Job Discussion Forums

[yodetta]

Anyone here teaching Business English? I'm wondering what that is like (what pedagogical content it involves), where those jobs are most lucrative, and what teachers' backgrounds are like...?

Y

[dyak]

It's just using Market Leader instead of Cutting Edge and putting on a suit, isn't it?

[carnac]

Have frequently taught Business English as an evening sideline, experience many years of business management before going into EFL. Requirements Basic English as usual with a business slant: how to write a business letter; how to write a memo. Biggest hurdle for students is cultural. English language culture very direct; many other cultures very indirect. "You're fired" memos take practice. Much teaching time involved cultural differences in business and business communications. Many cultures need many words to get to the point. Business English is very much about saying what needs to be said with minimal words. Tough with polite cultures. (Japan, ME)
First task is explaining need for getting directly to the point with no tea or polite questions about family and travels. A-B-C, not A (f, y) -B- (w, r, x), C (with addendums) if you see what I mean...Big cultural jump, depending on cultural location.
Other difference is you're usually teaching older guys who want to know WHY, reasonable. Need to be able to answer. Business English is more about culture than grammar, IMHO.
Best regards.../C

[Guy Courchesne]

I find business English classes taught directly in a company to have more focus on tasks. I use Market Leader in one particular class of marketing execs, but we depart from the book a fair ways. These students like to have activities that match some of the work they are already doing...emails they receive from foreign suppliers, culture in marekting, telephone drill practice, etc.

[sojourner]

Yodetta,

Both Carnac and Guy have made some excellent comments re the teaching of Business English. Of crucial importance is the role of culture.

Teachers with a background both in "normal" ESL teaching and private business/public administration should have few difficulties in teaching this subject, especially at the more basic levels, such as in generalist undergraduate courses. At those levels, one's ESL experience in teaching speaking, listening, reading and writing would be most invaluable, eg: the use of one's Oral English teaching experience in role-playing exercises involving, say, greeting "visitors" to one's "company"; telephone etiquette; asking for assistance from "work colleagues"; etc. As already mentioned, the question of culture is inseperable from the teaching of appropriate language skills, eg: suitable topics for small talk when conversing with colleagues and superiors, appropriate title/first name usage, appropriate politeness strategies, making/refusing requests, etc. Having worked in private company or govt department would provide a teacher with much background knowledge regarding, say, letter/report writing, sales work, negotiation, etc. However, those who have not had much non-teaching work experience can still pick up some good ideas from modern texts dealing with business writing styles, etc, as well as from some of the books listed below.

I feel that for those who intend to teach Business English to learners who are already professionally qualified or who have, say, an extensive background in business administration, it would be beneficial if such an FT has had a similar work/academic background; not only to enable him/her to more effectively empathise with the learners, but also to handle the sorts of queries that only a teacher with a somewhat similar background would be able to effectively handle. But, on the other hand, there could be situations where the knowledge of some specialised academic discipline, besides one's generalist academic or work background, may prove useful.

As Guy mentioned, an FT often needs to focus upon specific tasks - thus, I can well imagine that a background in something like Organisational Management or Development would be most useful, if one's task is to, say, prepare some R&D personnel planning to work in a large company in an English-speaking country. Here, a knowledge of the intricacies of Anglo-American organisational and management cultures, and how they impact upon decision making and the relationships between the various divisions within an organisation, would be most useful if dealing with case studies focusing on problems that could arise in an environment where there may be some inter-divisional rivalries.In anticipation of working in such an organisational environment, the learners would probably need know how to request assistance/feedback from other divisions; but to do so without resulting in the managers of those divisions feeling "threatened" by the R&D division !

A couple of useful books on Business English teaching are :

- "Teach Business English", by Sylvie Donna (C.U.P.)

- "Teaching Business English", by Mark Ellis & Christine Johnson (O.U.P.)

I have also found "Decisionmaker", by David Evans (C.U.P.) very helpful for dealing with the cultural aspects of Business English. It consists of a series of short case studies, dealing with topics ranging from culturally inappropriate behaviour at an office barbecue party, to the ethics of dealing with "pirated" DVDs.

Some useful insights regarding areas of potential inter-cultural misunderstandings in the area of global business dealings, can be found at the following: www.executiveworld.com

As I indicated earlier, one probably does not need to do any specialised training in order to teach Business English - especially at the more general level. However, I believe that some centres of the British Council do have courses for those who want to teach in this area. Check their website.

For those who want to teach Business English at the more advanced levels, training in certain areas of Applied Linguistics (eg Genre Analysis, Discourse Analysis, English for Specific Purposes), as well as Adult Education methodology, might prove most useful. I'm currently enrolled in UNE's MA (Applied Linguistics) programme. Recently, I was given permission by UNE to enrol in a course entitled "Language for Specific Purposes", being run by Macquarie University, for the purpose of having that course cross-credited to my degree programme. If interested in that course, go to : www.ling.mq.edu.au , then to "postgraduate", at the top; then "postgraduate units"; then Ling 925; then to course description. Such a unit would also appeal to those who are interested in EAP (English for Academic Purposes. It's possible that one may be able to enrol in that course as a non-degree candidate.

That's enough for now !

Regards,

Peter

[richtx1]

In a cynical frame of mind, I once defined "Business English" as the same boring grammer exercizes any other English as a Foreign Language text uses, but wrapped about a High School level "Introduction of Business" book.

Frankly, the difference is that "Business English" is marketed to businesses, and charged accordingly. English for businessmen (and women) is a different thing. What are their needs? Yes, they need to know the difference between the past and future, but do they really need the grammatical niceties, or do they just need to be comprehensible?

The business executive making a trip to a home office in an English-speaking country is going to have to talk about things other than spreadsheets and graphs... he or she will need to discuss food, sports, religion... the normal things everybody talks about in business (or in life in general). Other than a few specific vocabulary words, there ain't no such thing as "Business English".