I have taught Business English in companies for quite a while and I have noticed the following: it is important to have a coursebook to define the syllabus the student is going to study and it is also crucial to prepare specific material regarding the student's specific needs. For instance: I have a student who is a marketing director, so I usually prepare specific activity on marketing to go along with the coursebook I use with her. The most interesting part is that this student got so excited about it that she often e-mails me some texts on a subject she's interested so that I can prepare something relevant to her.
I'd like to share some ideas and thoughts on devising material for specific purposes. What kind of material do you like to use? What's the best way to meet the student's linguistic and professional needs?
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I teach business english to the managment students in India. I need some help regarding english grammar.I would like to find more games & activities to teach preposition,articles,tenses, and subject-verb agreement etc.
I use powerpoint presentations to teach oral and written communication skills and grammar.I also conduct some activities like 'xtempore', 'selling a product' in the classroom.
I hope you would like to share some activities, ideas and teaching strategies realted to business english.
TE Team
Thank you Duncan.
Dear carladelia,
Something occurred to my mind about this matter I would like to share it with you and would be interested to hear your feedback. I do not know how many students you have with different field of study in business English but the problem method you have raised is that you have to prepare many materials to meet every student need. You your time more than enough because you like teaching and you do not want any students to leave out. If the number of students with different field of study increases in a class then you have to allocate more time for every student which may result in becoming tired. On the other hand, testing them will be very time-consuming .You are very kind with your students as many times I am but it is better to prepare equal teaching materials for students of a class so that we do not make mistakes on our judgments and evaluations. Sometimes students may consider it as discrimination though you are not doing any discrimination but you want to help them. If we want to give different teaching materials to students they should not be considered in exams but as an extra homework for some students who may need in for some reasons as you mentioned. I think the best way is to prepare comprehensive or concise teaching materials for every class. If some students are weak and cannot harmonize with other students they better be sent to lower classes.
Best wishes
Ali asghar Mazinanian
Dear friend,
I try to use the "Oxford Business English" series.These books have been customized and you can teach your students what they need.
These books include:
Best regards
Amir Abbass Ravayee
I see your point. Teaching business English can be very demanding when you dedicate yourself to preparing specific material to each student. Actually, I do that myself too, however I prepare some activities and use others from the TRY section as "joker cards". What I mean is: imagine you have a picture of an urban scene, you can use it as a warm-up for Marketing, Law, Engineering, Medicine and many other areas by asking different questions to your students. In the end, you can use the same activity with several students with different needs and purposes. I have many students so I need to potimize my time and keep teaching high quality classes at the same time. Thanks a lot for your comment and questions and I do believe a dedicated teacher makes a great class.
Regards
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
Dear Dada,
Thank you for your participation in my blog. I strongly agree with Duncan when he said that grammar doesn't change for business classes. You can get any activity (and I use several from the TRY section) and adapt it a bit to your students' needs and specific purposes. Let me give you an example. I was teaching the uses of GET, using a business English coursebook, and I felt my student needed extra practice on GET for phrasal verbs. I browsed the TRY section and found a lesson plan on the subject. I used the handouts and as homework, I asked my student to write a composition using some of the phrasal verbs describing his work routine. It was excellent! Images can also be great for teaching any age and purpose. They are great as warm-ups, brainstorming and so on. I hope I have helped you.
Regards,
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
Thank you for your tips, Amir. What about other sources , such as news, images, movies etc? What do you think about them in the business English scenario?
Best wishes,
Carla D'Elia - English Teacher
Really appreciate this post. It’s hard to sort the good from the bad sometimes, but I think you’ve nailed it!