Job Discussion Forums

[toteach]

I've inherited Business English classes for non-English majors. The FAO hasn't got the exact list of classes from the teaching department, though I don't expect to even know until I arrive... Still I'd like to have some info on what to expect with Business English classes. (Each will be two 45-minute periods).

I've taught oral English and writing, but this will be my first experience with a content area course. Can anyone currently (recently?) teaching Business English tell me what to expect? Any teaching materials suggested to pick up in the Western World?

[doogsville]

Do they have a textbook? If not, get one, and make sure the students get a copy too. I use the Market Leader books for non English majors, which are okay, but not brilliant. I also use the Cambridge BEC books for English majors, which are very good, but may be a bit too difficult for your non English majors. Both come with teachers books, the Market leader one is not good, but the BEC one is, since it has all the answers. In my experience there are too few resources online to make not having a textbook an option for a BE class.

[Banner41]

I also use the Market Leader books. Not perfect but a good start. They are good for one-one lessons and small groups with the case studies.

[D-M]

[quote="toteach"]
I've taught oral English and writing, but this will be my first experience with a content area course.quote]

I would suggest that teaching business English and teaching business are very different. The former isnt a content course IMHO. Your oral English class background should be fairly similar in content to your business English classes I think. Just the functions of your target language needs to be tailored to business needs.

[choudoufu]

plan all you want, but the reality is that your non-engrish majors
speaking ability will likely be limited to "hello banana!"

odds are, you'll be teaching a very low-level oral engrish course
that just happens to be called business engrish.

[muffintop]

[Babala]

I would also suggest the Market Leader series. Get Market Leader One as it is the lowest level in the series.

Another great supplement that I use is the Business Builder series by Paul Emmerson. There are 3 books in the series. It's all handouts and they deal with a variety of business topics.

Other than the student's English level, the other issue you will have to deal with is that they have no clue about business. Don't be surprised at the crazy and unrealistic ideas they come up with.

[doogsville]

[Bud Powell]

"... I tell all my BE students in the first class that probably about 90% of the English used in business is just plain vanilla English, and that they need to work on that too..."

Starting them off with that bit of sage advice will do a lot to assuage their anxiety.

OP:

Most BE books present common terms such as bill of lading, VAT, business proposal, and the like. The chapters are usually presented by category to teach them the terms of each area of any business such as shipping, billing, human resources, compensation, taxation, etc..

The Cambridge books I've seen are really good for the advanced speaker. They address issues pertaining to business, not just terminology.

[NoBillyNO]

is there a chapter on customer service and "shrinkage" ..not the Jerry Seinfeld kind but the the stock kind....

[Banner41]

I have been very fortunate to have students who were "ready" for business English. Their conversational English is pretty good so lessons become more of a discussion of case studies than simple English. Companies pay good money for people who can take their staff to the next level. Mostly the foreign companies trying to operate in China with a Chinese staff. They need to be able to communicate actual business to higher ups in other countries. They need to be able to understand and respond on conference calls where they cannot see the person. You also need to take account where the company is "Home Based". I work for a French company so their English obviously has a French accent. Even though a company may come from Germany, Spain, France...etc....the communication is done in English. There is a ton of pressure on the managers here to be able to give business reviews in English with Q&A. Little of the terminology is "vanilla". There are actually complex business terminology that you would have in any MBA program in the US. Most of the managers have MBA's from schools here but now need to translate that knowledge into English. Having a business background is a huge plus.

So, back to the op and as a couple have suggested, Market Leader is a good start for the novice with enough challenging content as you progress to later modules. Yet, the book is just a starting point. I have built a curriculum that is specific to the company that I work for and it took about a year for me to become familiar with what they do. It is in the medical industry so there were terms that I had to learn and am still learning everyday. Good luck!

[choudoufu]

hey op, i was given 'business negotiations' last year. the textbook of course
was chock full of "common terms such as bill of lading, VAT, business proposal,
and the like" to be taught to the hello banana crowd with no idea of
business according to chinese models, and had none of the life experience
you'd expect of 20-yo college students.

for appearances, tried to use the textbook for the first week or so.
after that, went with a class geared more to marketing and advertising,
which allows for all sorts of really groovy individual and group projects.

[Non Sequitur]

The Oxford English for Careers series covers a number of topics.
I've got Tourism vol 1 of 3, but would hesitate to throw it at students with poor English.
On the + side it's got nice tourism pics - air stewards and the like, so it would get student buy-in as an aid to seeing themselves in their industry.
I developed a cocktail party game with recognising standard international airport signs and other tourism related things like 'What is the difference between inbound and outbound tourism? etc

[toteach]

Are the books mentioned in the above replies--Market Leader, Business Builder, Oxford English for Careers, Cambridge BEC--readily available in China? (No clue if the class is assigned a book yet, but I'd like to cover my bases and have some supplemental materials for myself...).

[Banner41]

They are all on Taobao or amazon.cn. Can have them in like a day or two.