Do I Need Professional Business Experience to Teach Business English?
This article is contributed by ESL Pals
No, you don’t need professional business experience to teach Business English.
Generally, through teaching Business English you will meet students who have varied professional roles so it would be impossible to have specific experience in each student’s field. For example, I currently teach an accountant, civil engineer and a sales manager.
However, there are some key areas that you need to excel in to be a successful Business English teacher. This blog presents 5 areas to focus on to be an effective Business English teacher:
Business Curriculum
To prepare students for the general business world, a comprehensive curriculum and general business topics should cover relevant topics such as email writing, presentations, meetings, virtual meetings, negotiation, and leadership. It’s not necessary to be an expert in every specific business role, but a step-by-step structure for lesson plans demonstrates professionalism and preparation.
A well-structured curriculum can also help students improve their English proficiency from week to week, leading to better retention rates for teachers and a more satisfying learning experience for students. This creates a mutually beneficial situation for all parties involved.
Specific Business Lesson Plans
Based on my years of experience teaching Business English, I have found that certain exercises are particularly effective. Firstly, role-play games provide a safe and enjoyable way for students to practice their newly acquired language skills. This builds their confidence in real-life situations.
Secondly, using case studies in class has been highly successful. By providing a “real-life” example related to the lesson topic, students can engage in in-depth discussions and activities such as presentations, debates, and proposals. This approach helps students use their language skills in a natural way.
In my opinion, using video or article-based materials in ESL Business English lesson plans is highly beneficial. Teachers can send the materials to students before class to encourage self-study and introduce essential vocabulary and phrases in a natural context. Additionally, teachers can create numerous exercises based on the video or article. All ESL business English lesson plans from ESL Pals incorporate video or article-based materials.
Business Jargon
The main challenge for an ESL teacher who wishes to undertake teaching Business English for the first time is getting to grips with the copious amount of business jargon which exists, whether that is phrases, slang, idioms or phrasal verbs specific to the business world.
My advice would be to learn the most common business jargon phrases; understanding their definitions fully, before studying them in the context they are most commonly used. Although it could take some time to study business jargon, the positive that comes from gaining this understanding is that teaching business jargon is a lot of fun and is invaluable for business students to learn!
Homework
Everybody’s favorite – homework! I’m sure that no one enjoyed receiving homework as a kid, however, any serious, motivated Business student will appreciate homework as they understand that to progress and learn fully, they need to study outside of the classroom.
Further, it is more effective for students to receive homework from their teachers, rather than creating their own, to ensure homework is level specific and continues the topic studied in class; this will solidify comprehension, ensuring progression. All ESL business English lesson plans from ESL Pals contain homework.
Why teach Business English?
As you can see from the points covered above, teaching Business English doesn’t require you to be a business expert, you just need to have a deep understanding of the business vocabulary and grammar, which I’m sure all qualified English teachers do anyway!
Therefore, there’s no reason not to add Business English to your teaching repertoire because it will open doors in your teaching career! Opportunities include; appealing to more students, being able to charge more money, teaching in cool places, and meeting interesting students!
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