How to teach business english
How to teach business english
6 tips in teaching business English
On the way of our professional development plan (PDP) we have to work with different coursebooks, teach different levels, different courses and deliver efficient classes at the same time. Sometimes it can be quite a challenge to teach a new course, especially if that’s something you’ll be doing for the first time and you need to look through the course in detail, get acquainted with the material thoroughly to be able to teach it on the go.
Throughout my teaching career, I had the luck to teach a variety of courses; General English and Business English, ESP courses (medical English, English for journalists, legal English, financial English, English for IT), Exam preparation courses (PET, FCE, CAE), etc. In the beginning, I was quite reluctant to start a new course, especially in the ESP sphere, as it demands not only knowledge of the language, but also some understanding about the sphere. However, with time, it came to my attention that the more courses I taught, the better my own English got and the better my skills developed in delivering different classes with no particular effort.
Here are some tips that have helped me so far to teach business English courses where I had no prior experience in:
If you are working with training centres, sometimes you can be asked to start a completely new course in a new sphere for you, in a very short notice. Though the company wants to start the course as soon as possible, it also cares about the quality of the lesson the teachers will deliver. Hence, don’t refrain from taking the time you need to research the sphere first to feel more confident.
Let’s say you have been given a week to start teaching a financial English course, level B2. Read some literature, watch some interviews and news to pick up on the language people in finance use. The best resource for me has been the Financial Times newspaper, where you can not only find real-time news but also the latest language exercised in the sphere.
2. Vary the materials
Before starting the course, make sure you have the necessary materials to equip your classes. Only the textbook is normally too little if you are working with people in business, with higher language levels. They get bored very easily, they strive to learn as much as possible and want the course to be as challenging as possible. To achieve this, make sure you vary your course materials.
The books I have been using every now and then were; Market Leader, Business Results, Business Insider, etc. As for supplementary materials, I have been resorting to Business Vocabulary in Use by Bill Mascull, Test your Business Vocabulary in Use by George Bethell and Tricia Aspinall, etc. Also, make sure you incorporate videos from Ted Talks, CNN/BBC channels to keep your students interested.
3. Conduct a survey
To have a better understanding of what your students’ expectations from the course are, prepare a short survey to see what topics they are interested in talking about. It will make your life easier in compiling the course materials and you will not be unpleasantly surprised when the students don’t seem to be interested in a topic suggested by the textbook. Some questions that you might find helpful to include can be:
4. Keep it up-to-date
Language develops very fast and sometimes it’s quite hard to catch up with all the new varieties it has to offer. This is true for teaching both Business and General English courses through. There are a lot of phrases that you can find in textbooks of the 2015 year edition which are not used today. Before you teach a term, a word/phrase, make sure you check its meaning, occurrence, the frequency of its use, the contexts where it can be used, etc. This will help you avoid presenting material to your students which they need to remember but not use in practice. Some sources that you can find helpful are Business Dictionary and Financial Dictionary.
5. Do your homework
Be 200% ready for the class. Unlike general English students, Business English students are more demanding, mostly have more language experience and professional background, so they are very likely to challenge you in your teaching as they feel more confident in their professional sphere.
To avoid this, “learn” all the material you’re going to present. Check the synonyms of the words, look for example situation, look for the opposite notions, etc. Try to anticipate the questions the students might be asking to save face :). This can be really hard in the beginning, however, with time, when you teach the same course over and over again, you’ll know what to expect and be ready for it with very little effort.
6. When not sure, ask
This is a great trick that has always helped me deal with situations where I wasn’t sure of the phrase I was about to teach (not a professional thing to happen :)). Just ask the students to help you with the meaning. Use their knowledge to save the day. This shows that you are also a human, have a right to confuse something, don’t have to know all the details in their expertise and, at the same time, grant your students the pleasure of teaching something to you. They really enjoy it.
P.S. I couldn’t fail but mention that this should not be overused though.
That’s a piece of my experience, let us know what other tips and tricks you’ve been using with your Business English students.
First Time Teaching Business English? 4 Things You’ve Gotta Know
Those words are, “You are teaching a Business English class.”
Don’t freak out—suit up.
You might be thinking, “but teaching Business English classes requires special qualifications, doesn’t it?”
Not necessarily. You may well find yourself, with no business-related experience or qualifications, teaching English to already successful businesspeople in high-powered corporate offices, students of business at universities or future entrepreneurs with a budding interest in Business English.
The demand for English teachers in the business world is high, and if you know how to teach English at all, you can fill that demand.
You can have lively and effective classes using the pieces of knowledge I’m about to give you.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
The 4 Pieces of Knowledge That Will Help You Teach Business English
1. Knowing Your Students’ Expectations Improves Student Happiness and Success Rates.
All students have objectives when taking an English class, but this is especially true of Business English students.
Whether their objective is set by their company or by themselves, it commonly involves learning the English they need to get ahead at work, connect with international clients, earn more money or maybe even keep their job.
In order to achieve these goals, they need specific types of knowledge. It may be how to talk on the telephone, handle complaints, make and deliver a presentation, read analyses or write reports. Whatever it is, your students will not be successful unless you focus on what they need to know.
But how are you supposed to know what they need if you’ve never worked in a business role yourself?
You don’t have to come in with a bag of tricks. Simply ask your students. They know their business and they know what they need.
Find out by performing a needs analysis. Don’t use a cold piece of paper with square boxes. Open a dialog with your students instead, and take notes along the way. Business English students are business-oriented, so they value time and appreciate cutting to the chase. By the time you’ve finished talking with them, you will not only know their objectives, but you will have established rapport, learned more than the average person about their jobs and business and may have even mapped out your lesson plan.
Oh, and keep your findings visible. Tie your lessons to them, and make it obvious that you’re targeting their needs and interests. After all, even if your students are experts (or are training to become experts) in their field of work, you are the expert in English. Show your students that you have listened to them and that they need to do the specified activity if they want to achieve their goal.
Okay. All of this may sound great in theory, but how do you apply it? Here’s an example.
Let’s say that your students have told you that they need to learn how to handle customer complaints in English. They work with the help desk of a technology company. You have no idea what the company does, but that is okay. Because the students do.
So, you create a lesson that introduces the language of handling complaints and then create a role play in which your students provide the complaints. They can each write a sample complaint on a piece of paper and hand these in to you. Then hand them back out, making sure students get complaints that they didn’t write themselves. Have them practice handling the complaint they are given.
There you go. They now have a skill that they can apply as soon as they walk out the door. And your students will love you.
2. Combining Grammar with Business Topics Significantly Boosts Learning.
Business English involves more than jargon. Students have to be able to string that jargon together to make comprehensible sentences. So they are going to need to learn English grammar along with Business English vocabulary and phrases.
An obvious fact, you say. Well, this is not obvious to some students who think that they just need to know the translation of this phrase or that word and with that they are going to be able to make the winning sales call of the century.
So, here is how you can go about boosting their learning by combining Business English with essential grammar. You are going to feed it to them as you would feed vegetables to a kid—mix it in with something they like. For example:
Combine adverbs of frequency with Sales — “We sometimes offer discounts.”
Combine connectors with Finance —” We’ve made a profit this year in spite of the drop in sales overseas.”
Combine must and have to with Human Resources — “In order to qualify for this job you must have a PhD.”
See what I mean? And do you see how much richer their Business English sentences are by adding such grammatical elements? Believe me. You won’t be the only one. When your students start impressing their bosses, coworkers and customers by talking like this, they’ll be encouraged to learn more.
3. Using Outside Sources Can Create a More Realistic Environment for Students.
Textbooks can be the kiss of death in Business English classes. Okay, I am being a bit dramatic, but there is some truth in this statement.
The thing is, just as you cannot know everything there is to know about every single type of company and industry that exists, a textbook cannot meet the needs of each and every Business English student.
Don’t get me wrong. There are some excellent ones you can use to provide inspiration and structure!
Still, the business environment changes so quickly these days, you may find information to be out of date (how embarrassing) or it may not be relevant to your students (how boring). Even if you use a textbook as a base, add authenticity to every lesson by using outside sources that you identify using your needs analysis and the information your students told you about their company (I told you it would help you create your lesson plan).
Oops. What did you say? How do you find such material without being guilty of espionage?
Bring in the news.
Use newspapers, magazines, trade journals, technical texts, sources from the internet, leaflets, brochures, company information, radio, TV and company videos.
Let’s say, for example, that you have a group of students working in the technology sector. Engage and teach your students with current articles from the tech section of the The Wall Street Journal or USA Today. Delve even deeper into the tech world by bringing in articles from sources like Wired or CNET.
If your students are in the advertising field, articles from Advertising Age provide an excellent news source. You get the point. Almost every industry has some type of material oriented towards its members. A simple online search or perusal of the newspaper stands will reveal a wealth of material.
A subscription to The New York Times is a good general resource to have on hand, as it gives you access to a wide range of regularly updated content that can be dipped into for a variety of business-related information.
Your students will love using information that is not only up-to-date, but also relevant to their business. And it’s a good way to get them talking and help you learn more about the company which in turn will help you obtain more relevant material.
You can also use FluentU’s program if your students want to learn with authentic videos but want more variety.
FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language lessons.
4. Make Discussion Central to Your Classes.
Want your students to talk? What ESL teacher doesn’t? Base your classes (and maybe even your grades) on discussions, and you’ll see results in the conversation department.
What are they going to talk about? Their interests which you discovered in your needs assessment, of course.
Plus, the fact that you aren’t an expert about their business makes it easy for you to play dumb and ask them questions about things that you really want to know. Your genuine interest will keep them talking.
Another great source of discussion topics are controversial subjects. If you are teaching students in the information technology field you can discuss the role of robots in the workplace and their influence on human employment in the future or Internet security/freedom. Hold open class discussions or debates.
If you find some students to be too shy to speak in the front of the class, break them into groups, give them a problem to solve and then bring the class back together. The shy person may not speak in the presentation of ideas session, but they had to speak in their group.
Having class discussions means that you may have to be flexible and go off your lesson plan. Some discussions may last longer than you planned, and some not as long as you had hoped for, but it is the perfect way to ensure that everyone gets a chance to talk.
So, there you have it. The next time you hear the words, “you are teaching a Business English class,” you will not go weak at the knees.
Armed with these four pieces of knowledge, the next Business English class you teach will not only be a great learning experience and fun for your students, but it will be fun for you as well.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Teach Business English: How to Get Started Online and Abroad
For experienced ESL educators and those with real world business experience, teaching business English is a natural fit. In addition to being an incredibly fast growing sector of ESL education, it also allows teachers to work with older students, incorporate their real world experience into lessons, and partner with some of the most globally-minded companies in the world.
If you are in the market to teach business English or want to learn more about this specialized field of English as a second language, you’ll want to read on to discover the general requirements, what sort of content you will be teaching, and steps you can take today to land a high-paying job.
Here is everything you need to know about teaching business English and how to start your career both online and abroad.
What Is ‘Business English’?
“Business English” is a specialized discipline within the broader field of English as a second language (ESL). The purpose of business English instruction is to equip the learner with the language skills he or she needs to conduct everyday business activities across languages.
Why would an English learner necessarily want to specialize in business English? Let’s look at an example:
On my first trip to East Asia in 2011, I found myself in a Taipei, Taiwan hotel. The Taiwanese are native Mandarin Chinese speakers. Sitting in the lobby, I observed a Japanese couple walk in. For ten minutes, I watched them struggle to attempt to communicate in English, the “international business language,” as I sat in awe of two East Asians relying on a totally foreign language — originating half a world away – to attempt to bridge their lingual divide.
At that moment, I began to understand the vital importance of English to international business.
What Content Does Business English Curricula Cover?
The crucial difference between business English and other forms of English learning is, as the name suggests, its focus on terminologies and scenarios unique to the business world.
Business English curricula tend to cover:
As in the example of the Taiwanese hotel staff earlier, there is a significant bleed-through between “business English and “travel English,” sometimes called “English for tourism.” Both are useful for practical, everyday communication in a native English-speaking destination.
What Are the Requirements to Teach Business English?
Each company/school tends to have its own qualifications for teachers who deliver ESL instruction – some have more stringent standards while others are laxer.
In general, the requirements that you must meet to find high-paying ESL work in the adult business sector include:
Keep in mind that these are general requirements – as we’ll explore in the next section, you don’t necessarily need to have all of the above to find lucrative business English work.
Teaching Business English
English is the language of international business and as globalisation continues to grow so does the demand for Business English teachers. Many companies require employees to have a certain level of English so there are jobs to be found teaching English for Business worldwide within companies, at language schools, private tutoring, and online.
Jobs teaching Business English are often some of the most highly paid positions in the TEFL industry. Keep reading to find out what you need to get started in this rewarding line of work and learn what’s involved in teaching English for Business.
What do you need to teach Business English?
A TEFL Qualification
Most employers look for teachers with at least a 120-hour TEFL qualification, but if you’re aiming to find work teaching Business English then it’s a very good idea to gain a specialist qualification as well. This is why we’ve developed our Teaching Business English course, which will teach you how to assess your students’ needs and create and deliver lessons tailored to them.
As we’ve already mentioned, Teaching Business English can be a very lucrative area of TEFL, which means – depending on where you want to teach – it’s often a competitive market. Because of this there’s even more reason to make your CV stand out with specialist training.
A degree
Realistically, there are very few Business English jobs out there that won’t require you to hold a degree. This is often a requirement because of visa restrictions (see our post about how to TEFL without a degree) but even when one isn’t necessary for a visa most employers will ask for one.
Experience
It isn’t impossible to complete your TEFL training and immediately jump into a job teaching Business English, but it won’t be easy. Many employers will look for teachers who already have experience teaching adults – some may even ask for previous experience working within a business setting outside of teaching. You will find that most Business English teachers moved into it after a couple of years of experience teaching generally.
As with all areas of TEFL, salaries depend on experience and many jobs teaching Business English go to teachers with experience. Everyone has to start somewhere, though!
Top tip: if you’re struggling to find entry-level jobs abroad you can build up your experience teaching Business English online. The online teaching industry is rapidly growing and you can find plenty of opportunities to teach Business English there
How to teach Business English
It is a common misconception that teaching business English is more difficult than teaching English generally. Business English is a specific type of EFL teaching, just like English for Academic Purposes or English for Occupational Purposes. All these types of EFL teaching fall under the category of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). While it isn’t necessarily more difficult to teach it is important to understand how you would approach teaching English for a specific purpose, such as business.
We’ve put together a short guide on how to teach Business English to give you a taste of what you will cover in our Teaching Business English specialist TEFL course.
Step one: Conduct a needs analysis
It is highly recommended to do this in the first lesson. The purpose of a needs analysis is to find out why your students want to learn English and what their goals are. In some cases, teachers may be forced by their company to learn English and, as a result, lack the motivation to learn or attend classes regularly, so you will need to find ways to be engaging.
Conducting a needs assessment will also help you decide which areas to focus on in class. For example, secretaries and administration staff might want to focus solely on telephone skills and email writing. Remember that you don’t need to stick rigidly to a textbook. Instead, you should tailor the lessons to the personal needs of the students. During the classes note down areas that need extra work and get regular feedback from the students in order to form an idea of how they are progressing.
Step two: Teaching Business English
Depending on the results of your needs analysis, your teaching will vary correspondingly. Here are some common areas for a business English teacher to focus on:
Step three: Be professional
By its very nature, teaching Business English will require you to have a more professional approach than some other TEFL jobs – such as teaching young learners in summer camps, for example.
There are simple things you can do to ensure professionalism, such as dressing smartly, creating business cards, developing unique and smart resources, and referring to activities instead of games in the classroom. Remember your audience and think of activities and ice breakers that would be suitable for adults. Some TEFL games created for children will likely not go down well in a business English setting!
What’s next?
Interested in reaping the benefits of one the most lucrative areas of TEFL? Have a look at our TEFL Jobs Centre to find jobs teaching Business English, take a look at our range of TEFL courses, and check out our specialist Teaching Business English Course.
The Essentials of Teaching Business English Online and In Person
Teaching Business English is an ESL niche that focuses on business terminology and related topics as well as corporate culture. It is often taught onsite to employees of large companies, but you could even teach private English classes or teach Business English online. Here, we’ll delve into the basics of teaching Business English, including where it’s taught, what activities to use in these types of classes, and some general tips to make your experience a positive one.
Table of Contents
What does it mean to teach Business English?
Teaching Business English is quite different from teaching other types of ESL classes. Here are some of the main differences.
Want a quick summary of what teaching Business English is all about? The following infographic, from Bridge’s Specialized Certification in Teaching Business English course, provides a breakdown for you:
The students and their goals
For starters, your students will always be adults. In fact, sometimes Business English is used as a term to simply refer to teaching adults rather than businesspeople, specifically. As you can imagine, teaching English to adults vs. kids is quite different. Your adult students will typically have different motivations in a Business English class than in other classes. They usually have a specific, career-oriented goal in mind and, generally, the company where they work will be paying for their classes. This means that students will be highly motivated to succeed in a shorter amount of time.
Cristina, a Bridge grad and experienced Business English teacher in Buenos Aires, says, “I have never taught children. I’m not the type of teacher for a school class setting; I feel much more comfortable with adults who have clear and specific needs regarding their language learning. I like to have a leveled relationship with my students, and watching them enjoy our classes is a great incentive for me. Moreover, adults appreciate the help I can give them and are very grateful.”
Cristina, Business English teacher in Buenos Aires
The stakeholders in students’ learning
Companies will often pay for Business English classes to help an employee gain a promotion, begin a new position that deals with international travel or communication, or better assist international customers or clients. As key ESL stakeholders in the success of their students, company managers may expect you to report to them every so often to check in and update them on the students’ progress. Business English classes are oftentimes more costly than regular English courses, too, which means that these stakeholders will be eager to see real, documented results. This is the case for both in-person and online Business English classes.
The classroom (Hint: not always a school!)
Apart from the stakeholder and student profile, Business English classes can differ from others in regard to location. If you teach in person, it’s typical to meet Business English students onsite where they work. This means you could be working in a large corporate building, a conference room, or other meeting space. As such, you’ll want to dress even more professionally than you would when teaching a regular English class at a language institute, and you’ll need to be prepared with materials and be flexible.
Even if you’re teaching English online, your students may still be located in their office. You might teach each of them at their own desks, or they may be gathered together in a conference room. Whether teaching online or in person, it’s important to dress professionally.
A Business English student in online teacher Krzl’s class
The content you’ll teach
Finally, it’s no surprise that the content you’ll teach will generally be related to the business world. This could encompass how to speak with clients, marketing vocabulary, phone etiquette, building relationships with colleagues, or giving formal presentations. While most of these topics are applicable to any company, be sure to speak with the company stakeholders to find out exactly what they expect you to teach so you can deliver the best results.
How can I become a Business English teacher?
Before applying to online and in-person Business English teaching jobs, make sure that you get TEFL certified, as pretty much all positions in this niche will require you to have a professional TEFL/TESOL certificate of at least 120 hours.
Once you finish your initial TEFL course online, it’s even better if you can also earn Specialized Certification in Teaching Business English, as this can be a competitive field and you can earn more if you have specialized training. This 60-hour certification covers everything from conducting needs analyses and considering stakeholder expectations to teaching English as a global language and using authentic materials.
Among other features, the Specialized Certification in Teaching Business English course includes:
Here’s a sample video from the Bridge Specialized Certification in Teaching Business English course that demonstrates how to encourage student interaction:
Upon completion of the course, you’ll get:
Specialized training will help you set yourself apart from other teachers, qualify for more jobs, attract more students as a freelance teacher, earn more money, feel confident in the Business English classroom, and better assist your students in meeting their professional language goals.
Where is it common to teach Business English?
Teaching Business English overseas
Business English is taught all around the world wherever adults have a desire to learn it. For example, Niels, a teacher from Peru, teaches technical English and specializes in the petroleum industry. While it is quite common to teach adult professionals in Latin America, demand for Business English teachers also exists in Asia and Europe. Regardless of the region, oftentimes, bigger companies with international clients can be found in larger cities. Therefore, you will see more positions advertised for Business English teachers in places like Beijing, China or São Paulo, Brazil than in smaller towns.
To browse TEFL/TESOL jobs in these regions, visit the Bridge Job Board.
Teaching Business English online
There are many companies where it’s possible to teach English online to adults. For example, Voxy is an ESL platform with adult students from all over the globe. If you work with them, you can teach English for specific exams (like the TOEFL), Business English, and many other specialized courses. Learnlight is another great company that offers specialized programs to students. Their clients come from all over the world, and the company favors teachers who have a background in business.
If you don’t want to work with a company, you can also teach Business English online as a freelancer. There’s a specific TEFL/TESOL niche for freelance online teachers specializing in Business English. If you market yourself correctly, you can find plenty of interested individuals, as well as companies who want someone to teach their employees English. If being your own boss and setting your own rates interests you, then you can start by checking out this Teaching English Online as a Freelancer course. You can also read about other teachers, like Carla, in the U.S., who are starting out as freelancers.
How much can you make teaching Business English?
Like all English teaching positions, your salary depends on your qualifications, experience, whether you teach English online or in person, and other factors. Generally, you can make more as an ESL instructor if you specialize in a teaching niche, like Business English, since students and companies are usually willing to pay more for teachers who have highly-developed skills in the specific type of English they need to learn.
Vesela, a freelance Business English teacher in Chile, says, “I was lucky enough to get most of my students through good old word of mouth. Friends or former students have been kind enough to recommend me. Flyers work as well! I found a student who contacted me after seeing a flyer I posted on the noticeboard in the building where I live in Santiago.”
Vesela, teaching English to adults online from her home in Chile
What are some general pointers for first-time Business English teachers?
Find out what your students and the stakeholders expect.
Just like with any class, you need to find out what outcomes your stakeholders want to achieve. This will not only help you know what material to cover and how to assess student progress, but it will allow you to manage your students’ and investors’ expectations from the very beginning, leading to an amicable and successful relationship between you and them.
Be professional without becoming boring.
While you should strive for professionalism and always keep in mind that your students come from a business environment, this doesn’t mean that classes need to be boring. You may not pull out all the same stops you would with other classes, such as using puppets, but your adult students will still appreciate you keeping things lively with Business English games and other activities.
Try to bring in interesting resources, such as current business magazines, podcasts about industry topics, or videos of market news reports, in order to diversify your activities. If teaching online, you can easily screen share things like news articles and videos with your students.
Business English teacher Cristina notes, “When my students have a very strong level of English, I often try to teach them something other than just English. For example, I had a student whose English was very advanced, so instead of giving her a vocabulary or grammar lesson, I created a lesson around the artist Frida Kahlo and her life. Not only was she learning English, but she was learning about art and history!”
Understand your students’ lifestyle.
Unlike students in other ESL classes, Business English students are probably attending class just before or after work, and your hours may be either very early or late. Additionally, your students’ busy lives may prompt them to cancel or change their class hours at the last minute due to work-related problems that arise. Be understanding and flexible if you can, and remember that the higher pay usually makes up for any scheduling issues.
Find out who should be receiving your progress reports.
From the beginning of the course, it’s important to identify who will be able to answer any questions you may have and who would like to see your students’ progress, and how often. Find out if you should be contacting your supervisor at your language institute or the students’ supervisor for this. If your point of contact is the students’ supervisor, you don’t want to inundate him or her with too many reports, but you do want to keep them in the loop with progress updates. Agree upon a schedule of reporting.
What are some activities that work well with Business English students?
Practicing presentations
Almost any businessperson needs to be able to deliver presentations effectively. Go over the different terminology associated with reading graphs and charts and giving information effectively. Then, hand out actual chart samples and have students practice presenting them to the class. Or, they can create their own. If you’re teaching online, email the samples ahead of time, so students can review them before class. Students can even screen share PowerPoints or spreadsheets in order to practice giving their own presentations.
Drafting emails
Have your students read several sample business emails and discuss the important components of them (such as the greeting, subject line, or sign-off). Then, provide your students with a scenario and have them draft emails to a boss, colleague, or client. This will expand their business vocabulary and improve their writing skills through an activity they can immediately apply to their careers. Online students can work on this either in class or before class and take turns reading their emails out loud.
Learn more about how to teach students to write business emails in this clip from a BridgeUniverse Expert Series webinar: Teaching Business English in the Ever-Changing 21st Century.
Doing mock phone conversations
Model good phone etiquette through a listening activity and discussion. Then, have students practice in pairs or take turns role-playing with you. You can provide them with scripts or have them create their own based on a scenario you provide. Scenarios could include phone calls between coworkers, an employee and their boss, a manager and someone they supervise, or a client and an employee. This activity works well for the virtual classroom as well. Students can take turns practicing a mock call with the teacher, or the teacher can have two students practice together in front of the rest of the class.
Conducting job interviews
Whether teaching English online or in-person, take turns interviewing students and asking about their job skills or other qualifications. You can also have students interview each other. If you’re teaching in a physical classroom, you can put them into pairs to do this simultaneously, or if you’re teaching online, you can pair them up but have them take turns interviewing each other in front of the other students.
Bridge grad Jhonny teaching Business English
Practicing how to express opinions
A great way to get Business English students to practice expressing opinions is to open the class with a news article. Teachers can bring one in themselves or get students to bring in their own. Use the article to start a conversation, and get students to share their thoughts and opinions with the rest of the class. This activity works particularly well in an online classroom, as you can screen share the article and read it together.
Teaching Business English differs in many ways from other ESL teaching positions. Keeping stakeholders’ and your students’ goals in mind and incorporating relevant activities into your lessons can help you succeed in this rewarding EFL niche!
Earn Specialized Certification in Business English to master the 21st-century tools and techniques you need to effectively teach English to professionals with confidence.
Post by Camille Turner
Camille is a content marketing editor and writer, specializing in the language industry. Her love for language and experiencing other cultures has taken her around the globe, and she has taught English abroad both in the classroom and online. When not working or traveling, she can be found spending time with her family or — when not chasing after her toddler — cozying up with a good book!