Miami Children's Hospital's Back to School...

Miami Children's Hospital's Back to School

- Language class meets twice a week during working hours (employees are paid overtime), and no Spanish is allowed.

- Language training is tied to the work environment (i.e., teach participants how to speak to give customers directions).

- English-speaking managers enroll in an internally developed "Spanish as a Second Language" program.



Shaw Industries' Shaw Language Exchange (SLX)

- Program participants are selected from the facilities, shifts, and departments where language barriers are most pronounced; classes are organized with a 50-50 ratio of native English and native Spanish speakers.

- Prior to class, both groups are assigned 30 hours of computer-based instruction, during which they study words and phrases connected to pictures of objects found in Shaw's actual manufacturing facilities.

- Learners participate in four-day immersion classes in the languages they seek to learn. On the last day, the two groups join together and work in teams of two while performing the same activities and games. Half the day is spent communicating in Spanish, the other half in English.

- On-the-job follow-up assignments during the first six weeks after the program ends include English- and Spanish-speaking partners being given the names of five people in the plant environment and tasked with speaking to each one in the target language.