E-Tips

When The Issue Is Clear Speech

by Carol Fleming, PhD

As a speech coach, I help people with face-to-face communication skills. One of those skills is fluency in English as a second language. A request for services might sound like this:

"Dr. Fleming, I have to deal with a difficult issue. A valued employee doesn't have clear speech because of his accent. I know that he's smart and has all the right ideas, but when it comes to talking, people aren't understanding him. You get tired of having to ask him to repeat and you're still not sure if you've got it right.

"Have you mentioned this difficulty to him?"

"Oh, surely he must know! But, no, I don't think anybody has said anything to him directly."

"Have you done anything already to deal with this problem?"

"Well, we just try to go around him when we really need information fast, you know, ask someone else. And, of course, we're very careful about what customers we have him work with. But we need for him to be able to handle the phone with clients and represent us out in the field. We just can't afford to keep him in the back room in front of a computer like we've been doing."

This is typical. In today's fast paced and competitive business world, information must flow accurately and rapidly. What could be more apparent? In the case of the foreign-born worker, they may well have good skills in the technical and analytical aspects of their jobs. Many have excellent reading and writing abilities. But talking is different. It is highly unlikely that they got instruction in spoken English from a native English speaker. Their teacher probably grew up speaking the same language they do.

In today's business world, competition has never been more intense. The work force has never been more diverse. The demands for intelligibility have never been greater.

Add in the increased demands of cultural sensitivity, and you have the makings of a three-horned dilemma. Employers have every right to expect good communication skills from employees. If you manage foreign-born professionals, you may want to provide classes for groups, or individual coaching for executives. In addition, it would be good to provide training for the English speaking co-workers to accommodate both the comprehension and expressive challenges of the foreign born workers. The high failure rate of these non-native professionals is an added cost that can be reduced with some effort by both parties.

But, how do you approach the individual with this issue? How about, "Lee, you've been doing a great job with our company. You bring a lot of good skills to this job. You're a valuable employee and we'd like to see you develop even further by increasing your verbal communication skills to be at the level of your other abilities. We want to offer you the opportunity to work on your speech clarity."

The individual may respond well to this approach. The need for clear speech is too important for the issue of really poor speech to be ignored.

As we saw in the opening scenario, people are sometimes hesitant to address these issues directly. If you are a foreign-born employee and want to know if your speech clarity is a problem for you at work, consider the following questions:

• Do people frequently ask you to repeat what you said?
• Do people frequently misunderstand what you tell them?
• Do people avoid having you make presentations or interface with customers?
• Do people go around you to ask other people for information which should come from you?
• Do you socialize more with people from your own country because the communication is so much easier?
• Do you seek out tasks that do not require you to speak with native- born speakers?
• Do you avoid speaking out in group situations?

'Yes' answers indicate a problem with speech clarity. You should seek out speech classes or personal instruction to make sure that you are easy to understand. Your future career development depends on it. There is no issue of discrimination here. Communication clarity is the first requirement for everybody.