What methodology is most effective in business English?

Are you thinking of purchasing a package of English classes for companies? If so, congratulations! Training your employees is key to the growth of your business.

Moreover, in these times when attracting and retaining talent is so challenging, it is essential to use tools such as professional training.

The potential to learn and grow professionally is one of the biggest attractions when choosing to work and stay in a company.

Many studies reveal that employees who receive training work in a more committed and dedicated manner.

Here are some tips and keys to choosing the best methodology to make your in-company English classes a success.

Myths about in-company English classes

• Knowing English is a plus: mastering English is no longer a competitive advantage. Companies whose employees are not fluent in English sooner or later stagnate.
• Learning English takes time away from work: in a full day’s work, productive time is one-third. Often employees may feel that leaving work to start class takes time away from their work. But taking a break to learn English boosts work. Because it gives the brain a time-out while stimulating thinking and creativity.
• The most important thing is grammar: the natural way to learn a language is the way we learn it from a young age. By listening, conversing and practicing. Grammar rules come later, to structure what we already know.
• Learning as an adult is impossible: it is true that the brain acquires knowledge more easily up to the age of six. But this does not mean that adults cannot acquire new skills. If this were so, you would not be able to learn anything at all after childhood.
• English courses for companies are useless: with the rise of language apps, there is the idea that an English course for employees is not useful. Mobile apps are great for learning a new language. But it is the supervision and guidance of a teacher that will lead you to success. An English course for companies combined with a language app to practice will be the best option.

Shortcomings of traditional English classes for companies.

Here are some reasons why the traditional method does not work for business English classes (in the next section you will find the alternatives that do work):

• Face-to-face: in the traditional method of a business English course, a tutor attends the company and the employees must all attend the class at the same time face-to-face. If an employee cannot be at work that day or has a very important meeting, he/she will miss the lesson.
• Old: A language is learned by interacting and conversing, not by listening to someone repeat concepts.
• Inefficient resources: Until not so many years ago (and you can still see it in some corporate English classes), employees were given a series of resources to practice. Books, CDs, videos, which they had to watch at home. Today we know that time is of the essence, and if the resources don’t match the employees’ daily reality, they won’t have time at home to practice.

An effective methodology for the English course for employees

• Personalized: customized classes, according to each team’s schedule and workplace, and according to each employee’s level, will help to make learning more effective.
• Flexible: nowadays employees do not work in the same place. Some companies have adopted a hybrid approach (some days face-to-face and some days remote) while others operate 100% remotely. For this reason, flexible scheduling and virtuality are essential for all employees to be able to maintain their attendance at the business English course.
• Online/virtual: As opposed to face-to-face classes, virtual business English classes are interactive and dynamic. They have greater possibilities to use audiovisual resources that will help employees to incorporate English more easily.

What is the best business English course?

Classgap for Enterprise has developed a 100% effective methodology so that the English classes for companies have the desired impact on employees. To achieve this, the English course for employees has the following elements:

Training plan: a survey of the needs of the company and the employees is carried out and a personalized training plan is elaborated with it, assigning objectives, hours and tutors to the different teams.

Virtual classroom: this is the platform through which employees will access their classes.

Follow-up panel: a panel from which the human resources team will be able to survey class hours taken, attendance and progress, and thus make the necessary adjustments to the training plan in order to achieve the desired objectives.