Job Discussion Forums

[my_way]

hi all......i'm going to be teaching a company class for the first time. they are beginner level IT guys. there is no text and i have been told they want a relaxed class, but i want to use a text as a guide for the lessons and as reference for myself, as i have never taught any business english.
any advice on a good text i could use?
thanks!

[Pitarou]

[Mr_Monkey]

1. Number of students?
2. Who says they're beginner?
3. Purpose for learning?
4. Availability?
5. Ages of students?
6. Previous experience of learning English?

Help us to help you. Help yourself at the same time - you will find it extremely difficult to make any kind of positive difference to these learners unless you have the information, before you even start to plan a course!

[my_way]

Of course I will get an idea of the level, etc on the first day which is next week......

Number of students? 5
Who says they're beginner? the person organizing
Purpose for learning? it's a company class...paid by the company and they want to practice speaking on a variety of topics not just business and IT
Availability? ??? the lesson is once a week for and hour and a half
Ages of students? ???? i'm guessing 20-40
Previous experience of learning English? my guess....probably

Any rec's for good business texts for an easy-going class...?

[wayne432]

Is your company asking you to choose a book?

2. Don't trust how someone else my have rated the students, because you may see them differently.
3. Ask the students the questions themselves, like "Why do you want to learn?", "What do you want to learn?"

Don't just buy a book beforehand, because you might get the wrong book... and then what?

[Mr_Monkey]

Personally, I'd make a quick survey for distribution to the students before the course starts so that you can hit the ground running - if anything else, it improves the perception of professionalism, which can only help you.

The term "beginner" is very slippery - there are actually very few beginners in Japan, given that they learn English at Jr. and Sr. high and in the 1st year of uni, You could be walking in to a difficult scenario where you have a split-level class. Forewarned is forearmed, so I'd be inclined to give your learners an initial assessment.

Ideally, you'd have a target situation for these guys - what they need to be able to do for their jobs (why else would the company pay for the course?) - and you'd perform a discrepancy analysis to discover what, specifically, they need to learn in order to do that.

An easy-going class is a nice idea, but if you want repeat business, I'd suggest that this needs to be tempered with a focus on results - the HR people who are stumping up the money will want to see a return on their investment, and while it will take a long time to take "beginners" from that level to a level where they can speak with facility, it is still important to be able to point to assessments and student testimony that demonstrates progress.

Define "business English" - what kind of business? If these learners aren't going to be negotiating business deals, then a textbook that does that is a waste of time. You need to know what they need to do before you buy the textbook.

[my_way]

the class is actually 9 students....... and they don't want to use a text. the text was a guide for me to use for some office terms, ideas, scenarios, etc....the purpose of the class and the reason the owner is arranging it is not because they will need to speak english in the workplace, but because he feels it's a good idea to expand the employees knowledge and scope of things. after my course in english, they will be taking a course in mandarin.
the owner is in his 30's and obviously a forward thinking guy.
a survey is a good idea, and i have to give them a test the first day too.
relax folks........i have the situation under control and am good at planning my lessons according to the needs of the students.....i'm just asking for a few recommendations for a text that might help me along. no need to take this all so seriously.........
text should be basic business conversation and vocab....nothing too hard or serious.
thanks

[Mr_Monkey]

Market Leader is quite well-regarded.

I must admit that I find the owner's reasoning to be absurd - I'd be more inclined to call him a wastrel than 'forward-thinking', but I'd still take the money and I'd still take it seriously if I were in your position - if your students are happy, then there's a chance of repeat business. Do you want to make money?

[Insubordination]

I would choose 'Tech Talk'. It's awesome! I have used the pre-int but it's probably OK for beginners with a basic knowledge. There's some IT stuff but definitely not all.

[Inflames]

If you live in Tokyo, I'd recommend simply going into a bookstore and browsing their selection of business English texts and choosing the one you like.

Most of the books are pretty similar, although I've mostly used Market Leader and it's fine. Most of the business English texts I've found are fairly general in that the books cover a lot of skills but most of the skills the students won't need or, in the case of lower-level books, are far above their level (stuff on giving presentations, for example).

[my_way]

I agree about business texts, they do seem to have a lot of stuff that won't be useful......especially for a class like the one I will be teaching. And I was asking before going to Kinokuniya because I know that there is a huge selection to choose from.
As I mentioned, the company is small and the owner is young. They won't really be using a lot of English for business purposes, but the owner thinks it's a good idea to have exposure to some different ideas, etc.....why a previous poster thinks that is silly...I have no idea.
There are many different companies out there these days, not just the big ones, and being progressive by offering a chance to learn something useful and do something together other than going out to get drunk, will only benefit all involved.
I'm going to use the text as a guide as I have never taught a company class and my background is in art. I plan on bringing different topics of discussion as well as trying to incorporate some IT and business stuff that might be useful for them in the future.
Thanks for the text recommendations......I will check them out

[Mr_Monkey]

It's silly because he's wasting his money if he thinks that his staff can learn anything substantive about anything in a short course.

"Exposure to new ideas" is a nice sounding bit of fluff.