This article focuses on teaching business English. From a personal standpoint, this has always been my favorite way of teaching English. My experience is in Madrid, Spain, but this advice covers most of the countries with the teaching of Business English.
I was lucky to have a basic knowledge business law and human resources for what felt like a natural path for me to take. However many of my graduates get very nervous about teaching business English, especially if they are recent graduates with limited experience in the business world
What to teach?
The first thing to remember is that you are teaching English in a business context, no business teaching in English. Many of the directors have taught me spoke of the condescension that meet for a college graduate to enter his office and begin to teach them to make a presentation! They know how to give a presentation, who need help with the tone and terminology in English – to ensure classes are never condescending. Many school textbooks do not fall into this trap and be sure to bring their classes to their audience.
Moreover, although with limited business experience which means it can be a good teacher for any student Business English needs. If you are teaching English fund, for example, most of the help that is needed is the English you already know, for everything There are other specialized books and dictionaries. Do not get me wrong, there are students who need people with specialized knowledge and skills, but no exception the rule. When I was a professor at the Banco de Espaà ± a (The Bank of Spain), knew very little about the financing of English and I was very honest about this to my students. They had no problem with this as I needed help with emails, presentations, conversation, grammar and so they knew that their terminology of finance, but need help putting it all together so it sounded good to beneficiaries.
Hours
English Classes business tend to fit around the ebb and flow of business hours. Classes are usually early in the morning 7-9 and 9.30, lunch 1-4 and evening 7-9. The higher the student, the more flexibility they have with their schedule, but it is a double edged sword because they also have busy lives, constant meetings and often travel much more meaning to cancel classes. I once had a student who really taught me only 21 hours in an entire academic year! Luckily his secretary It was really nice with an endless supply of croissants.
If you have your hours directly with a company or through a teaching agency, make sure find out what the cancellation policy. While it may seem glamorous to a lot of senior executives and their students are more likely to have one-2-one classes and as mentioned earlier, higher than the average for cancellations. In Madrid, many agencies now have a cancellation policy of 80-85%, which means that you are paid 80-85% of the classes, regardless of how many are canceled. If you have a lot of one-2-one classes, it is very important to check this in the contract to make sure that you can still earn a decent living despite what happens in the lives of business students.
Resources
When teaching English for business, the Internet is your new best friend. If your client works for a bank to make sure you look at their website and the sites of their competitors. Do a search and find what articles have been written about them, which can then be used as reading material in the classroom. Check out reports The BBC's finances can be downloaded to your iPod. YouTube is another great resource for videos of meetings, presentations and negotiations (both the right and the wrong way do it!).
Each time you return to their country of origin or have friends and family visit, get to collect all the brochures they can. Junk mail is the use of one for teaching another man!
The textbook industry has really stepped up the pace in the last couple of years and there are a number of books to suit the youngest to most senior employees. Many of influential newspapers and magazines (Financial Times, The Economist, etc.) have teamed up with publishers to produce comprehensive textbook business with real articles, interviews and news to date. Ensure adequate analysis with the needs of your student to see what they need before deciding on a textbook.
Finally, stay confident and calm. Students need to feel that are responsible and know what they're doing. Read about what they are teaching the night before and plan ahead. Make a comprehensive needs analysis and testing level and be one step ahead.
Natasha Mason Kennedy is the owner and Director of TtMadrid, a TEFL academy in Madrid, Spain. Natasha has been working in the industry of business English and teacher Training for the last 10 years.
http://www.ttmadrid.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU3se92BLoU
Speak english in french! Funny!!
