Job Discussion Forums

[jefi]

I'm considering looking into teaching business English. What will employers require on top of CELTA etc?

[John Hall]

CELTA is all that you need. Some type of experience or education in business is helpful, but not necessary. I started doing Business English with only a CELTA, and I have been doing it now for about 8 years.

[Guy Courchesne]

On top of what John Hall says, I'll add that you need the ability to resist trying to teach business (especially if you have no experience in business) as opposed to teaching English. Sounds silly, or obvious, but it's one a lot of people somehow miss.

[guangho]

On top of that, having a speciality helps. If you have a background in banking for example, pitch that on your CV/cover letter.

[stumptownrower]

but Guy, can you please try to contact me? My PM messages to you sit in my outbox for reasons unknown to me. If you can't reach me by my regular email, please try [email protected].
Thanks,
Chris

[Stephen Jones]

PMs sit in the Outbox until the other guy reads them then they are transferred to the sentbox

[Bayden]

In my mind there's no such thing as 'business English'.
Well maybe there is, but it's really no more than new vocabulary, so if your students don't already have a working knowledge of English (how to form sentences, grammar etc) and don't already have 'business Chinese' all you'll be doing is teaching them English.
If they do, you'll be teaching them business vocabulary.
What do they need it for? In my experience most need it for replying to emails regarding late orders, quality problems, negotiating orders, quantities, delivery times etc by email.
I have accumulated a few friends on my MSN Messenger who often ask me to help them formulate emails or translate emails they have received from foreign customers.
Something to keep in mind is that English is the international language of trade, so many of the people they deal with are also using English as a second language. This can lead to some confusion to Chinese used to standard english.
This is an example of something I was asked to translate and an example of the type of thing your business english students will want to learn about.
This from an Italian firm.

[tedkarma]

Personally, I think experience in the business world is critical if you wish to teach business English. It is VERY different - and your students and their expectations are VERY different from teaching general English.

Teachers who think the difference between Biz English and Gen English is the difference between teaching:

"The pen is on the desk"

and the "Pen is on the photocopy machine"

will be sorely disappointed when their contract is not renewed.

Business people sitting in an English class have a very specific agenda: The English they need to improve their business and/or sales. These are not housewifes sitting in an English class for a social encounter with a foreigner, or school kids sitting in a class because their parents want them to.

A CELTA to me - is a nice qualification - but I would look for real world business experience FIRST.

Uh . . . let the flames begin. Just my opinion.

Just as a quick edit - let me expand a bit. I was teaching at an excellent EAP program in Saudi Arabia about six years ago - and the reading materials for a Biz Eng class were written by a very skilled and well educated EFL teacher with many years experience. He, however, had no real world business experience. The materials for the class, developed by this teacher, quickly lost any credibility - and the students just blew off the course - as the reading book included lots of references to business and work situations that would just not happen in the real world. The funniest was a Sales Manager (!) telling his salesmen that a HUGE drop in sales was "Okay, because people just aren't buying right now"!!!!!!

Anyone who has worked in a business environment would know that the Sales Manager would be screaming for your b*lls and telling you that you ALL would be fired if you didn't turn the situation around.

This is just ONE of many many silly errors I have run across by non-business people teaching business English.

You will simply lose all respect and motivation - if it is clear that you have no idea what their world is like.

A hundred similar examples could follow . . . Anyway - it keeps the ESP Biz market open for us people who used to work in the business world.

Edit: spelling error - sorry!

[Jetgirly]

I taught Business English with Inlingua. For every story you have about a crappy Business English curriculum I can tell you fifty!

[dmb]

I am involved with BE at the moment and have been for the last couple of years. I have probably learned more than my students have.

If you are not from a business background(like me)initially it's alot of work.

Oh yeah, the beginner student who comes to you and says I want BE, tell them to go learn basic English first.

[tedkarma]

There is a level of occupational language that even beginning students can learn - that can really help them at work.

Business Venture One (more so than BVII) offers such assistance. Often people can become very proficient - in just one area. You've met them before . . . a waitperson who does an excellent job, but once you try to strike up a conversation they are lost. Same with a business person. This is okay - they have learned to do their job, that is most important first.

My wife, for example, is/was a Spanish specialist in construction hardware - as an ass't manager for years for a builder's hardware company in the States that sold to Mexican contractors. She knew her stuff, sliders, hinges, tools, etc., very advanced. But, just barely okay in general converstation.

She is just one reason why you need to KNOW your area of ESP, before you go out to teach ESP.

For a while I taught accountants at Ernst and Young - very advanced ESP to some people heading overseas. Fortunately, I have an MBA - and know some finance and accounting by personal experience. Otherwise, I might have found these people BORING. But, as I knew the topic and what can be VERY interesting about it - I was able to have very interesting and engaging classes that caught their interests. Thus, another example of knowing your ESP (and that's all Biz Eng is) before trying to teach it.

Just my opinion though.

[John Hall]

[John Hall]

[Stephen Jones]

I tend to agree with John Hall on this. One thing is clear; business english classes require a careful needs analysis, and of course what people say they need, let alone what their company says they need, is often very different from what they do need.

The trick is to give them fifty minutes of what they say they need and ten minutes of what you know they need. In a few weeks you will find that proportion reversed.

And teaching practising businessmen business English is very different from teaching business students, business English. Some years ago I taught a business report writing class and one of the tasks was to write a letter/email ordering some office supplies from another company. A third of the students didn't put the price on the order, and when I pointed it out told me, "But the company selling already knows what the price is." Another time they objected to interpreting graphs showing stock market fluctuations on the grounds that graphs were technical english, not business English. "All right," I said, "but next lesson remember to bring a coffee machine, because making coffee is all your boss is going to be able to trust you to do."

[John Hall]

Ditto on the importance of needs analysis in Business English with students who have jobs. It is essential in this type of English teaching. In teaching General English, teachers rarely have to do detailed needs analysis.