Business English

Teaching Business English - for teachers; How to study Business English yourself- for students; Personal Experience - Julia Traktinskaya.

Apr 25

TEACHING BUSINESS ENGLISH

As the world is getting smaller and the boarders are getting figuratively erased, more and more people learn to speak English at an earlier age. The students we get now are often interested not only in a General English, but have specific goals in mind - move abroad, get a job or enroll on a course. People working in international companies need English for their everyday tasks, like meeting with clients or holding negotiations, writing emails or having conference calls with foreign colleagues and partners. So, teaching a Business English course will make you a highly competitive specialist. Let’s look at how you can approach the task.

EXAMS

The first thing that comes to mind is preparing your students for international exams in Business English. The main certificate is issued by Cambridge and is called BEC or Business English Certificate. There are three levels to this exam:

B1 Business Preliminary helps you to get the practical language skills you need to start doing business in English. With this qualification, you show employers that you have a good knowledge of English for practical, everyday use in business.
B2 Business Vantage shows employers that you're ready to do business at an international level. This exam could help you when applying for new jobs, getting a promotion, or developing your career.
C1 Business Higher helps you to get the practical language skills you need to work effectively at a senior level in international business. With this qualification, you show employers that you have achieved an advanced level of Business English.

It does make sense for a teacher to acquire this certificate themselves first, preferably C1 Business Higher. However, there is one more option you could choose and it is getting an IH Certificate in Teaching Business English.

As the website course claims, “the aim of IH Business English Teaching is to give participants the necessary skills and knowledge to start teaching business English. An interesting aspect of the Business English Teaching course is that you will work both on teaching methodology as well as business background elements.”

It is intended for teachers that are qualified yet have little or no experience teaching business English, teachers of general English who desire to branch out into business English, ESP (English for Specific Purposes) teachers who wish to specialize in business English, as well as newly qualified teachers who want to broaden their teaching experience.

BOOKS

You may decide to base your course on a particular core textbook, so here is our rundown of the most popular ones.

Intelligent Business by Pearson. The course has levels from A1 to C2 and is suitable for business English students preparing for exams such as BEC. Note, that some teachers have complained about lengthy boring texts and British colloquialisms not suitable for American English learners.
Business Result by Oxford University Press. This is a six-level course that gives students the communication skills need for immediate use at work. The second edition was released in 2017, which makes it a more relevant and up-to-date choice. Most teachers praise the course as well-rounded, engaging and efficient.
The Business by Macmillan English. The syllabus is organised by topic and has been developed from detailed research into business-related degree courses in leading European institutions. However, it has been criticised as somewhat dry and too straight-forward.
Market Leader by Pearson. This course is well, a market leader among Business English Courses, which is rather telling. With the 3rd edition released in 2016 it is not the most up-to-date of them all, but has won countless acclaim from ESL teachers and students.

The list does not stop here, of course, but these books will be on its top.

EXTRA MATERIALS

To stay relevant and bring most useful resources to class, it is important that you as a teacher keep up with what is happening in the Business world. To do this, we recommend you read various articles, watch videos and use these in your lessons.

1. Bloomberg Business

Bloomberg Business provides global business and market news, data, analysis, and video, including stories from Bloomberg News and Businessweek.

2. MarketWatch

MarketWatch keeps an eye on the market's pulse. The site is a leader in business news, personal finance information, real-time commentary, and investment tools and statistics, with over 16 million unique visitors every month.

3. Financial Times

The Financial Times is one of the world's top business news organizations, providing vital news, commentary, data, and analysis to the global business community.

4. CNNMoney

CNNMoney brings you the most up-to-date financial news. The website, which is run by CNN, provides you the most up-to-date business news and top financial stories from across the world.

5. The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is a daily newspaper with more than 36 million monthly digital visitors that features breaking news, investigative reporting, and business features. Over 1,800 journalists from 45 countries contribute to the company's unparalleled news coverage.

6. The Economist

The Economist is a trusted source of information and analysis on international news, politics, business, finance, science, and technology.

READY-TO-USE MATERIALS

Finally, you can save yourself a lot of lesson preparation time and use some wonderful materials designed by your fellow teachers. Let’s take a look at some lessons that can be found in the Community section on Amazy.

1) Working day (A1) — A perfect start of your Business course for low levels.

2) Things to avoid at work (A2) — develops the topic of office culture.

3) Problems at work (A1) — this lesson can be adapted to levels up to B1, simply change the vocabulary.

4) Meetings (including business ones) (B2) — a well-rounded lesson that delves into the concept of meetings. Designed by a British native-speaker, these materials will suit everyone who love digging a bit deeper.

5) My dream job (B1) — a fully-packed plan that could be covered in the course of 3 lessons.

6) Applying for a job overseas (B1) — a highly relevant topic with a lot of different tasks and thorough practice that could also be split into several lessons.

7) Gaslighting at work (B2) — a lesson for those who like to debate on controversial topics.

Have you ever taught Business English? What are your favourite textbooks, supplementary materials and resources? Share your ideas and Amazy lessons in the comments!

How to Study Business English Yourself

There are four main types of English skills to study if you want to become a pro at business English: (1) listening comprehension, (2) speaking, (3) reading comprehension and (4) writing.

If you spend ample time focusing on these four areas, you too can advance your business English skills in no time—even without sitting in a classroom.

These tips will help you to excel at business English at your own pace, on your own schedule and in your preferred environment.

1. Listening Comprehension

Talk radio shows

Listen to talk radio shows about business wherever you have a data connection or access to the Internet.

There are many different business talk shows to choose from. Find the one that has a host you most enjoy listening to, or the one that covers topics related to your career.

You can start by finding local shows on the radio stations in your region. You could also try online radio channels like Let’s Talk Business Radio, Biz Talk Radio or any of these cool offerings on TuneIn.

What You Will Learn: Metaphors and colorful expressions used by radio show hosts in conversation.

Example: “Make sure your ladder isn’t leaning up against the wrong wall.”

Meaning: The wall a ladder leans against shows us where you will end up once you climb to the top. If your ladder isn’t against the place you want to be in the end, then you will end up in the wrong place. The same is true for life and careers.

The Bloomberg YouTube channel

Bloomberg is one of the most notable brands in the world of business.

On YouTube, you will find many interesting videos covering topic on everything from Ellen Pao speaking about diversity in Tech to “Why Legal Weed Could Save Big Tobacco.” Basically, there is something to interest anyone who wants to learn about business and English at the same time.

What You Will Learn: Innovation-related vocabulary, business topics in the news and recent events.

Example: “It could be very promising in the future.”

Meaning: Here the word “promising” means that something is full of potential and will result in something very positive.

The Entrepreneur Online YouTube channel

This channel is excellent if you would like to hear from amazingly influential entrepreneurs or watch cool animated videos with useful tips.

What You Will Learn: Vocabulary related to entrepreneurship.

Example: “To become a millionaire you need good work ethic.”

Meaning: Work ethic is the core belief that hard work is valuable. Someone with good work ethic believes in working hard.

2. Speaking

Stand in front of the mirror and practice.

You can do this by rehearsing new phrases that you have learned. Work on your delivery, trying to make your words flow as seamlessly (naturally) as possible. To get you started, you can try reading these out loud:

Read the brief and get back to me with a first cut soon.

I expect the presentation to be done by the end of the day.

Hold down the fort while I’m on vacation.

All you need to do is get a foot in the door and you are halfway to a sale.

Host a couchsurfer or MBA foreign exchange student.

Learning by interacting with someone on a regular basis will help you to improve your business English in every way, but it will especially boost your speaking skills. You will get to listen to a native speaker and hear how they use English.

Hosting a couchsurfer or an MBA (business) student—either for dinner or to live with you in your home for a while—is a great way to do that.

If you host a couchsurfer, make sure it is someone who is interested in business. You can do this by reviewing their profile before inviting them to your home. Even if they are not all about business, they have probably had jobs before, or they may know about business from the news.

If you would like to host a foreign student from an English-speaking country, you should speak to professors and administrators at a local university. If there is an international studies department or study abroad office, that is where you will want to ask.

Once your guest arrives, you can practice informal conversation with a new person and possibly make a new friend. Here are some conversation starters:

Tell me about your line of work.

What is the best career to have?

Where do you think technology is headed?

Did you read the news about (insert news topic)?

Do you think Facebook will be able to stay relevant in the future?

Speak whenever you get the chance.

Sometimes it can be intimidating to speak with strangers, but doing so is an easy and free way to practice your English.

We don’t suggest you just grab hold of any stranger you see and start talking—unless you are very brave, and also very friendly—but when you are at a party or casually introduced to someone, you can take the conversation further.

Here are some ways to start a conversation:

Ask the person about themselves.
- What do you do?
- How long have you been doing that?
- Sounds interesting!

Find a connection.
- My company does something you might be interested in…
- I have a friend who works in the same field as you.

Give a reason to keep the conversation going.
- Since you are an expert on the matter, what are your thoughts on…
- What does the future of your industry look like?

Find a conversation exchange partner.

One of the most tried and tested ways to learn a language is with regular, consistent practice.

Hiring a tutor can be too formal, but finding a friend who is interested in having regular conversation can be fun.

If you are a native Spanish speaker and an English speaker you know wants to learn Spanish, you can even do a language exchange. Speak Spanish half the time and English for the other half! That way it is a win-win for both of you.

You can find a language exchange partner by:

Asking friends. People in your existing network may know other people looking for similar language skills.

Language Exchange Groups on Facebook. There are many groups on Facebook where you can meet people also looking to learn languages through language exchange.

3. Reading Comprehension

Wise Bread’s Career Section

This blog is a good challenge and worth reading regularly.

Things to Learn: Career-focused vocabulary.

Example: It is time to being guerrilla job hunting.

Meaning: “Guerrilla” is using unconventional tactics to do something, usually in a rough, slightly unplanned manner. In this case, it refers to using unconventional means to find a job.

Duct Tape Marketing

This blog is a good read for anyone who works in sales or marketing. It will help keep you up to speed on the latest things in the industry while at the same time helping you to improve your English reading comprehension.

What You Will Learn: Marketing lingo.

Example: The phrase “marketing channels” will become such a part of your daily vocabulary you will never have to look it up again.

Meaning: Marketing channels are the different places and types of advertising/marketing that you will do, such as email campaigns, print media and digital marketing.

4. Writing

Keep a journal

At the end of the day you can “debrief” by keeping a journal about the day’s activities. It would be great if you try to write sentences using new words you learned throughout the day.

For example, today you learned “supply chain” so in your journal you may write: “We worked on improving the supply chain by finding some weak spots.”

You can also use this journal to write summaries or responses about the resources you read, such as the websites suggested above.

Find articles online that are relevant to your career goals and relevant interests, then write a brief message (less than 140 characters) to accompany it on your Twitter page. This will help you practice writing clearly, quickly and neatly.

Tweets are so easy to write that you could easily write one every day!

Get a pen-pal

It may sound like an outdated concept, but there are many people interested in regularly keeping touch by writing letters and emails. Your pen-pal may be a person you met while traveling, an old friend or a former colleague—it might even be a complete stranger.

Whoever it is, you should tell your new pen-pal to offer corrections any time you make an English mistake.

Make time every day to focus on at least one of the four main components of language learning, and you will be on your way to better business English in no time!

Original article here.

Have you ever studied Business English? Do you find any of the tips here useful?

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Hi! My name is Julia and I have been teaching business English for two years now. In this time, I have had the opportunity to work with very different clients, so I came to adjusting the course to a particular student and their needs.

At the beginning of my work with students who needed business English, I tried to design a specific program for our course. But, in the course of our studies, we were forced to deviate from it with almost everyone - not being a specialist in a particular area of business, it was difficult to plan the entire course in detail from beginning to end. As a result, I moved from the specific planning of each lesson to a more general one - a student may well come with their own ideas. In certain situations the student will appreciate if you do not stick to the plan, but discuss a specific case from their work experience, whether it is writing a business letter or holding emergency negotiations with international business partners.

Most often, the requests of my students are related to preparation for certain events - company meetings and business meetings with foreign partners. In order to understand what the student will find most useful, I ask them about the upcoming event in detail, clarify what kind of vocabulary will be needed. This is what the emphasis is placed on when I prepare for such lessons. I really love and often use the Business Vocabulary in Use textbook from Cambridge - it has a very well-structured vocabulary for basic situations related to doing business. Also, I supplement the lesson with what is directly related to the context of the student's work. So, for a student working in HR, I use materials designed specifically for people in their profession.

To practice reading and speaking skills in the context of a general business English course, I use the British Council website. Along with videos and texts on business topics, you can find tasks for practicing new vocabulary and grammar.

Also, I often use TED videos in my work, both short and long. Their distinguishing feature is that most often the speakers pronounce the words very clearly, placing a special emotional emphasis on some of them. Thus, the student pays more attention to the necessary vocabulary and unconsciously memorizes it. It was a real discovery for me that it was the students from the business English courses who liked the TED lectures the most. Watching a video on a certain topic, they do not only prepare to complete the next work task, but also find something new for themselves, notice previously unknown facts and become more interested in discussing the video. This means that several types of speech activity are involved in the lesson.

Thus, the above-mentioned resources help me the most in my line of work. Interestingly, at the very beginning of my journey of teaching adult students, when I focused only on general English, I used the same resources, but never thought about starting to teach business courses with them. Now, I understand that you can find something worthwhile even in telegram channels by entering the necessary hashtags.

Summing up, I would like to note once again that it is often quite problematic to make something that will fit all people - there are more and more new areas of business every year. Therefore, it is worth considering each student as a separate case, trying to understand what exactly they are doing and what they need in the context of work right now. Also, when teaching business English courses, you should pay special attention to the information that your student may already have. A presentation of a meeting in a foreign language, or a plan for upcoming negotiations, may well come to your aid in the process of preparing for the lesson and greatly facilitate your work.

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