CASE STUDIES

  Mr. A was a team leader at a major Japanese automobile company. He was ordered to take on an overseas residence in Malaysia for three years, but had next to no foreign language ability.

  Mr. A scored 18 out of 100 on his communication ability evaluation and 51 out of 100 on the potential test. He also stated that he did not like learning a foreign language due to his experiences at junior high school. However, he was told by his company that he needed to learn enough English to manage production in Malaysia.

  Based on this information, we created a five-day intensive curriculum combining beginner English, introductory Malay and Malaysian cultural lessons. Japanese was prohibited during the five days.

  On this course, Mr. A learned applied communication activities in the classroom and then studied for an extra two hours of e-learning self-study per day. His communication ability was evaluated at the end of each day. He also underwent English business dinner practice on day three and a presentation and Q&A session in front of the factory manager on day five.

  On day two, analysis of Mr. A’s e-learning study time showed that Mr. A had not done any self-study using e-learning. The analysis was shared with Mr. A’s superior at his company in real-time, after which the superior spoke to Mr. A immediate to rectify the problem. We then held a ten-minute follow-up conversation at lunchtime to reassure Mr. A of the benefit of self-study. Thereafter, Mr. A was sure to study for two hours per day in his own time.

  After a total of 50 hours of study, Mr. A’s communication ability evaluation score improved to 28 out of 100, which is a level at which a student can hold a simple work conversation and can express simple opinions clearly. Moreover, Mr. A became able to deal with common production line problems using simple English and Malay. He also gave a three-minute speech in English in front of the factory manager without using a script.

  We later found that he had successfully completed his three-year stint in Malaysia and received a promotion upon return to Japan.

  A major Japanese electronics company approached us to train a group of ten potential managers in English over twelve months. The students were expected to become able to negotiate with overseas customers, train and manage overseas staff and manage meetings in English. Their potential scores ranged from 55 to 89 out of 100, while their individual communication ability evaluation scores ranged from 22 to 49 out of 100.

  Based on this information, we separated the students into three classes according to their current level, and created curricula to attain the company’s goals. The curricula consisted of online lessons, appropriate e-learning materials and two online advanced language camps.

  During the course, we held individual assessments every three months, at which time we tracked the student’s improvements in communication ability, set study time and progress milestones as well as one short-term, one mid-term and one-long-term goal per student. We also provided the current managers at the electronics company with monthly reports on individual e-learning study times and performance in lesson.

  Final results after ninety hours of online lessons and a minimum of thirty minutes a day of e-learning showed an average improvement of 13.2 points on the communication ability evaluation. In addition, each student became able to carry out negotiations, presentations, evaluations and opinion-giving in meetings with foreigners at a level appropriate to their linguistic ability. Moreover, all students showed a large increase in their score on the TOEIC test.

  Subsequently, all ten students became section managers in charge of several teams of subordinates. They all received pay rises and other benefits upon becoming managers, and several of the students have since been promoted again.