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Teacher in Rome
Joined: 09 Jul 2003
Posts: 1286
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 Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Lastly, the book Five-Minute Activities for Business English is a good resource, if you can get it. |
Agree - though there are significantly fewer activities for lower levels (and of course, it's more a filler thing than something to base your curriculum around).
Definitely second the points made by nomad soul. Improving general levels of English will help your students gain confidence in the more "businessy" elements of phoning / social English etc. Simple role-plays to practise functions (meeting / requesting / giving info etc) are easy enough to develop and personalise for your students (as well as to adapt for different levels). Don't underestimate the amount of practise students want / need. You'll probably need far less printed material than you think...
There's a lot you can do online (great for finding listening ex) but my students didn't particularly like working "alone" in this way. Maybe that's a cultural thing. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Brighton Blade wrote: |
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| - What specific content or discipline of ESP will you teach? |
This is something I rather unsure of ( I mention classroom objectives in the next question). All I have gathered so far is that the director wants all of his employees to be able to communicate comfortably in English with any foreign customers. Most of them use English as a lingua Franca (for example, with Japanese customers). |
Can't be too many Japanese customers with an acceptable level of English! That's where I work!
As for not knowing the classroom objectives, get them! You should not have to guess, and if this is the best the boss has explained to you, then you need to sit down with him and get more.
Negotiations?
Presentations?
Phone conversations?
Sales calls?
Technical explanations of products?
Cooperative venture discussions?
Tech transfer?
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| - What's the objective? |
I have a feeling the more advanced students have an adequate knowledge of English but want to improve their communicative skills. Whereas the weaker students will starting almost from scratch. |
All the more reason not to lump these people together. It would be a nightmare, IMO.
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| - Are you the content expert or will you be paired with someone who is? |
I am the content expert. The director literally referred to me as the 'English specialist' (eek..). |
That's not what the question asked. Content in this case is knowledge of the field the students are in. Law, sales, computers, chemicals, furniture, management, etc.
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He doesn't seem too fussed about improving his own and his employees' English, providing it's as beneficial as possible. In this sense, I'm thinking that I'll ask to split the group into two. And just have each group for two hours a week.
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| - Will you be teaching established ESP curriculum or will you design the course and materials yourself? |
This, I'm completely unsure of. I've seen 'Business Result' in the shops here so I was thinking that most material for my business part could derive from this. Like i said. I'm rather stuck on this. |
Get unstuck! You don't want to come off to the students looking like a goof-up with incorrect/inappropriate lesson plans. It will get back to the boss. FWIW, most ESP classes are customized from scratch. Heads up.
Another book, if they are geared towards presentations, is Oxford's English for Presentations. Good glossary and a helpful CD included.
Last edited by Glenski on Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:15 am; edited 1 time in total |
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nomad soul
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 11454
Location: The real world
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| Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:52 pm Post subject: |
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| Glenski is spot on. Other posters can offer advice as well, but it's obvious a full assessment wasn't conducted. At this point, you need to be proactive and rethink a strategy for teaching these classes. Is the objective realistic or does it need to be reworked? What are you going to teach and how? Do you have full support from your boss? What resources are available to you? A lot of times, the higher-ups, who have no clue about teaching a language, assume they can just come up with an idea or concept, and with a snap of their fingers, it's easily implemented and everyone's happy. That's fine in some situations, but teaching a foreign language isn't one of them. It takes days/weeks of assessing, planning, and research to design a good ESP course. Unfortunately, I think you may be out of your league. Get realistic with what you can/can't do and sit with your boss to re-evaluate the outcomes and how achievable they are. Otherwise, you'll find yourself overwhelmed, terribly underappreciated, and quite possibly, resented. Don't put yourself in that position. |
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artemisia
Joined: 04 Nov 2008
Posts: 875
Location: the world
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 5:03 am Post subject: |
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They haven't had an English teacher at the company before and this is my first ESP group.
All I have gathered so far is that the director wants all of his employees to be able to communicate comfortably in English with any foreign customers.
It would appear that my levels range from beginner to upper-intermediate. Class sizes will be around 10-12 people
In this sense, I'm thinking that I'll ask to split the group into two. And just have each group for two hours a week. |
This is a tough call. I think the real issue is your first statement: this company hasn�t had an English teacher before so they don�t know how to set this up properly, and this is new for you, too. Unfortunately, some companies do lump participants of all levels together in a (usually) ill-fated cost-cutting attempt. I�m sure it can work out at times but it sounds like a lot to take on.
I had a similar situation with an ESP class on technical English. Advanced levels to beginners were all put together and it was definitely about cost-cutting. Not only did I have extreme ends of the language scale but their jobs were totally different as well. I also think that splitting your students into two groups for now will work better for you and them. You might be able to bring them together at a later date. Can you conduct a basic needs analysis with the higher of the two groups? I�d also consider giving them some sort of basic test that includes writing. You need some information to work with.
With regard to what the boss said about employees needing to communicate comfortably with foreign customers, do you know a lot about this company? That is, who they deal with and what needs to be communicated to customers? I think I�d make that my starting point with both groups but using differentiated material, obviously. Any written material (pamphlets, marketing campaigns, policies, overviews of the company, overviews of products/ services offered to customers) they have produced in English will be helpful for you and could possibly be converted to classroom material. I often incorporated this sort of thing in my classes. Having some sort of course book should be helpful, but I think you'll need two different texts. The beginners will need the basics but it can still be directed more towards the company and their jobs.
Good luck with this. |
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Brighton Blade
Joined: 12 Oct 2010
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 5:09 am Post subject: |
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| Excellent. I think this is the had talk I really require. I mistyped on my last post. The director hasn't stated specifically what he wants, just that he wants his company (including himself) to improve his communicative skills. When I went to individually interview them about professional and personal expectations, he was away on business and I was left with a group who I was unable to reach any sort of consensus with (due to lack of language ability). First 'lesson' starts this evening and the second on Wednesday. These will be more like assessments and ice-breakers. I'll be sure to get specifics on expectations from the director and each student as well. Maybe ask not to start lessons untl August which will (hopefully) give me two weeks to research and prepare for this class. I agree on the 'out of my league' assessment but I don't think this should stop me from giving it a go. There's nothing to lose here, except my enthusiasm. |
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Glenski
Joined: 15 Jan 2003
Posts: 12844
Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:14 am Post subject: |
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| So, are you truly the business content expert or just the English expert? |
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