Mastering English in Manager Training

Managers are essential in any business. They ensure the achievements of KPIs and goals set by the company, maintain a proper work environment, and ultimately manage employees to be productive and efficient. With this, you’d want your managers to be on the top of their games every time, as they do what they do best. It becomes a no-brainer to invest generously in manager training programs to enhance your whole company’s performance. Not only that, you are giving your managers opportunities to better themselves and trust us, your managers will thank and love you for that.

Let’s talk about English. It’s no secret that being proficient in English brings about great career benefits and opportunities. In one study, it was found that mastering the English language can easily raise a person’s salary by an average of 30% per year. So, start to empower your managers to speak fluently enough to be in control and manage an (increasingly popular) English-speaking workplace.

Here are some tips that you can use or relay to your fellow managers to master English in the workplace

1. Follow industry news

One way to master English, especially in your specialized field, is to read specialist magazines, reports, newspapers, etc. in English and stay up-to-date on the latest trends. One easy way to commit to reading every day is to subscribe to a high-quality news magazine or newspaper. 

However, if your English skills aren’t advanced enough yet, you could try reading shorter and simpler articles instead of the complicated subscribed newsletters. You could also hop onto social media and follow leading experts in your field to read their insights which are usually posted daily and in short sentences.

Whichever source you use, make a note of any new words that keep coming up. Chances are, these words are specialist vocabulary for your field, and will come up a lot in the workplace.

You’ll be surprised that even if you read, watch or listen to only one article of business news a day, you’ll be sure to learn some new language. So try to take some time out of your busy day for this!

2. Make use of free resources

The internet. Google. Free materials are everywhere right now with the advancement of technology. With that being said, there are plenty of free materials for learning Business English online, some of them better than others. 

Here are just a few that we feel would be helpful to you:

Business English Resources. This website gives you a plethora of options and English lessons from business idioms to conversation starters. They also have articles on error correction, along with all their lessons being categorized for beginners, intermediates, and advanced learners. 

The British Council’s Business English hub. This is a small yet useful collection of podcasts and exercises to help you learn English for business needs. They even provide an online course that is free for the first six weeks.

BBC Learning English. This site contains a lot of information. It could be the best resource for learning how to handle yourself (and use good English) in a wide range of possible business situations.

3. Take English Business Courses

Taking English courses created specifically for business English learners can help you learn essential business vocabulary quickly. These structure programs usually focus on commonly used office jargon and expressions used in formal situations. 

In this case, we would recommend Coursera as it is an excellent online learning resource taught by top instructors from the world’s leading universities and educational institutions. Upon completing your course, you’ll receive an electronic course certificate, which is internationally recognized and accepted.

Coursera offers a range of business English courses tailored to the specific roles of managers.  While some courses aren’t specifically targeted for managers, they offer a good background to the language you’ll need to manage these business functions.

4. Hop On Pop Culture Office References

Make your learning fun, incorporate English learning into your everyday routine, and watching television can easily be one of them. Try watching some TV shows about office life. Even if they are usually unrealistic or mostly for comedic purposes, you will still learn some relevant vocabulary from the office environment in the show. 

Depending on your preference, you can either choose to watch lighthearted sitcom comedies like The Office or Parks and Recreation or choose something more serious and realistic like The Profit or Shark Tank. All these are popular shows and they hold power to English learning even if you don’t think they do. 

Expose yourself to English even in your hobbies and have fun while doing so!

5. Get a one-to-one tutor

As a manager, you tend to carry a ton of responsibility at work and you won’t have a lot of free time. This probably makes you find it hard to self-study and learn English, especially when planning your learning schedule and agenda. Hence, it’s should be worth investing in a 1-on-1 personal tutor where he/she will be doing most of the planning while you simply focus on learning. 

Furthermore, you have a direct interaction with a teacher, who can then adjust their teaching methods and pace according to your capabilities, likings, and needs. This way, you will spend every second of your time in the session learning something useful. You can go over industry-specific language, read publications from your own organization, and even seek assistance with business writing responsibilities such as emails or letters. 

Or… Master with ELSA

ELSA Speak is an English speaking and communication learning application that uses proprietary AI voice recognition technology to detect and correct pronunciation errors accurately to each syllable. As a result, learners can practice English pronunciation skills comprehensively, and improve their English level for office communication in just a short time.

ELSA Speak’s leading language experts will design a specialized learning path, tailored to the specific needs and characteristics of the company or department, which accelerates the ability to apply English in employees’ daily work. Besides, ELSA Speak’s curriculum is researched and developed to suit many different audiences and levels. Therefore, in the case of managers, ELSA can be tailored to their needs and let them easily apply their training in practice.

Combine some tips in this article along with the utilization of ELSA, managers in your company will master the beautiful English language in no time to learn more about English language training for your employees (managers) or a range of other useful topics, visit ELSA for organizations now for a free demo and consultation.