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How To Improve Your ESL Associates’ Business Writing Skills

Hiring ESL associates is a smart move for any business owner or decision maker in your company. Especially if yours is a multinational business, hiring ESL (English as a Second Language) associates are essential and beneficial; as their talents and skill sets may differ from native English speakers. Being able to tap into the resources that ESL associates bring to the table should be enticing to decision makers who work for large companies around the world. Not only does it allow for a larger talent pool to recruit from, but it allows for better customer service as not every customer speaks English fluently. Although the benefits that ESL workers bring to corporations can go on forever, they may need additional support- and that's where we step in. Specializing in fully remote online English training, we are confident that our 100% customizable business English courses can meet all your needs. All of our online language training classes are LIVE, and take place in a real-time video conferencing format✅ that gives your people the personalized attention they need to learn best, without sacrificing convenience.  So whether yours is a white collar or blue collar industry, there will come a time when your ESL associates (associates who speak English as a Second Language) will have to write an email, a client proposal, a report, memo or something of the nature that requires professional Business English writing skills. Here's some things you can do to encourage from your corporate ESL associates to improve their business writing skills:

 

Tips to improve ESL associates business writing skills:

 

Keeping it short and sweet:

Especially for business English correspondence like emails, and memos, professionals in the modern world do not have the time or attention span to read through paragraphs of text. Encouraging your ESL employees to stay specific, clear and high-level with internal communication can be a challenge. Especially with internal communication, anything longer than 4 sentences increases the chances that the recipient will miss important information. Anything longer than that should be a phone call or a video conference and this should be encouraged and welcomed in the workplace.

  • ESL associatesEncourage associates to write out their message, and then delete it by half, making it easy to read and keeping only the essential information
  • Offer to have a fluent English speaker proofread anything before memos and reports get sent internally
  • Be mindful of formatting- instruct ESL associates how to use subheadings, bullet points and bolded words appropriately. Making key information stick out for the skim-readers, while providing extra context for those who choose to read more

 

Getting to the point:

It can be a negative experience for coworkers and clients alike to listen or read something that is repetitive and rambling. In the business world where time is money, knowing how to get to the point quickly while providing accurate reasoning as to why something is required takes time and practice.

  • Teach framing for a request or proposal. This includes 3 sentences: the problem, the impact and the request. Starting with the request and working backwards helps to train ESL associates to keep their object in mind and how to get to the point quicker.

 

Our highly engaging In-Person English Training for employees and interactive Corporate  English classes online with live native-speaking teachers are easy to access from wherever you are. We offer Real-Time Private and Group Corporate English Training. Get a Free Quote for your Industry Specific Onsite or Online English Classes for Companies.

For more information contact our Language Training Department:
Phone: (617) 731-3700
Email: training@languageconnections.com

 

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Molly Romano Remote Copywriter

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