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psychedelic
Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 167 Location: China
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 6:55 am Post subject: Preparing lesson plans for a business class: idea's? |
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Hi,
I have to submit a lesson plan for a business class. (small class,the students work for a large,international company) Teaching materials are my choice..magazine and newspaper articles,etc. ** Can anyone give me some ideas/suggestions for putting a lesson plan(s) together? This is all new for me.
Thank you!!! |
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Roger
Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 10:34 am Post subject: |
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You should add the country's name or your students' nationality as I can't see how you could be expected to be teaching identical things to students in different countries!
If your students happen to be Chinese, they will need a lot of basic information on how a free market operates, what a contract is, what WTO stands for, that laws are there to protect rather than inhibiting free enterprise. |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 10:44 am Post subject: ideas or idea's ? |
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Maybe you can start by reviewing the use of the apostrophe in Contemporary English.
OR
Sign up with The International Society For The Abolition Of The Apostrophe
Maybe it was a typo, but is seems to me that an increasing number of "native speakers" do not understand the use of the apostrophe to mark the possessive.
Last edited by scot47 on Thu Mar 27, 2003 2:15 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Shonai Ben
Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 617
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 10:49 am Post subject: |
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The students should be able to introduce themselves
as though they are on a business trip in the states.
This often takes place when the company sends them abroad
so this is a practical excercise as well.
Standing in front of a group of strangers and talking about
yourself is challenging and will probably take a lot of practice.
Also important is Telephone English.They probably will at some
time have to have an English conversation on the phone with
a native speaker.
These are just a few basic ideas to get you started.
Hope it helps. |
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Sherri
Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Posts: 749 Location: The Big Island, Hawaii
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Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2003 11:18 am Post subject: |
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What level are the students and what are their goals? |
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psychedelic
Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 167 Location: China
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 5:00 am Post subject: Preparing lesson plans for a business class: ideas? |
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scot47,
Dude, why don't you chill? Typo..okay? Geesh. How about reviewing and to?
Peace |
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Kent F. Kruhoeffer
Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 6:45 am Post subject: my 2 Rubles for ya |
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Hello Psychedelic
I've taught a few corporate classes myself over the years, including Intel Corp, British-American Tobacco and Coca-Cola, and I'm happy to offer you a few humble tips and suggestions.
One of the strategies that seems to work well for me is this: First, do a web-search on the company you'll be teaching for. Collect some recent press-releases, marketing reports, the annual report, and maybe even a chart which shows the company's stock values over the past year. I like to use http://news.google.com for collecting this kind of info.
Then ... after weeding out the good stuff from the bad, you can introduce one of the above documents, along with some specific vocabulary and/or grammar, and discuss it in more depth.
Another good idea: Find out, for example, who the main competitors are for THAT particular company, and consider presenting a lesson plan on the competitor. For Coca-Cola, it was easy: Can you say P E P S I ??
Business students are sometimes "wowed" by this kind of stuff, because it's interesting, relevant and always contains some useful tidbits and vocabulary related to their own company that they themselves didn't know about or understand fully.
Of course, you need to be very careful about keeping the lesson plan geared to the proficiency-level of your class, and this is sometimes easier said than done.
It's also a very good idea during the first class to play the 'doctor-patient' game with them ... in which you (as the doctor) find out from THEM (the patients) exactly how and when they actually use English in their day-to-day corporate life. Are they using it on the telephone, face-to-face with foreign managers, or writing emails? etc. With this information, you can now 'tailor' your lesson plans to better meet their needs.
Hope this helps.
Warm regards,
kENt
Last edited by Kent F. Kruhoeffer on Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:43 pm; edited 4 times in total |
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psychedelic
Joined: 11 Feb 2003 Posts: 167 Location: China
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 7:08 am Post subject: Preparing lesson plans for a business class: ideas? |
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Roger,
Actually, if you look at my message you'll see that my location is Seoul..as in South Korea. My students nationality is Korean.
Good day |
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Albulbul
Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Posts: 364
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 10:04 am Post subject: COREA ! |
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Get thou to the Korean Page, varlet ! |
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Erica
Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Posts: 6
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Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:15 pm Post subject: |
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Hi.
Another thing you could try out is having them give you a virtual tour of the company, how things work, etc. just as they would do for a visiting foreigner to their company. Get them to anticipate the questions that the foreigner would ask and try to make replies to these questions. Get them to research a similar company (competitor) in another country and see if their mission statements and management styles are the same. This can be done through the internet.
It's also always good to go through negotiation styles, and specific cultural business styles. For example, someone from the west will be fairly blunt and to the point, whereas someone from Japan would consider this very insulting. Someone from Korea, on the other hand, may like to do business over lots of soju.
You may also want to think about describing trends and graphs - rising, peak, falling...etc and being able to say why.
Good luck. There are several good books out there, Business Basics is ok for low-intermediate level students. |
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Kent F. Kruhoeffer
Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国
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Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 6:45 am Post subject: PS: a decent business text |
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PS: As Erica mentioned above, there are tons of business text books out there to choose from. One that I like in particular is: "Market Leader" by David Cotton, David Falvey and Simon Kent; published jointly by Longman and the Financial Times.
You can get additional info or order at: at www.market-leader.net
Regards,
kEnT |
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Showem
Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 31
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 8:42 am Post subject: |
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I just want to know why you all don't go to the other forum, which has specific topics for business English, games & activities, teaching adults, teaching to deaf students, etc etc. |
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Kent F. Kruhoeffer
Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 11:17 am Post subject: Why? |
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Dear Showem:
Why? Because 'Business English' clearly falls within the boundaries of "General EFL Discussion Forum", which is exactly what this is.
Considering all of the off-topic, fluffy crap posted on this forum on a daily basis, I can't believe that I need to be here, defending Business English as an acceptable topic for discussion.
I feel sorry for Psychedelic, insofar as the majority of replies to his honest and legitimate question were met with less than helpful messages. Just calling 'em like I see 'em.
Regards,
kEnt |
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Showem
Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 31
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 11:54 am Post subject: |
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Dear Kent,
Does Business English fall clearly within the boundaries of Job Discussion/Employment? That's how I interpret this forum.
But to make up for my lack of advice, planning a lesson plan for a business based class should come after doing a needs analysis of the students. What do they need? Do they have to speak on the phone? Do they send emails? Do they attend meetings, give presentations, etc? Where do you see their weaknesses, grammar, vocab, pronunciation, etc? Base the lesson plan on the combination of the two. Concentrate mainly on one thing per lesson and make sure there is a variety of different things over the course; business skills, vocabulary building, fluency, grammar, etc etc.
My final advice is to post in the correct forum. I personally rarely check this one, as I have a job and am not looking for another one, nor do I enjoy the other "fluff" as Kent describes it. |
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Kent F. Kruhoeffer
Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国
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Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2003 1:48 pm Post subject: my interpretation only |
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Hello Showem
Sorry if my first reply sounded a little harsh. Thank you for your input.
Now, I may be wrong on this, but when I read the small print under the main header entitled "General Discussion Forum", it says, and I quote: "a general discussion on teaching around the globe".
To me, that's pretty vague, and would imply that content-related EFL topics (like Business English) are OK, as well as discussions about finding jobs, reputable employers, crappy fluff , and the like.
Best wishes,
keNt |
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