new EFL teacher in business english

<b> Forum for those teaching business English </b>

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cman2001
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2012 1:53 pm

new EFL teacher in business english

Post by cman2001 » Fri Jun 08, 2012 12:39 pm

Hi there

Can anyone please help me with this. I'm a very new EFL teacher (this is my first job) and I need advice teaching business english one-to-one. The student i'm teaching has studied english for 6 years but has had very little opportunity to use English in her job previously. Her new boss, however, will be an American and she will need to use English for business meeetings, discussions about business plans and contacts with her colleagues.

Would anyone be able to help advice me on some lesson plans please, like I said this is my first position as an EFL teacher and i'm feeling a little daunted and lost at the moment!

Many thanks
Clive

kirstindijon
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 1:17 pm
Location: Dijon, France
Contact:

Business English lesson plans

Post by kirstindijon » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:05 pm

Hi Clive,

I'm a business English teacher in Dijon, France. Your material, and therefore your lesson plans, will obviously depend on the 'needs' that have been established at the beginning of the course. In business English, more than general English, I find that it is very important to identify these goals at the beginning and make sure they are achieved by the end.

My classes tend to focus on speaking (students can do reading and writing for homework, and even listening), and on functional language (with grammar being dealt with as it comes up, rather than designing lessons base on one grammar point).

The most common language that we use would be English for telephoning, emails and negotiation. Here is an idea of a class for practising negotiation/ expressing opinion:

1. Brainstorm vocabulary/ expressions used for expressing opinion, agreeing and disagreeing

2. Explain situation to ss as follows:

- There is a beautiful island in the South Pacific ( show beach photo?). It's a very calm, relaxing place without too many tourists, where turtles come ashore in the evening. The local people enjoy this beach. But, a large hotel chain is planning to build on the beach.

3. Put the ss into groups - Group 1: the developers G2: the locals G3: the environmentalists.

4. Give them some time to prepare their arguments, using the vocab that you came up with earlier

5. Practice!

6. Decide on a winner - Discuss what vocab was used, then maybe talk about more specific kinds of negotiation/ debate that they would encounter in their specific job.


I hope this inspires you! Feel free to check out my blog @ http://eslteachingtales.wordpress.com/

Kirstin

kirstindijon
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Jun 06, 2012 1:17 pm
Location: Dijon, France
Contact:

Post by kirstindijon » Sun Jun 10, 2012 9:07 pm

Hi Clive,

Excuse me - I just spotted the 'one-on-one' in your post. In this case, to have a lesson like this, you will have to take on a role of a developer for example, and let your student be a local.

Regards,

Kirstin

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