My name is Vytenis and I am a Busines English teacher at Siauliai University, Lithuania. I have been teaching English there since 1998. Now, my question is as follows:
Sometimes I have to teach Business English to the groups of extra-mural students (these are the studens who come once every few months, take the classes and then go home and come again a few months later to take exams). Most of these students are in their thirties or even forties. Most of them speak practically no English (they all have supposedly been "learning" English at school, but I guess we all know what does it mean in reality
) So my task is to teach these people Business English. Now, how can I possibly teach them anything if they just come once every few months, have a few classes with me and then go "study" at home. I know how they "study" . So in the ultimate analysis the whole thing seems to be the waste of money, energy and time. They do not learn anything in spite of all my efforts and energy and that starts getting me down. I keep telling them that if they don't do the self-study, there will be no use of our classes. Of course, we try to read some Business English texts so that they at least get some acquaintance of how Business English looks like. But I am afraid, even most of that stuff flies over their heads. Could anyone share with me their ideas of how to deal effectively with such students?