Job Discussion Forums

[Denim-Maniac]

This is a job I dont really want to do, but my employer has tasked me with preparing an in-house Business English course for our teaching staff. We offer a couple of business courses for our students (I work in a training centre in China) but feeback is often sketchy on these courses.

As a result, my employer thinks it might be a good idea to prepare a 'How to teach Business English' course for our teachers so that they are better equipped to teach our students.

Ive looked online this morning and tried to find some idea for a syllabus offered by all the regular online course providers, but cant seem to find a clear outline for what their courses offer, so thought Id put a shout out here.

Assuming you were designing a similar course, what modules would you want to include? I figure I need to prepare something that covers 6 or 7 input sessions, with each input session focusing on one specific area of teaching Business English. Im kinda stumped with what to do to be honest. Ill hold my hands up here and say Im not the best qualified to do this, but I am probably the best qualified in my place of employment.

Any help or pointers would be much appreciated. Its just really topics for input sessions, and perhaps a few other hints needed. If anyone has recently done a 'how to teach Business English' course, Id love to hear what the modules were?

[john123]

Hi Denim
I am just fresh off the Cert IBET course, which has given me a good grounding in the teaching of Business English and syllabus design, as well as information about how to draw up a needs analysis and approach companies.

I am not an expert by any means, but I recommend you to cover the key skills - telephoning, socialising, meetings, presentations, and possibly emailing.
You can then, for instance, break a core skills like telephoning into sub skills, such as opening a call, getting through, apologising, and closing a call.

Then functions, structures, and exponents (lexical chunks).
E.g. reiterating the apology (function) - fixed phrases (structure) - and lexical chuncks - 'So once again...' /'Please accept our apologies'

Students very often need these exponents.

Regards

[Denim-Maniac]

Thanks John.

So based from your post, am I correct in thinking the course was introduced as a series of modules? Im at that first stage really and Im am guessing suitable modules for me to plan (based on your post and my ideas) might be -

Introduction - The differences between 'General English' and 'Business English', and the difference between business experience and teaching Business English.

1 - Needs Analysis
2 - Analysis and Appraisal of Business English coursebooks
2 - Syllabus Design
3 - Key Skills 1 (emails and telephone contact)
4 - Key Skills 2 (meetings and presentations)
5 - Key Skills 3 (socialising and cultural considerations)
6 - Approaching Companies
7 - Using Realia in the Class

That gives me 8 modules or input sessions to 'plan'. Does it sound similar? (although I dont expect my 'course' will ultimately be comparable)

[Kofola]

Hi,

I've done a fair amount of ESP and business English (actually I approach them in the same way as business students generally have fairly specific ideas about what they want to do. You haven't said much about your context, but these are the thoughts that first spring to mind.

I think you're syllabus looks good. My own opinion is that business courses often fall down on the fact that the materials used are often not really relevant to the course context. This is especially true where a single course book is used. What teachers really need then is a clear idea of the principles behind ESP which can then be applied to teaching anything. For me then the most important components of the course would be the first three items on your syllabus. Also, I don't know how long your sessions will be, but you might want to consider taking one of the skills eg emailing and then cover it in much greater detail beginning with the needs analysis and materials evaluation and then look at the actual teaching of the skill. You could then merge Skills 2 & 3 into a briefer session on how these differ from the core skill you have covered.

You've probably already come across it, but can I recommend Hutchinson & Waters, English for Specific Purposes?

http://www.amazon.com/Specific-Purposes-Cambridge-Language-Teaching/dp/0521318378

I think there is some useful stuff in here on general approaches, how to evaluate materials and what to do with them. It might help you clarify exactly what direction you want the course to take.

Also, Nunan's The Self-Directed Teacher has someuseful appendixes on needs analysis.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=nunan+the+self+directed+teacher&x=0&y=0

Finally, I'm not really sure what item 7 would entail, unless you're thinking of the technology? Anyway, the technology can be very important dependiing on client expectations. If they are high and the facilities are good it could be worth spending some time on that. Otherwise I might drop that section and beef up the first half of your syllabus.

Just some ideas that might help you to clarify your own thinking...

[nomad soul]

[Denim-Maniac]

Thanks for the replies

@Kofola - some nice ideas, and good to know my initial layout for a syllabus is kinda on the right track. Item 7 was/is relating to 'real' business materials and experiences. In my limited experience I have seen teachers who previously worked in HR deliver a lesson based around a seminar that they did in their previous HR related position. I was thinking of a module to discuss and examine the relevance of previous experience and real, genuine materials in a Business English class. You are right though, I could pare the skills down and focus more on the earlier stages.

@nomad soul - We offer 2 and 4 week Business English classes for groups of adult students from a variety of backgrounds. These are taught by 3 teachers, and can sometimes be vocab heavy, ineffectual, and too reliant on the teachers previous work experiences. Students often feel what they learn isnt communicative enough, and many dont feel they can really apply much of what they learn back at work. Teachers are chosen by 'OK, so you did sales in America ... just teach the sales techniques you learnt', type stuff.

My employer does want to improve this. I am responsible for delivering a new teacher/prospective teacher/teacher development training course, which is heavily influenced by Trinity/CELTA type input sessions. This general English approach is something I am comfortable with. They are quite aware that TEFL training companies offer Business English speciality modules, and have tasked me to design one.

This is a course they might offer as a paid option to teachers etc at some stage I guess. It might also allow them to expand their classes to in-company classes too. It is probably a task that is beyond me really but Im in the hot seat at the moment!

If I had an IH/CELTA type course laid out in front of me, with materials and lessons plans I think I could probably do it ... but designing said course from scratch is pretty hard for me.

[spiral78]

I have worked extensively in Business English and in teacher training. I also think your proposed syllabus is certainly workable, though I agree with Kofola that the 'background' items are very important (without some reasonable mastery of these elements, your teachers will be less effective on the later ones, I think).

However, I wouldn't sell the practical elements short. If your teachers have had problems making lessons 'communicative' in the past, this is where they can practice.

So far as making classes communicative and relevant, in my experience, one approach that works well with most businesspeople (particularly above lower intermediate level) is that of team-work among them, with the teacher in the background for support as needed. Students can effectively 'lead' a class, so long as the materials used are clearly defined (particularly if tasks have clear - if approximate - time limits on them). The functional 'leading' of a class is, of course, a skill closely related to leading business meetings. Having students take this role also gives them all a higher stake in the processes and the outcome of any given lesson.

Basically, I am suggesting that students take leadership roles within a lesson as often as possible. The basic rules are: involve everyone in tasks, keep group on target, and meet time deadlines as much as possible.

There are other ways to make such classes communicative, of course, but this is the key I've used to get started for some years and it USUALLY works well

This approach requires a clear plan for each lesson, though (not always totally feasible). It also only works well for classes of three or more students, of course.

On the realia issue, I was also thinking of using real English-language materials from the students' field of business. Most of my European businesspeople work for international companies which have some literature in English. Alternatively, of course related media can be considered either realia or just as course materials - falls into both categories, really. For example, I've often used short news clippings describing what a set of stocks have done/are projected to do when working with financiers. I once did a long course for an international accounting firm. When I went in for the first lesson (the needs analysis) I picked up their English brochure from the lobby on my way in - I got two or three lessons out of that

[smithrn1983]

[nomad soul]

Denim-Maniac, I agree with the other posters; it looks like you're on the right track. The way you facilitate this teacher-training course should be the model for how the teachers teach their own business English courses.

Based on your syllabus, it appears you're focusing on what could be considered English for business communications---that is, how to communicate in English in everyday business/work situations versus business English that's geared toward the components and functions of business (e.g., sales, advertising, marketing, HR, company organization, etc.) in an English language context. As such, you might think about adding key skills in customer service/dealing with problems (basic listening and conflict management skills). By the way, one of my favorite business English sites for ideas is ESLflow.com (http://www.eslflow.com/BusinessEnglish.html).

Some questions about your proposed syallbus:

1) What are the course objectives/outcomes?

2) For #1, Needs Analysis, is that you conducting an anaylsis on the teachers' needs, or is it to train the teachers on how to assess the students' business English needs? You may have already addressed this in your post, but it's not completely clear to me since I assume that by this time, needs analyses would have been completed on both the students and teachers, which is what you're now basing your syllabus on.

3) What would #6, Approaching Companies, entail? Does it refer to applying and interviewing for jobs? Or is it about making business introductions and networking?

[Denim-Maniac]

Nomad Soul - The needs analysis does indeed refer to the students/prospective students. The final module in this initial draft is something I took from one of the earlier posts. I think this would cover life after working in my training centre and give the trainees ideas and approaches they can use for approaching companies privately, how to market themselves to prospective clients as Business English teachers etc. The course wont exclusively be for our teachers. It may be offered as a paid training course too.

Aims and outcomes in a general sense would be for trainees to be able to understand and teach Business English in a variety of contexts, to understand student needs and design courses to suit and have a greater understanding of teaching skill sets enabling their students to have a greater understanding of English in the workplace.

Thanks for all the posts and advice from everyone else too.