What’s special about Teaching Business

English

By: Ivan Aguilar

Goals

● To experience and analyze activities designed to teach Business English

● To explain the 1-on-1 format of delivering business English lessons

Sample activity 1

Task 1: A complete new you.

CEO – Chief Executive Officer – This person is

the highest ranking corporate officer. They are the

head of management for an organization.

COO – Chief Operating Officer – This person is

responsible for the day to day operations or an

organization.

CFO – Chief Financial Officer – This person

manages the corporation’s financial risk.

CMO – Chief Marketing Officer – This person is

the head of sales, product development and all

things marketing-related.

CIO – Chief Information Officer – This person is

the head of information technology.

Task 2: Meet and greet

So, what’s special about Teaching Business

English?

The components

The

teacher

The way

of

delivery

The

learner

The

content

The learner

● Young adults and adults

● Goal oriented

● Busy Business people

● Unable to attend regular classes

● May know some basic English

● Lots of (life) experiences

● Motivated for work responsibilities

The content

● Business oriented topics

● Skills under specific contexts (Telephoning/E-mail writing/Reading reports)

● Field related lexis

● Business thinking processes

● Intercultural skills

The teacher

● A language teacher

● Knowledge of the business field

● Proficient in lesson delivery

● Able to select materials

● Sensitive to students preferences

The way of delivery

● Regular classrooms

● One on one

● Private lessons

● Distance learning

● In house training

Sample activity 2

Perks and drags

One of the perks of the job is…(+ing).

(+ing)... is a bit of a drag.

Teaching Business English 1-to-1

One-on-one

● Classroom management

● Materials

● Timing and structure

● Roles and relationship

● Techniques

● Pressures

Needs analysis

Designing the course

Goals

Objectives

SKILLS

(Speaking/Writing/Listening/

Reading)

Functions

(Leading a

meeting/Negotiating)

Lexis (Business

oriented)

Context/Cultural

awareness

METHODOLOGY

Communicative

Language

Teaching

Task based

learning

Assessment

Conclusions

● Teaching Business English requires primarily an English teacher dealing

with a special situation in terms of content and learners.

● Different from general English teaching, business English focuses on skills

and contextual use of the language.

● Although many schools do not have specific business English courses, the

need for many users already exists, thus one to one Business English

teaching is great opportunity.

Thank you!

Sample activity 3

How to lead a meeting

How to lead a meeting