How To Approach an Employee Who Needs English Training

A Touchy Subject
Sometimes it can be difficult to find the right way to let employees know that they need Accent Reduction and/or English training. It's a touchy subject. For many of them, suffering from anxiety about their communication problems is something they deal with on a daily basis; a very private matter, as you can probably imagine. Approaching them about the subject could raise a whole host of worrisome questions, the most fearful of all being, "Is my job in jeopardy?"

Employees know if they need English training, right?

Some do. Some don't. Those who do realize they are having communication problems due to their English skills, are sometimes too busy trying to hide the problem or cover it up for fear they might draw negative attention to themselves or worse, lose their job.

How can someone have a problem communicating in English and not realize it?

Experts say that by the age of nine years old, a person loses the ability to distinguish sounds that are different from his/her own language. Even though they are constantly hearing, "I can't understand you," unfortunately, they still may not realize they have a problem.

Occasionally, if a person has grown up with English and has spoken English most of his life, he may feel that the problem is not his, but someone else's. To him I'd say, "all English dialects are not created equal."

Here are several reasons why clear communication is so important:

• Clear communication is essential in business.
• Communication problems can hold you back from moving further in your career.
• Effective communication greatly increases productivity.
• Communicating clearly helps reduce frustrations.
• Better communication can help improve relationships with co-workers.

(please post a comment if you have a reason to add to this list.)

And here is a script in case you need one...

"We value you as an employee and we would like to offer you every possible advantage to help you move further in your career. We know that communication is an area that may be holding you back. We have a program that we would like to make available to you that would help you work on your English skills so that you could communicate more clearly. This would help you to reduce a lot of frustration. It would help you increase your productivity, be understood on the phone, be understood by your colleagues, have better relationships with your colleagues, and reach your career goals. Your job is not in jeopardy. We just want to help you in every way possible to reach your maximum potential."

(please post a comment if you have another suggestion.)

http://www.theenglishedgeusa.com/

Contact us!

The English Edge USA
222 West Las Colinas Blvd., Suite 1650
The Urban Towers
Irving, Texas 75039
972-501-1499

Learning@TheEnglishEdgeUSA.com