Of the 1.5 billion English speakers in the world, over half learned it as a second or additional language.
The “language of business”, English has become a foundational skill for anyone looking to work in an international business or at a leadership level, and many English as a Second Language (ESL) speakers find themselves working in English on a daily basis.
But working in your second or third language comes with a unique set of challenges and opportunities.
We spoke to five global leaders about the role English has played in their careers, the challenges of being an ESL speaker, and how businesses can create a culture where everyone has a voice.
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Strong English skills open doors. More than three-quarters of people with advanced English skills are in senior or leadership roles, compared to just 32% of those with limited English proficiency.
ɫèAV Languages CTO, , describes English as a “passport for this new world of opportunities, opening many, many doors I wouldn’t have had access to.”
There’s a cumulative effect, with one door opening and leading to the next.
Brushing up on his English skills was the spark that won Perrucci a scholarship to Denmark. That semester blossomed into a six-year stay, multiple degrees, his first international job opportunity, and a career with well-known global brands.
Whether it was getting onto a top MBA program or that first role at a big international company, for all the leaders we spoke to, English has proved to be a career catalyst.
For companies looking to innovate and stand out in a competitive global market, an international team is essential.
“We’re aiming to build models of childcare that don’t exist at the moment”, explains Founder and CEO, .
“To do that, we need diversity of thought. With an international team, it’s more likely that someone will say “hey, I was living in Cape Verde for a while, and I saw this interesting thing”.
It’s an approach that pays off. found that businesses with more diverse management teams are more innovative, leading to 19% higher revenues.
A more diverse team can also help businesses stay close to their customers.
As technology has made it easier to operate across multiple countries, businesses quickly find themselves responding to the different needs, preferences, and expectations of customers all over the world.
“Reflecting the global nature of our business in our workforce means we can build a better, more effective service and a more successful business as a result”, explains , CEO of .
To help them stay close to their 5.2 million members across 420 cities, Zeeck’s team at InterNations is made up of more than 50 different nationalities.
English is the main language both for the InterNations team and platform, helping them create “a sense of oneness and community by using a shared language”.
The leaders we interviewed spoke, on average, four languages, with many working across multiple languages on a day-to-day basis.
That experience of jumping between different languages also develops important leadership skills.
“When you speak multiple languages,” explains Perrucci, “different parts of the brain have to work together and make connections… It teaches your brain to be flexible about what you see and the way you interpret it”.
Zeeck likened it to working out: “Just as going to the gym improves your physical wellbeing, the mental challenge of learning a new language is good exercise for the brain”. It’s one of the reasons he provides all of his team language training.
But hopping between languages and navigating different cultural nuances can take its toll.
“People whose first language is English often overlook the computing power it takes to work in your second or third language,” explains, Managing Director of International Wellbeing,, who only spends around a third of his time speaking his mother tongue.
“Even when colleagues are fluent in the language you're communicating in, it might still take them a bit more energy than you expect”, he continues. “By Friday afternoon, for example, I’m struggling to think fluently in whichever language!”.
For those who are less confident in their English skills, it can significantly impact the way they contribute at work.
Less than half (48%)of ESL speakers feel comfortable speaking up at work, andonly 10%of employees with limited English proficiency felt they could express themselves fully at work.
The dynamic can change depending on who’s in the room. “I see the difference when ESL speakers are on calls with confident, fluent English speakers”, adds, CEO and Founder of.
“They speak less”, she continues, “they caveat their contributions with “I might be wrong”, and you can see their English actually worsens because they feel more stressed”.
Without the right culture and support, businesses miss out on the benefits of an international team they’ve recruited.
The task of building a team and helping overcome the challenges of global working falls to business leaders.
The five leaders we spoke to shared practical tips for supporting global teams, including acknowledging and proactively addressing differences, avoiding interrupting ESL speakers, and using voice notes for sensitive communication to allow tone and emotion to come through.
More fundamentally, ESL speakers need business leaders to build a culture where it’s ok to make mistakes.
Leaders with first-hand experience of being an ESL speaker are uniquely placed to understand their increasingly global teams, pre-empt their challenges, and nurture a culture that allows difference to shine.
The journey from local roles to global leadership positions hinges on strong communication skills. The stories shared by our leaders demonstrate how English proficiency not only unlocks individual career potential but also drives organizational success through innovation and diverse perspectives. By fostering a culture that values and supports language learning, businesses can harness these benefits, ensuring their teams are prepared to excel on the global stage.
This article is part of ɫèAV Languages’ series,Global Voices: Leaders on Language and Business, an exclusive exploration into the pivotal role of language in achieving international business excellence. For more in this series, check out the leaders’ full interviews, coming soon to
Read the blog post 'Language proficiency and succession planning: Developing future leaders'.
When you’re teaching English to young learners, you might find that there are a few students in your class who are struggling. But sometimes it can be hard to tell why. Is it because their language level is low? Or are they finding classroom work difficult because of a general cognitive difference, like dyslexia?
Do you ever find it hard to keep students focused and on task? Young learners get easily distracted and it can be hard to find ways to keep them engaged.
So what can we do to get, and more importantly, keep our students’ attention? Here are our five top tips.
Young learners have relatively short attention spans. In the classroom, it is rare to have the whole class fully engaged in something for a long time, since the children will have different interests and levels, so it is essential to plan a number of activities for each lesson.
The more variety you can include in the activities and tasks you plan, the easier it is to provide something enjoyable and relevant for each child. Choose short tasks and try to have a couple of extra activities up your sleeve if something you planned doesn’t work well. However, don’t worry if you don’t have time to do them all – you can always save them for a future lesson.
Another way of keeping students engaged is to mix up the classroom dynamics, having a combination of individual heads-down work, pair work, group work, and whole class discussions or games. When planning your lesson, consider how your students might feel at each stage. After doing some reading or quiet work, students may start to become restless, and this is the ideal time to get them up and moving about.
While you are in class, pay close attention to the mood of the class. When you sense that students are becoming distracted or bored, change the dynamics of the activity.
Ever notice that students become lethargic and show a lack of interest? Why not try introducing brain breaks at strategic points in your lessons? Brain breaks are short physical activities or games designed to get the blood flowing and to re-energize students to help them get ready for learning. They range from short activities that last a couple of minutes, to longer breaks that may be suitable if your lessons last more than an hour.
We can vary different aspects of the lesson using the previous strategies, but one thing that rarely changes is the role of the teacher! One way of keeping students involved is by giving them more responsibility and allowing them to take a more active role in their learning.
Peer teaching completely changes the classroom dynamic and has students teach their peers while you take a step back. For primary classes, ask one or two students to take charge of a ready-made activity, e.g. one from your course book. They should give instructions, demonstrate, monitor as necessary, and check answers.
When students are used to doing this, you can start to have them work in pairs or small groups to plan their own activities to use in class.
Of course, nobody is perfect and there will be times when you lose students’ attention and they are not on task. For these occasions, you can use a wealth of classroom management strategies to regain the class's attention. Here are a few techniques:
Finally, if we want our students to be motivated and engaged in our lessons, we must show enthusiasm for what we are teaching. The more lively and animated you are about the lesson, the more the students will want to join you and learn.
There is a strong link between well-being and friendship, which is just as accurate for children as it is for adults. that children with stable friendships are happier, more able to cope with stress, and have higher self-esteem. Moreover, too, and children who experience friendship adjust more easily to school and perform better academically. School friendships are also a valuable way of learning social skills like sharing, resolving conflict, and engaging with peers positively.
Having friends is an important part of school life, and teachers can play a significant role in creating a positive classroom culture and helping children and young people to form friendships. How can you promote friendships between your students? Here are some ideas:
If there is an example of a good friendship in a book you are reading with students or in your lesson materials, draw your students’ attention to it. For instance, The Jungle Book is an excellent example of a story about friendship. Encourage your students to think critically about the friendships that they read about. You can ask questions like:
By discussing friendship regularly in the classroom, your students will learn about the behavior and characteristics of being a good friend.
You can create lots of opportunities for students to build friendships with one another during class time. Design activities that call for pair or group work, and include at least one or two in every lesson. Focusing on a common goal or problem is a great way to encourage your students to bond with one another.As a bonus, this collaborative way of working promotes important 21st century skills like communication and problem-solving.
Another way of promoting friendships between different groups of students is moving them around. Adjust your seating plan regularly to ensure that all your students interact with and work alongside different classmates, to promote positive, friendly classroom vibes.
Friendship is a social skill that children need to learn – and you can help by teaching them. Be explicit about exactly what you expect from them. Saying, “Be kind” is an abstract, vague concept that children might struggle to put into practice. Instead, give them concrete examples of behavior, such as:
When you see a student engaging in these behaviors, draw attention to them and praise them.
But to really convey the importance of school friendships and kind behavior, it’s not enough to tell them. As the teacher, you must model the behavior you’d like to see in your students. Be consistently positive and upbeat in your interactions with students, thank your learners when they offer help with something, and try to refrain from sounding impatient (even when you are!). All these steps will help to build a positive classroom culture where students feel secure, supported and happy.
Conflict is an inevitable part of school life, but you can help students to navigate arguments and other difficult situations in the classroom. If two students argue, you can help them to resolve it with the following steps:
Following these simple steps teaches children a framework for resolving conflict and gives them the tools to process strong emotions.
An excellent way to promote a positive classroom culture is to do friendship-focused activities with your students:
You could do a Venn diagram activity, where students work in pairs to discuss and write down things they have in common and areas of difference. It’s good to pair students who don’t spend much time together for this activity.
Another positive activity is a 'Honey Roast'. Give students enough squares of paper to have one for each of their classmates. Get them to write their classmates’ names on the paper, and then, on the other side, write down a compliment or something they like about that person, for example, “I like your handwriting”, or “You always use kind words”. Collect the pieces of paper and read out some nice examples to the class. Alternatively, give them directly to the students to read to themselves.
