How to Teach Business English

Business English is in high demand and most ESL teachers will be asked to teach a business English class at some point. There's more to teaching business English than just handing out lists of corporate-world vocabulary, though. Learn how to make sure your students are really prepared to use English in a business setting.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Business-related role plays
• Examples of business correspondence
• Examples of business presentations

1. Learn exactly what your students expect. "Business English" means different things to different people. To some it means the language of international trade, while others define it as the language and communications skills office workers need. Ask your students how they plan to use their English knowledge in their work and business lives.

2. Give your students realistic business English practice through role plays of meetings, business negotiations, telephone conversations and customer service. Students should come away from these with a collection of phrases they'll really be able to use. Don't overlook small talk, either. Arm your students with the vocabulary to chat with English-speaking colleagues at business lunches and during breaks at international conferences.

3. Include work on business presentations. Many learners of business English find it useful to practice creating and giving presentations in English. These work well as longer term projects, too. To help your students create presentations, provide useful phrases for introducing a topic, transitioning from one idea to the next, concluding a presentation and taking questions.

4. Teach business English correspondence skills. Almost all professionals who use English for business will need to write letters, memos, invitations and short reports. For each writing lesson, pick just one type of correspondence, such as a letter of inquiry, and provide good examples, useful phrases and practice writing a complete example.

5. Provide problem-solving activities. For many high level professionals, drills and textbook exercises can be boring compared to the work they're used to. As an alternative, build your lessons on activities centered around solving problems and making decisions. Topics like this include deciding how to market a new product, planning a budget and choosing a new employee.

6. Broaden your selection of discussion topics. Your students may work for a textile company, but that doesn't mean they want to talk about textiles all the time. To teach business English speaking skills, offer diverse topics like business etiquette in a multicultural settings, how job hunting has changed over the years or the pros and cons of working abroad.

Tips & Warnings

• Depending on the culture you're teaching in, your students may enjoy discussing problems like dealing with a difficult co-worker or boss, unfair policies in the workplace or problems in their industry. Because almost everyone has a strong opinion on such topics, they can encourage even the quietest class member to speak up.
• When you teach business correspondence, try to give your students a communication goal, rather than just having them turning their work in for a grade. You might even arrange with another teacher to have your classes write to each other.
• Business English students are typically adults with a lot of work and family responsibilities, so they may not have time for much homework. If you give homework, keep it short and simple.

Resources

• Browse this list of resources for business English teachers.
• Better-English.com offers business English vocabulary.
• Find business English role plays at ESLFlow.com.
• EnglishClub.com provides material for teaching business correspondence.
• Teach business English with the activities at ESLGold.com.

[MariaFlores]

on 5/22/2008 This has some good ideas.