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:

1. Research

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:

1. Choose the topics you’d like to cover during the course (Business Management, Finance, HR, Corporate Culture, Conducting Meetings, Negotiations, etc.)
2. How do you like learning the most? (reading, listening, watching videos, discussing real life situations in pairs/groups)
3. What do you think you need to focus on more? (vocabulary, communication, listening, etc.)

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.