Mar. 2020 Vol.140 Nami Kimura Akemi Yamada Feature A look at the “Survey Report on the Actual Usage of English” How companies, organizations and businesspersons are using English p4 Nami Kimura Human Capital Dept., Sompo Holdings, Inc. & Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance Inc. p5 Satomi Nakagawa Akemi Yamada Manager General Administration Group GIC Integrated Operations Dept., Shiseido Co., Ltd. p6 Satomi Nakagawa Planning & Administration Section Global Business Development Dept., Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. p8 Tatsunori Takahashi Vice President Business Customer Support Customer Services NTT Communications Corp. Tatsunori Takahashi My turning point brought about by English Culinary expert 組み合わせシステム（２） 縦組み スローガンなし Rika Yukimasa 英文 Published in March 2020 TOEIC Bridge ® Tests used for tryouts in the US Women’s Professional Lacrosse League p14 A look at the “Survey Report on the Actual Usage of English” Feature How companies, organizations, and businesspersons are using English IIBC conducts a survey on how companies and organizations are actually using the TOEIC® Program for English education and other purposes, as well as a survey on the opinions of businesspersons regarding English. The results are compiled in the 2019 “Survey Report on the Actual Usage of English”.* In this feature, we look at companies that have actively incorporated English education and businesspersons who are studying every day to improve their English ability. Part 1 Survey results on the position of English within companies and organizations Gap seen between English educational measures and their results Task of maintaining and raising motivation total sales, the most common skill needed is to respond to Level of English ability needed among employees is the emails received from overseas clients and branches. In cases ability to conduct discussions in English at meetings where a business or organization has 0% overseas, the most The survey targeted companies and organizations that took common English-related skill needed is to be able to handle part in either the public administration of the Secure simple business-related communications. These results Program or the Institutional Program (IP test) of the TOEIC® suggest that even if a company or organization says that it Program from January 2017 to August 2018. will need greater English ability in the future, the specific The survey found that 82.6% of the companies and content and level of that ability will depend on the business organizations identified English as a key skill; 67.0% of them situation in which it finds itself. thought it was important to enhance English abilities; and 61.0% said that their internal English use was limited to Gap between English education policies and effective methods those departments involved in overseas transactions. As for what the situation might be like in three years, only 38.8% of Next, let’s look at the English education measures of the companies and organizations surveyed expected internal companies and organizations and their effects. English use to be limited to departments dealing with The most common type of measure taken, cited by 51.9% overseas counterparts. This result indicates that many of those surveyed, was “in-house training taught by companies and organizations anticipate future English use instructors from outside training institutions”. This was will expand to departments not directly dealing with followed by “correspondence education”, at 44.9%; transactions overseas. “e-learning”, at 43.6%; and “overseas training”, at 35% (see The survey also looked at the goals that companies and Diagram 1). organizations have for the level of English skills to be The percentage of those dispatching individuals for acquired by their employees. “overseas training” differed, not surprisingly, depended on The most common response, at 19.9%, was ability the relative proportion of overseas sales. Only 13.9% of sufficient to discuss in English meetings (including companies and organizations with no overseas sales teleconferences), followed by the ability to respond to emails dispatched their personnel overseas for training, whereas or to telephone calls from overseas clients or branches, at the percentage rose to 46.3% among those with oversees 15.5%. sales accounting for 20% or more of overall sales. However, the types of skills expected of employees differ The survey also looked at the perceived effectiveness of depending on the relative importance of overseas sales to the English education measures implemented by companies the business or organization. In cases where such sales and organizations (see Diagram 2). account for 20% or more of the total, it is necessary for One noteworthy survey result is that “correspondence employees and to have high-level English skills, such as the education” and “e-learning” were not necessarily highly ability to take an overseas trip without the assistance of an evaluated. Although many companies and organizations are interpreter or the ability to be stationed overseas. Meanwhile, implementing those two measures, only a total of 30% in cases where overseas sales are between 1% and 19% of described the results as either “highly beneficial” or 2 IIBC NEWSLETTER Vol.140 March 2020 * The survey has three parts: I. Position of English within companies and organizations; II. Awareness of English among businesspersons; III. Utilization of the TOEIC® Program at companies and organizations. Diagram 1 Types of English training implemented (multiple answers allowed) ［％］ 60 Overall（n＝528） 20% or more overseas sales（n＝162） 50 1‒19% overseas sales of（n＝72） 0% overseas sales（n＝108） 40 30 20 10 5.5 3.4 3.2 1.9 51.9 44.9 43.6 35.0 19.1 15.0 14.0 13.4 10.6 0 training institutions by instructors from In-house training taught Correspondence education E-learning training Dispatching to overseas language ability Job assignments based on like conversation classes Support for in-house activities to domestic training institutions Dispatching employees/staff company instructors In-house training taught by requiring overseas interaction Periodic experience of jobs work together with other staff in projects and having them Including non-Japanese staff supervisors Assigning non-Japanese overseas business sites) positions (including staff to management Appointing non-Japanese volunteer work using English like language Encouraging external activities Diagram 2 Results of English measures taken (answer relevant items) ■ Great benefit ■ Some benefit ■ Can’t say either way * Most figures under 5% are not shown (those ［％］ ■ Not much benefit ■ No benefit ■ No response that are shown include relatively low n-values) 100 5.9 6.3 5.6 10.5 9.6 5.4 16.7 90 16.2 17.9 5.9 20.0 20.1 19.7 31.0 17.6 11.8 80 35.6 70 44.3 60 54.9 56.1 50 63.2 66.7 69.6 58.8 70.0 60.8 40 69.3 58.6 71.8 58.4 30 43.0 20 30.8 31.3 10 18.4 16.7 17.6 12.2 10.7 10.3 10.0 5.5 1.3 0.9 3.0 3.8 1.4 0 （ ｎ （ ｎ （ ｎ （ ｎ institutions by instructors from training In-house training taught Correspondence education E-learning training Dispatching to overseas language ability Job assignments based on like conversation classes Support for in-house activities to domestic training institutions Dispatching employees/staff company instructors In-house training taught by requiring overseas interaction Periodic experience of jobs work together with other staff in projects and having them Including non-Japanese staff supervisors Assigning non-Japanese sites) (including overseas business to management positions Appointing non-Japanese staff volunteer work using English like language Encouraging external activities ＝ ＝ ＝ ＝ （ ｎ 237） 7）4 56） 29） （ ｎ （ ｎ ＝ （ ｎ ＝ ＝ （ ｎ 17） ＝ 185 （ ｎ 230） ） （ ｎ ＝ 27）4 18 ＝ ＝ （ ｎ ） （ ｎ 10） 101） ＝ ＝ 71 79） ） IIBC NEWSLETTER Vol.140 March 2020 3 “somewhat beneficial.” This revealed a gap between the Clearly, this issue of maintaining and raising motivation is English education measures actually being taken and the the biggest problem facing English education. real benefits of those measures. The second and third biggest problems, at 41.5% and It seems that “correspondence education” and 40.2%, respectively, were “the divergence of individual “e-learning “often involved the autonomous learning of levels that makes it hard for beginners to improve”, and employees, so it may have been hard for companies and “the abundance of job tasks that makes it hard to take organizations to raise English ability to the desired level. part in training”. As for measures considered to be effective by surveyed Even within the same organization, the English skills of companies and organizations, 81.6% of them pointed to employees diverge greatly. The survey results show that “overseas training”; followed by “in-house training taught many companies and organizations have struggled to by outside instructors”, at 74.8%; and “job assignments figure out what level to mainly target for English education based on language ability”, at 61.4%. and how to run programs so that beginners who lack In the cases of overseas training as well as in-house confidence about their ability to learn English can make training and language-based job assignments, employees improvements. Another issue is that the impact of the are obliged to use English, which places them in an work reforms in Japan has made it more difficult to environment where they have to learn, so it can be schedule time for training. supposed that huge benefits ensue from this approach. The increase in the business situations where English is necessary coincides with greater public attention on Biggest task for English education is to maintain and learning English. However, the survey results reveal that raise motivation many companies and organizations are still in a process of The survey asked companies and organizations about trial and error in trying to figure out what English level their issue related to their English education (see Diagram 3).