Job Discussion Forums

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

I will be taking business english classes when i start my first job in march....unlike some of you, i will only be teaching business english at a foreign language college, NOT as people's place of work....so I guess there may be some differnce between what you teach students and what you teach business people.

My rough plans at the mo, include simple lessons introducing and using business vocabulary....with the emphasis on using and understanding some phrasal verbs you may encounter as well as some slang type words often used.

I will also cover standard things....like the typical structure of a business covering HR deps, customer services and marketing....and we can discuss and learn vocab here.

I have also copied a fair few UK job adverts...which we can use for reading, comprehension, role play and letter writing....

Most of my own work experiences are in sales roles....so I intend planning lessons on the 'mechanics' of the sales process, and we can do role plays and presentations....

Id also appreciate some feedback on my ideas! Im looking forward to these classes

John Hall · Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:36 pm Post subject:

So, you are planning the curriculum. You have covered quite a few things, but not everything. May I suggest that you take a look at some of the more common Business English textbooks and textbook series? A few of the good ones are Marketplace, Working in English, New International Business English, and, for lower levels, Global Links.

Kent F. Kruhoeffer · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Do you guys have a favourite book for BULATS preparation?

John Hall · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 4:39 pm Post subject:

Oops! I meant to write Market Leader. Don't know if there is a book with the name Marketplace.

nickpellatt · Joined: 08 Dec 2006 Posts: 1522

thanks for the books suggested...

And based on my experiences as a volunteer teacher there, yeah I will be pretty much planning my own curriculum....not sure of that is a good thing or bad thing.

John Hall · Posted: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:29 pm Post subject:

Whatever you do, it will be original. Many of us who are loaded down with tons of classes never get to do much original stuff. Still, you might want to get some of the texts mentioned as a back-up, in case you discover that the materials you have created don't work out. In teaching Business English, always have a Plan B, a Plan C, a Plan D, etc.!

dmb, you might want to explain what BULATS is. I've heard of it, but don't know much about it in terms of specifics.

Sally Olsen · Joined: 03 Oct 2006 Posts: 1

No one has mentioned the differences in writing. I found that my first year Commerce students were expecting to write essays like they had done in high school. The fourth year students in my class said that they will never write an essay in all their four years but they have to learn how to do memos, business reports,and so on. Those are very different formats than an essay. Many of the students told me that they didn't think little things like subtitles, To: From: Date: Subject and so on were important in a memo and so were surprised when they got marks off. They were also surprised that we cared about "surface features" - plurals, spelling, verb tense, etc. and thought that if we understood what was written that the little details weren't important. The main problem seems to be misunderstanding what is ethical and what is not in business in Canada. Plageurism and just plain buying an assignment from other students is also a problem.

misterkodak · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:14 am Post subject:

I enjoy teaching Business English. There are some subtle grammar differnces but I find that it focuses more on vocabulary,writing, and comprehension skills. The one thing I can't understand about Business English is the cost of the textbooks. I think the publishers add the word "business" to any textbook and the costs increases drastically. Later, they complain about textbook piracy.

misterkodak · Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:21 am Post subject:

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Deconstructor · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 775 Location: Montreal

Business English: Ah yes! One more scam among others in teaching English.

There I was in Germany teaching... er... business English to employees of Siemens. They were secretaries, managers, etc. The book I was using dealt with... er... nuclear plants. What BS!! But even if I had a proper book, it would still have been a scam. Why? Because what is relevant to an engineer could never be relevant to a secretary or a manager.

Business English makes sense only if it deals with the specific area the student deals with every day. This means in my class I can have ONLY secretaries, only managers, but not both. If they're together, at that moment the class is nothing more than a regular English class with a business theme, in other words, a scam!!!!

basiltherat · Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 952

also suggest taking a flip through a publication called 'QuickWork". Stuff in it seems very adaptable and more often than not appropriate to language actually used in a business environment ; unlike others i've tried. also it covers things like meetings, presentations in a very coherent and uncomplicated way. i've been using it for over a year and never had a trainee who said it wasn't appropriate and had a few who had nothing but praise for the material and how it is presented.
in addition, and this might be useful for you deconstructor, sub-units and even units can very easily be skipped without it affecting continuity of the course thus allowing one to omit anything that might be inappropriate for a specialized group of trainees. NB QuickWork also has 3 levels; elementary, pre-intermediate and Intermediate. All, imho, very good and easy to use.
best
basil

Sonnet · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 235 Location: South of the river

I'll vouch for Market Leader; one of the best textbooks I've ever used, and pretty much lays out a communicative course on a plate for you, based on useful skills & functions. Ah, that sounds too much like advertising.

The 'best' (i.e. best student feedback...) business english teachers I've worked with have had pretty much no prior experience of business. I've also worked with ex-businesspeople who've tried to teach their students business, rather than English. That didn't work so well; by and large, your business english students will already be pretty successful, and tend to want to learn communication skills for business, rather than have some foreigner try to ram Western business thinking down their unreceptive throats.