Job Discussion Forums

[Jetgirly]

I've been offered a job teaching/"overseeing" an eight-week summer program that combines ESL and Business English with an in-company internship. I'm going to be doing everything from teaching interview techniques to evaluating on-the-job performance with the students' employers. I'm pretty sure I've got the employment part down pat, but I'm feeling a little nervous about planning the four-week classroom curriculum. Do you know of any websites that have sample day-by-day or week-by-week "schedules" for a similar program? I'm going to be getting a lot of support from the school, but in the meantime (I start sometime next week) I'm sure I'm going to be up at night worrying about what to teach and what not to teach!

[saint57]

Perhaps I�m just wasting your time because I�ve never taught business English. However, if I were in your position, I might base it on units three and five of this document.

http://www.curriculum.org/csc/library/profiles/12/pdf/BBB4MP.pdf

It�s a grade 12 international business course for Ontario. Even if your students are adults, this will challenge them. You can just adapt it to their needs. You'll need one copy of the textbook though.

[tedkarma]

Any decent curriculum - needs to start with the students' needs in mind.

What do they need? What do they do? When do they use English and for what purpose? What is their English level?

And then - business English is a pretty generic idea:

What kind of business? Hotel Front Office is very different from marketing photocopiers or pharmaceuticals. Is it face to face contact, or over the telephone? Or is it via fax and e-mail?

Personally, if you don't know these things - I think it will be hard to write a decent curriculum - but then I understand that you aren't always told these things . . .

If you don't know these issues - take a look at some of the better put together Business English series of books by Longman, Oxford, etc. and focus on functions such as negotiating, making and responding to requests, answering and responding to complaints, making presentations, etc etc. Both publishers have graded series of books where you can move from false beginners all the way up to advanced.

Good luck!

[Justin Trullinger]

My two cents worth on ESP in general- Don't rely on what they SAY they need. What people tell you that students need is often at odds with their actual needs. If at all possible, get in there to observe/investigate.

They say the send emails? Let's see'em.

They talk on the phone? With who? About what?

Need help with company documents/manuals? Bring'em on in.


If you don't have enough time, opportunity, or whatever to research their actual use beforehand, check it out in the first classes.



Best,
Justin

[tedkarma]

[Justin Trullinger]

Very interesting, Ted. I honestly have often thought that some companies here in Ecuador should have more stringent confidentiality rules than they do. But maybe rules here just aren't what they were meant to be. I see relatively sensitive documents in order to help my students understand them on a regular basis.

Erm, would anybody know a buyer for confidential info on various Ecuadorian industries?

Just curious, of course.

Justin

[tedkarma]

Take the documents to their competitors . . .

Uh - just kidding!

[Justin Trullinger]

If I didn't have this darn moral streak, it would be easy enough to do! Quito is small- in many cases, we also teach their competitors. One could really go back and forth, if one had a mind to...


Double agent man,

Justin

[Pollux]

Propietary information is just that - prorietary. The PM is always the Project Manager, no matter what the heading says.