Dottie and All,

You haven't missed anything.  Thee isn't much out there.  I have researched this issue myself and the problem is that it is difficult to quantify a return on investment for language learning in the workplace.  There is no direct correlation, and an employer who has to rely only on anecdotal evidence is skeptical.  Well, you can't measure how many boxes were shipped or customer orders corrected because we taught somebody how to read English.  There are a few studies out there and newspaper reports of companies starting training programs but most of them don't last. There have been some studies done in Australia.  Check with VATME.

As long as the work gets done and the scrap and waste is kept to a minimum, most employers are not willing to invest in educational programs because they are expensive to them (actually they are relatively inexpensive, but training dollars are usually cut first in corporate America).  

Yes it is shortsighted, but there are still pockets of resistance, prejudice, and some kind of belief system that because their supervisors grew up in the 60's and 70's without an interruption in basic schooing, their Southeast Asian employees received schooling as well.  Hard to do for an area of the world at war for 20 plus years.

I do have educated Vietnamese students in companies, but their language difficulties keep them back.  People who must work and care for family at home and another working spouse have little time to go to school to learn English.  Employers who conduct English classes on the job (with incentives to attend) reap good rewards in employee loyalty, increased productivity, and on-the-job-knowledge.  

However they gernerally overlook this because they (the employer) is only to willing to accept the strong work ethic, low absenteeism, and willingness to work at relatively lower wages, because they don't need English to be good workers.  If they learned English, American employeers would be even better off, and so would their employees. But we live in a capitalist culture that sees only immediate financial benefits to the investor and the owner, and workers really don't get much respect...especially if they are immigrants....Oh, they like them, and they appreciate them, but they generally are not willing to do anything substantial for them lest they go somewhere else and succeed.


Wm. Peter MacMonagle, M.Ed. 
Central Piedmont Community College 
West Campus 2219
Community Development/Workplace Basic Skills 
704-330-4668 

Murphy's Law of Possibility: All things are possible 
except skiing through a revolving door. 



-----Original Message-----
From: workplace-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Donna Brian
Sent: Wed 3/8/2006 10:23 AM
To: NIFL-WORKPLACE
Subject: [Workplace] Looking for Workplace ESL ROI research
 
Readers,
This message was originally posted on the ESL list, but is as appropriate 
for this list.  If you have this information, please reply to this list as 
well as the link given.  Others on this list would probably interested in 
such resources.
Donna Brian, moderator
Workplace Literacy Discussion List
djgbrian at utk.edu


>-----Original Message-----

>From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

>[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Dottie

>Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 11:10 PM

>To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List

>Subject: [EnglishLanguage] Workplace ESL research

>

>

>Colleagues -- can anyone direct me to current research on the benefits (esp.

>financial) to an employer/business of offering/profiding ESL classes to

>employees?

>

>My daughter is an IT consultant; her newest client is a shipping company

>that hires independent truckers.  The potential employees base has changed

>to include mostly eastern European & Latino immigrants.  Unfortunately,

>their English skills are lower than the company wants/requires.

>

>My daughter wants to convince the employer that it'll be cost-effective for

>them to have on-site ESL classes.  [That's my kid!]  However, she needs

>"evidence" to backup her argument.  I just searched the CAL site  & couldn't

>find anything --did I miss something?

>

>Thanks,

>

>Dottie Shattuck

>HIAS-NC

>Charlotte, NC


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