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matador · Joined: 07 Mar 2003 Posts: 281

How is this different from free converstaion classes. Do you just talk more about money and companies or something and try to sound more intelligent??

kimo · Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 668

!Matador, mi dios, amigo! This is a trick question, right?

Just go in as you say and start talking as though you're Jack Welch. Tell them that the bottom line is all they will ever really need to know to use English in business situations successfully. You might want to begin with financial statements such as balance sheets and income statements, explaining assets, liabilities, owners equity, earnings before and after taxes, direct costs, fixed costs, variable costs, quarterly tax payments, tax credits and all. From there move on to some important ratios like debt to equity and the quick ratio. After you have finished with the accounting and finance disciplines, you will be ready to prepare your students to become personnel managers. Tell them all you know about interviewing, hiring, compensation, benefits and retention programs. You might want to teach your students the elements of a good resume.

And while you're pointing out those elements don't forget to mention training and experience --- the combination, or at least one of them, even in an EFL/ESL class could be of great benefit. A good resume does more than just talk at you.

Seriously, you might look at Dave's Business English forum. There are at least a couple of threads there that might be helpful to you. One is for a Short Course and the other is for some kind of Workshop. I would suggest you find some real texts that match the level of your students.

Bertrand · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 293

It's just a different genre of vocabulary. There is an interesting chapter in a recent publication by the linguist Sampson (2001), Empirical Linguistics, entitled 'One English or Many Englishes' [sic] in which Sampson shows, through corpus analysis, that there is only one underlying grammar of all the different socio-linguistic registers.

tjpnz2000 · Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 118 Location: Japan

Basically, in my opinion, the term `Business English` is a marketing tool. It gives the school another thing to sell on: `We also teach Business English`. You could say it is English for Business people and situations. For more information see `boarderline scam`. I would love to teach this in a `business English` class.

I have taught it and it was really polite English, `How do you do...`, with some semi-technical vocab; `manufacture`, `operations`, `manager`, which was above the level of the students grammar for a `normal` conversation class.

Only my opinion.

T

Bertrand · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 293

dandan · Joined: 25 Jun 2003 Posts: 183 Location: Hong Kong

In what aspects does your @rse differ from your head Dr. B, for they both surely do churn out a lot of sheeyit?

Bertrand · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 293

khmerhit · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2003 4:36 am Post subject:

Call yourself an educator? Very Happy

tjpnz2000 · Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 118 Location: Japan

Hi,

I apologise for no being clear but it is a very difficult thing to explain. I will try to do so by example.

For example in a `normal conversation class` for a level that can use present progressive verbs but not past tense irregular verbs, I would teach something like `Toyota makes cars`. For a business English class I would probably teach `Toyota manufactures cars`. However, I would probably not explain the subtle difference between `makes` and `manufactures` because it would require the students to understand many other unconnected English language concepts. In a `normal conversation class` I would not teach a word such as `manufactured` untill the students could understand the difference between that and `makes`. That is the kind of thing I was talking about.

See, as clear as mud Laughing

T

Bertrand · Joined: 02 Feb 2003 Posts: 293

tjpnz2000 · Joined: 22 May 2003 Posts: 118 Location: Japan

Ok, I was trying to give a reasonable answer to the original poster to the best of my ability from my own experience. I care not to quibble over the minutae of grammatical construction or terms.

It appears that we should go our seperate ways.

I consider the matter closed and will think carefully before posting in this threat again.

I hope our discussion has been of some help to matador.

T

guest of Japan · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 1601 Location: Japan

Bertrand, I'm assuming your point is that there is really no such thing as business English.

I may be wrong because I got lost in your Linguistic English.

I remember when I lived in America and we used to use the word jargon.

Those were the days. Smile

Marcoregano · Joined: 19 May 2003 Posts: 872 Location: Hong Kong

A question for the good doctor....What is the point in posting stuff which the majority of us cannot follow?

guty · Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 365 Location: on holiday

I agree with tj,
the difference between General English and Business English is

about $10 an hour

kimo · Joined: 16 Feb 2003 Posts: 668

Basically, 10 bucks (a little low) per hour is about right because it's all a sales game. A guy pitches his company as the best to provide Business English instruction to a potential client's employees. His company wins the contract, then the company scrambles to find instructors and mostly what they get is somebody trying to sound good.

However, some clients are a little more clever. And if their employees are clever, you will disappoint them if you think it is just use manufacture instead of make. As part of the deal a teacher might have to produce and give the students more than just grammar and vocabulary. The students could actually be expected to be able not only to handle a variety of business situations better but to gain more knowledge applicable to business.

Matador, again, it is extremely important to know the level of your students. Beginners seem to have a hard time talking about the reasons for a delayed production schedule.