Teacher Discussion Forums

I have joined a new organization where there are no resources apart from Headway and I am expected to write courses for postal workers, banking, business, security guards.......I feel overwhelmed and so I need help. Where can I get books/materials for the areas I;ve mentioned. The British Embassy gave me pages of publishers but only two could possibly produce such books....Nelson and Macmillan. When I type their names in, I get nothing. What publisher (preferably in Britain as it is the nearest) can supply me quickly. Thanks. Michael

Hi Michael
I have been teaching Business English in Jinan, China for the past 2 months. I have just completed one course, Marketing, and am now teaching Business and Management.

The texts I am given to teach from are by Prentice Hall of the USA. I personally find the books interesting. However, the level of English is extremely high and too difficult for ESL students. I spend most of my time "dumbing down" the language so I can teach the subject.

Titles are:
Principles of Marketing 9th Ed by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong ISBN 7-302-04798-7 (Prentice Hall)

Business 6th Ed by Ricky W Griffin and Ronald J Ebert ISBN 7-301-05419-X (Prentice Hall)

Prentice Hall have an online facility for students and teachers. Their website is www.prenhall.com, digishop.com.cn, pup.com.cn

Electronic Commerce by Marilyn Greenstein and Todd M Feinman by McGraw Hill Companies Inc ISBN 7-111-08010-6

I have been given another text of British origin titled "Business and Management" and it is a Chinese copy - no author, no publisher - no ISBN.

If other teachers know of other texts for Business English, I would love to know. And is there such a thing as one written for ESL students with Intermediate English skills?

Best wishes for teaching this class.

I went to http://www.usps.gov and found a lot of user information for the consumer. I would assume the vocabulary and functionality would be helpful for your task.

I haven't tried with Banking but expect you can use the consumer information there to get vocabulary and some graphics.

For management, the site http://www.quickmba.com has a wide variety of material for higher levels of business and management. It references the 4 P's and Kotler is cited as a reference in the Marketing section. Michael Porter's Value Chain and Five Forces of Competition.

There is some good language on the BBC website from Charles Handy in British English - audio and text included. Browse for supporting material for general ESL.

Look at: http://www.careers.iptv.org/ and select the Occupation drop-down. There is audio and text for postal carriers, loan officers and police occupations. I haven't found anything on security.

You do not say where you are based, but if you are using Headway you are probably in China.

Getting ESL books into China is not easy, but I have had success with Cambridge Press. Their web site is www.cambridge.org and they have a wonderful range of books for teaching ESL. They send them via airmail (only about seven days) and you can pay by crdit card.

Great links here..