Job Discussion Forums

[sharter]

Back to being constructive.

Without a complete Needs Analysis it can be difficult as methodology, materials and syllabus aren't identified.

I'd make each lesson task based. That way his language will evolve from the tasks rather than the tasks from a finely tuned set of input. Designing a product can always be fun and a way of getting someone to produce language, which you can then give feedback on.
Activities books I'd recommed are 'In At The Deep End' and 'Executive Decision'. Any business English book worth its salt will also have case studies. I'd pick stuff from 'Market Leader'. Also, the Academic Writing Paper for IELTS could be useful for stting up 1-Discursive type lessons and 2-Lessons that revolve around presenting and analysing data. Project work is also a good idea. Get him to give a presentation, film it, play it back to him, upgrade his language skills and get him to do another. 'Effective Presentations' is an old but good source material for ideas. Explain to your student that just talking aimlessly is not an effective learning/teaching strategy. Design a topic based syllabus together....that's a lesson in itself.

Personally I've met business types like this and I find them truly irritating. Often they just waffle about how great they are.

So, there you have it, a constructive post from an unprofessional, inexperienced teacher who's clearly in the wrong job and desperately unhappy in his personal life.

Having an opinion and doing one's job are unrelated issues.

[fieldsofbarley]

"often they just waffle about how great they are"

Exactly!

And thank you for the great AND constructive suggestions

[Glenski]

Every one of my questions about your student were constructive. Who has the poor reading skills now?

Mock negotiations and debate are not covered in most textbooks.

No answers to my straightforward questions based on experience? I asked them to get more background on your situation so that I and others could provide more extensive and direct answers. Let's not get snippy about posters who answer your queries with questions.

[sharter]

My post was not written with you in mind Glenski. I was talking about myself as my posts are often quite negative about this rigmarole.

[imgoingonanadventure]

I think using authentic listening is useful, especially dialogues with people speaking over each other, different accents, making false starts, using fillers etc.
There are also sooo many phrasal verbs, idioms, slang, euphamisms and so on in English that even advanced students always find more to learn here.
It also depends what the student needs English for. You might like to role play giving presentations, chairing meetings, do some conference calls, stuff like that.
Good luck!