The Importance of Language Coaching in The Workplace
Language learning is both an exciting and uphill project to undertake. A feeling of unfamiliarity can come along with it, and while you put in the hard work, sometimes you may not know what or how exactly you should proceed. Here’s where language coaching and language coaches come in.
What is language coaching?
Language coaching involves the teaching of a language where the focus is placed on the individual and their objectives. Understanding an individual’s goals, their learning methods and preferences, as well as their challenges are critical. These aspects form the foundation of language coaching, with a language coach also placing attention on communication and practical proficiency.
Why language coaching?
Traditional language studies involve a set curriculum and standardized tasks, and may not often be able to offer much scope for conversational practice. It may also be challenging to combine and juggle language studies alongside work and family time. With language coaching, a learning plan is tailor-made based on the conditions and needs of an individual.
This can revolve around an individual’s workplace goals such as learning a foreign language in an international corporate context, as well as building confidence and applying language learning techniques. Language coaching thus enables an individual to not just learn a language, but to obtain the tools and guidance to learn in a way that suits them best.
Diversity and inclusion in the workplace
Workplace diversity and inclusion has become an important and increasingly relevant topic in today’s globalized world. A Glassdoor survey found that 76% of candidates use diversity and inclusion to assess companies and job offers, while another survey by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 57% of recruiters aim to use their talent acquisition procedures to attract diverse job applicants.
With a diverse corporate environment, an individual can expect to experience a multitude of cultures and languages. Furthermore, remote work and digital communication are on the rise, with 70% of professionals around the world work digitally at least once a week. Communication between colleagues and at the workplace thus becomes even more important to ensure greater understanding and collaboration.
The importance of language coaching for companies
Even though most of us can use a lingua franca such as English, we will always be limited to some extent when communicating and expressing ourselves if we are unable to use and understand the native language of a country or company we are working in. Additionally, besides verbal communication, there are also nonverbal forms of communication, oral and written language practices, and unspoken cultural etiquette and expectations. These can cause confusion and misunderstandings for those who are new and may not be used to them, and end up affecting the working environment and relationships.
With colleagues increasingly meeting and communicating through digital means, it becomes crucial to coach employees from different backgrounds and cultures on communication practices beyond language and grammar so that good working relationships can be fostered. Diverse teams are already 87% better at decision-making, hence creating a workplace environment that enables and supports language development and learning can further boost productivity, motivation and inclusivity in a company.
Workplace language coaching with SweTeach
Language learning can be fun, effective and most importantly, conducted in a manner that is well-suited for you and your goals. SweTeach offers Swedish language learning sessions in different formats, from small group sessions or individual lessons, to physical or virtual classes.
We also provide workshops and corporate language classes that can be held at your office, and are committed to creating course content that is relevant, engaging and tailor-made for the needs of your workplace. Would you like to increase the cohesion and effectiveness of your workplace and provide support for your colleagues’ language learning? Find out more about our offerings and contact us today!