Home › Forums › General discussion on teaching English › Teaching Business English over the phone
      TeachingEnglish
      Teaching Business English over the phone
      Submitted by caz52 on 16 February, 2009 - 13:46
      I have spent the past 4 months teaching Business English an upper intermediate student face to face.  He will be away for 2 weeks and wants to keep his lessons going via the telephone.  I would appreciate it if anyone could offer some good advice and/or resources on teaching at this level over the telephone.   Thanks
      ‹ Help with Adult False Beginners? Syllabus for private lessons for false beginner conversations ›

      Tag
      yoke_sau's picture
      yoke_sau
      Teaching Business English over the phone
      Submitted on 20 February, 2009 - 03:15
      Costs:

      Have you thought about using skype? It's likely to be the most economical ICT tool if at least one of you has internet access which you need for skype. It's free if both of you use skype. If you have access to skype but not your learner, then you can make a skype call to your learner. The costs of a skype to telephone call depends on the region, but they're usually exponentially cheaper than phone calls.

      Affordances:

      You can paste a text passage for discussion into the skype chat window, or type new words. Likewise, your learner can write in the chat window, too. It's like a balckboard that both of you can use and see. Messages are also stored in the chat history, so that your lesson can be retrieved later if you wish.

      cammy13's picture
      cammy13
      livemocha
      Submitted on 1 June, 2010 - 12:27

      No doubt many users of this site will be aware of livemocha.com but it is only fairly new to me and someone recommended it. I know it isn't strictly related but it might give tips/ideas on how to do lessons virtually. (I only have very limited experience of it at the moment. And so cannot comment fully on it just now, suffice to say it seems to be not just purely a language service although this is its core).

      I also agree that skype seems a great tool (especially with the costs of good webcams falling now too. You can even do skype on iphones, and no doubt others too, for 'nothing'. On the hoof so to speak now too, ie with your mobile network provider rather than just when you are in a wi-fi hotspot etc . Just so that you can stay connected between the formal lessons etc.)