Why, how and which course?

Teaching business English - especially in a freelance capacity is often regarded as the crème de al crème of the TEFL world. Goodbye crowded classrooms of unmotivated noisy teens and hello to negotiating your own time schedule and better pay with very motivated and highly intelligent professionals.

The good news is you don’t need a business background to succeed in teaching business English. A good TESOL course with a business English specialisation will give you the right techniques to rise to the challenge; plus that all important business English qualification to prove your prospective but oh-so busy business learner that you know your stuff and you won’t be wasting his time.

But why do you need a specialist qualification to teach business English?
Well, consider this scenario: Imagine you are to teach the manager of an injection molding factory English. Imagine that’s all you know about him when you meet him to teach for the first time, except for the fact that he is not learning English for fun. In fact he desperately needs English for his job.

Where do you start? It is likely he won’t be impressed by those amusing getting to know you games you learned on your general English course…and anyway, what do you know about injection molding?  Help!

This brings us neatly on to the fundamentals of teaching business English…

What is business English?
Quite simply, it is the English required to do business. It refers to the English needed for negotiating, socialising, making presentations, telephoning or for contributing in meetings, for example. The exact business English needs will vary depending on the student, and this means conducting a proper, in-depth needs analysis early on. This is where you ask them about - and record all they need to do in English and it will form the basis for all future lessons. This means you need to be thorough to ensure that after your first lesson you’ve got a really good idea of what the priority areas are for your next few lessons.

So far, so good. But, what about your lack of injection molding knowledge?

This can actually be a positive thing. Yes, really. This is because information gap exercises (where two people need to communicate to get the full picture) form the basis of many excellent communication tasks for the EFL classroom. This is no exception. He has the business knowledge. Get him to fill you in, using straightforward Q and A or more creative tasks such as questionnaires, role-plays etc. requiring him to impart information so you get the full picture. Where possible, use your student as the resource. Get him to bring in brochures, explain his website, tell you the price of injection molding widgets or write down the last telephone dialogue he had in English. It’s the surest way to keep lessons relevant.

You’ll also need to blend general English in to the classes so that he has sufficient grammar and vocabulary to ‘hang’ his business English on.

Will I get more TEFL work with a business English qualification?
While it is not always necessary to complete a specialist business course in order to teach business English, many of our graduates have found that a TESOL with business qualification has given them the edge in finding certain types of employment. Here, Matthew Bruce a graduate of our business course describes the difference it made to him.

‘I was offered an excellent job teaching English to staff of a major electronics company. Over 150 applicants applied and just 10 were interviewed. I was able to answer and present some good ideas due to the fact that I had learnt many valuable points through the Global English Business English course.

Our graduates in France who have found work in-company through the chamber of commerce network have had similar experiences. Kerry Edwards in Caen comments:

The TEFL with Business has certainly helped me to specialise within this area. I have taught English to company Directors, Salesmen, Technicians, Engineers and accountants as well as others within the Hotel and Restaurant sector.

The other advantages in being able to teach business English are:
• Better prospects: particularly with certain employers in countries such as Germany, France and Japan - but in increasing demand worldwide.
• Better pay (in general) for more lucrative freelance teaching
• A change from general English classroom teaching/kids etc. Many business people learn 1-1, making it intense but challenging.

At the very least, the ability to teach business English should certainly broaden your appeal - and provide the springboard to some fascinating personal encounters.

If you’re new to TEFL, find out more about our  TESOL with business English course

If you’ve already got a TESOL qualification, consider our stand alone teaching business English course

Happy teaching!

Louisa Walsh

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 3:00 pm and is filed under TEFL Course Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.