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Basic English Elearning

Hello! One of our Team Leaders is currently managing a small team consisting of a variety of nationalities. Most of them are struggling to communicate and understand English at all. He himself uses English as a second language and he is naturally struggling to manage and motivate them. We are concerned about their ability to engage with the business as they are likely missing out of some key information and benefits. Rather than simply translating documents, our MD would like to offer some online language training for those who are struggling. Can anyone recommend a provider they have used before please and/or highlight any pitfalls they may have had in any similar situations. Historically we've had multi-lingual managers available to support but this is no longer the case unfortunately. TIA.

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  • I have an TESOL qualification and would say, probably with some bias that an on-line training session won't work anywhere near as one where the tutor is in the room with those requiring training. There are many many more activities that can only really be done face to face than can be achieved on-line.

    I would have thought that any reasonably qualified TESOL or EFL individual should be able work with those individuals in the work place where they can learn the English language relevant to them in the workplace environment and not some generalised English language learning.
  • Hello Claire,

    I have tried EF.com and received a lot of positive feedback from the employees.
  • Johanna

    | 0 Posts

    CIPD Staff

    9 Jan, 2023 12:01

    Could you set up a buddy for each person to support on conversational English maybe? I'd enjoy doing that to help colleagues...
  • Hi Claire,

    Not sure if you've already found a solution to this.

    A few pitfalls to avoid:

    - Not having clear goals for the learners (i.e. reaching X level of proficiency by Y date)
    - Not giving learners enough protected time during the work week to focus on their learning (learning a second language takes a long time!)
    - Offering a one-size-fits-all approach, based purely on the learners' levels. The best programs I have seen go beyond this and provide tailored content based on the learners' roles/industries/objectives.
    - Not including live instruction as part of the offering (i.e. only providing access to asynchronous content)

    Hope this helps!

    Joseph