The process of learning a foreign language should be focused on a practical aim, namely to develop one’s communication skills in the respective foreign language. This is why many companies prefer to have their employees go through language training courses. For the same reason, parents send their children to foreign language camps, although such camps often cost as much as double compared to the usual ones.
Developing communication skills in a foreign language involves all four language components: writing, reading, listening and speaking. This is why each training course is different, depending on the profile of the company requesting it. There are foreign-language training courses for the financial field, the human resources field, for marketing, sales or procurements. Depending on the field, the language components focus on certain terms, creating role-playing games and imagining various concrete work situations the employees may be involved in. Obviously, each imagined situation will determine the selection of different structures, vocabulary, pronunciation, level of formality, etc. Such training courses will help employees develop their speaking skills in various situations and consolidate structures, vocabulary and idiomatic expressions.
By practicing such basic skills, trainees also acquire a number of other skills such as preparing reports, documents or presentations in a foreign language, easy phone communication with collaborators, drawing up online collaboration projects, socializing in the company’s business environment.
In addition to having its employees trained in such skills, the company sending its employees to such training courses also benefits from many other less obvious advantages. It manages to create strong bonds among employees, between bosses and subordinates, among various departments. Statistically speaking, employees who are used to socializing and helping each other in environments completely different from their work environment develop a significantly lower tendency to quit their jobs in search for better ones.
We could therefore say that language training is a very successful way of strengthening team bonds and also of helping employees grow professionally, with direct benefits for the hiring company.
