
Realising the problem, the corporate management often outsource the training programmes for their employees. In Bangladesh, often these training programmes are conducted by hired trainers or by organizations like the British Council and other organizations having high language teaching credentials. Unfortunately, these short training programmes often fall short of reaching the objective as English needs to be practiced on a regular basis.
So, what can be the alternative? A company may appoint a full time English trainer, who will assess the quality, carry out the need analysis and carry on helping the employees to enhance the quality of their English on a need-basis. Here, it has to be noticed that an English trainer is not a person to teach the corporate graduates the lessons they have already learnt in their previous academic lives, but s/he is there for their confidence building.
English trainers usually help them practice, more especially, pronunciation and tones; develop comprehension skills (in daily conversation), correct mistakes immediately, conduct practice sessions in written and conversational English. In the training session, it is better if the trainer avoids using languages other than the target language. S/he should also give useful learning materials and provide comprehensible, interesting inputs and give a patient hearing to the learners. Trainers also need to arouse learners' interest on the language itself.
In fact, a trainer should be a facilitator, a companion with whom learners can chat; and a guide who can always help them. Respondents also think that trainers should be able to explain the points clearly, and should be friendly and should have a touch of humour on order to arouse the learners' interest because it needs to be borne in mind that corporate executives will look for a fun learning experience after a hard day's work.
The trainer should also have positive attitude towards the trainees. S/he must have the assumptions that learners are capable of self-directed development. Training is a process of self-development through collaborative inquiry. Moreover s/he must have the belief that learning is enhanced when stimulated by intrinsic motivation.
Criterion of a trainer includes placing great emphasis on establishing a climate conducive to learning (a climate of warmth, mutual respect, caring, trust, informality); engaging the learners in diagnosing their own needs for learning (assessing the gaps between where they are now, where they want to be, and how they are to get there) and formulating goals that are meaningful; develop a sequence of learning experiences that take into account both group similarities and individual differences. Finally, engaging learners in a mutual process of evaluation based on performance criteria should do the trick.
The minimum role of a trainer is concerned with designing, developing, conducting and evaluating learning experiences. To do this, the trainer must have the ability to organize, revise training on the basis of feedback, select appropriate instructional methodologies, write clearly and concisely, interpret feedback results, interface with subject matter experts, organize cognitive content of training, adapt/revise existing lesson plans, develop appropriate evaluation plans, apply appropriate learning and motivation theories, formulate behavioral learning objectives based on identified learning needs, select/develop appropriate audio-visual materials and devices, and develop performance measures based on behavioral learning objectives. What is outlined above will usually suffice in a training organisation which can provide the necessary support and consulting services to ensure an effective programme. When these services are not available, trainers might have to call up additional skills to carry out their responsibilities effectively.
Many trainees attend sessions out of professional necessity as they require more than just textbook work to satisfy their communicative needs. Many times textbooks have strong limitations in choosing motivational materials because they have to "guess" what a trainee will be motivated by based on current streams of popular culture.
Adding these elements to the planning give students' much needed consideration, one of the goals for the session should probably be to help the trainee/student perform his/her professional duties in English. It is not just about helping students to speak everyday English, it is about helping them deal with the rapid rate of speech in teleconferences, the uncertainty of being in a different country when they have to go into conventions, and the company emails they receive that leave them puzzled.
These are simply some of the many options trainers can choose from, to incorporate that "cool corporate consciousness" into the classroom needed to have happy and satisfied trainees/students. There is more to a session, however, (corporate or not) than strictly business, if one follows this approach. S/he must not forget to tie-in material relevant to trainees/students' other communicative desires, musical tastes, and other mundane topics of interests. They will give the class some crucial added dimension. Much more can be elaborated on this topic; this is simply a wake-up call to all the language sessions that are not including these elements in their curriculum; it will do a world of good to the entire language learning community.
(The writer works as a Training Manager, English, at BanglaCat)
HE looked thoroughly professional and seemed to be brimming with confidence with his made-to-measure suit and neck tie. He seemed to have the likeness of the ultimately successful go-getting corporate official. But his confidence level started to dwindle as soon as he lost a word or two from his entirely memorized presentation on current level of company sales in the corporate boardroom. And before he finished his presentation, the previously 'perfect' man was in total shatters.
In fact, English competence is a must in today's corporate world - few companies are able to exist without it. Teaching in today's English as Second Language corporate classroom requires a "Cool Corporate English Consciousness". Because of the emergence of multinational companies and globalization there has been a swelling demand for corporate English training all around the world. Besides, English has long been established as the standard language for international business.
A corporate English trainer has a specialized skill development position in a corporation where the goal is to help improve the "communication skills" or "interaction skills" of the corporate personnel. The term is generic and could be applied to nearly any skill whether technical, physical or otherwise, but is most often used to refer to 'soft' skills like getting along with others, effective communication, motivation, leadership, management and so on. Also, the role is not solely reserved for corporations; other organizations such as non-profit groups can also make good use of a corporate English trainer's services.
In order to effectively support the team, corporate trainers must be engaged with the business of the business they are supporting. In other words, trainers should not operate in a bubble - away from the realities facing their clients. The trainers should build the trust that they can have a significant positive impact.
Bangla, as the mother tongue always has a special value and undoubtedly no language can compensate one's own in expressing emotions and sharing feelings and ideas. But when we talk about professional arena, we just cannot ignore the role of good knowledge of English. It has been observed that the professionals of different levels are not always equipped with good English skills. However, this very language is also creating class divisions among the professionals. A technical person may have very good grasp at his/her on subject of specialization , but just because of his/her poor English skills, s/he often fails to be a competent candidate, whereas, professionals who have a strong English background prove him/herself by putting in positive contributions. These divisions happen only because of their various educational backgrounds.
Report writing, memorandums, proposals or various business applications or letters are always needed to be written during office time. Since written communication is the media of creating impressions about an employee, even a small mistake can create a negative impression on the clients or colleagues on the other side. So, it is important that the professionals must have confidence to express themselves in English properly. Proficiency in speaking is another area to get attention.
Realising the problem, the corporate management often outsource the training programmes for their employees. In Bangladesh, often these training programmes are conducted by hired trainers or by organizations like the British Council and other organizations having high language teaching credentials. Unfortunately, these short training programmes often fall short of reaching the objective as English needs to be practiced on a regular basis.
So, what can be the alternative? A company may appoint a full time English trainer, who will assess the quality, carry out the need analysis and carry on helping the employees to enhance the quality of their English on a need-basis. Here, it has to be noticed that an English trainer is not a person to teach the corporate graduates the lessons they have already learnt in their previous academic lives, but s/he is there for their confidence building.
English trainers usually help them practice, more especially, pronunciation and tones; develop comprehension skills (in daily conversation), correct mistakes immediately, conduct practice sessions in written and conversational English. In the training session, it is better if the trainer avoids using languages other than the target language. S/he should also give useful learning materials and provide comprehensible, interesting inputs and give a patient hearing to the learners. Trainers also need to arouse learners' interest on the language itself.
In fact, a trainer should be a facilitator, a companion with whom learners can chat; and a guide who can always help them. Respondents also think that trainers should be able to explain the points clearly, and should be friendly and should have a touch of humour on order to arouse the learners' interest because it needs to be borne in mind that corporate executives will look for a fun learning experience after a hard day's work.
The trainer should also have positive attitude towards the trainees. S/he must have the assumptions that learners are capable of self-directed development. Training is a process of self-development through collaborative inquiry. Moreover s/he must have the belief that learning is enhanced when stimulated by intrinsic motivation.
Criterion of a trainer includes placing great emphasis on establishing a climate conducive to learning (a climate of warmth, mutual respect, caring, trust, informality); engaging the learners in diagnosing their own needs for learning (assessing the gaps between where they are now, where they want to be, and how they are to get there) and formulating goals that are meaningful; develop a sequence of learning experiences that take into account both group similarities and individual differences. Finally, engaging learners in a mutual process of evaluation based on performance criteria should do the trick.
The minimum role of a trainer is concerned with designing, developing, conducting and evaluating learning experiences. To do this, the trainer must have the ability to organize, revise training on the basis of feedback, select appropriate instructional methodologies, write clearly and concisely, interpret feedback results, interface with subject matter experts, organize cognitive content of training, adapt/revise existing lesson plans, develop appropriate evaluation plans, apply appropriate learning and motivation theories, formulate behavioral learning objectives based on identified learning needs, select/develop appropriate audio-visual materials and devices, and develop performance measures based on behavioral learning objectives. What is outlined above will usually suffice in a training organisation which can provide the necessary support and consulting services to ensure an effective programme. When these services are not available, trainers might have to call up additional skills to carry out their responsibilities effectively.
Many trainees attend sessions out of professional necessity as they require more than just textbook work to satisfy their communicative needs. Many times textbooks have strong limitations in choosing motivational materials because they have to "guess" what a trainee will be motivated by based on current streams of popular culture.
Adding these elements to the planning give students' much needed consideration, one of the goals for the session should probably be to help the trainee/student perform his/her professional duties in English. It is not just about helping students to speak everyday English, it is about helping them deal with the rapid rate of speech in teleconferences, the uncertainty of being in a different country when they have to go into conventions, and the company emails they receive that leave them puzzled.
These are simply some of the many options trainers can choose from, to incorporate that "cool corporate consciousness" into the classroom needed to have happy and satisfied trainees/students. There is more to a session, however, (corporate or not) than strictly business, if one follows this approach. S/he must not forget to tie-in material relevant to trainees/students' other communicative desires, musical tastes, and other mundane topics of interests. They will give the class some crucial added dimension. Much more can be elaborated on this topic; this is simply a wake-up call to all the language sessions that are not including these elements in their curriculum; it will do a world of good to the entire language learning community.
(The writer works as a Training Manager, English, at BanglaCat)