books for teaching business classes?
 

I have been hired to teach two classes at an electronics company. I meet with them tomorrow and they said they'd like to use business books.

The two classes will be one group of false beginner and one group of advanced students. There are about 10 people in each group.

Help! I've never taught a business class.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

I use "Interchange" or "Person to Person" for those false beginner classes even if they are in a company. They need to improve their English before they can take the jump to business English. :) Many of the students and companies don't understand it. Use lots of pair work activities or group activities and expect one or two in the group to shine above the rest.

With the advanced students I would suggest "Business Basics" by Oxford. It's really good and should fit nicely for their level. Also there are tapes with it too if you want to use them in class. The book has a very business feel on it and it has lots of activites like emails, phone conversations, profile about different companies etc.

If you have any more questions then feel free to ask me!

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

Like a lot of teachers, I prefer to come up with my own materials. However, I do like the Cambridge New International English for Business text, and it has some great listening passages, really natural.

As for false beginners... do they really need Business English? I would say general English is more appropriate along with vocabulary relevant to their work. Something with a functional syllabus would likely be effective.

Also, in the past I have found that some clients request Business English simply because they think General English is for kids, whereas after some discussion we reached the conclusion that what they really wanted was just general English, but in an adult format.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

Thanks!

I agree with you on the false beginners. I had to do the same with one of the nursing college classes I work with. I'm hoping they'll see that point and let me use Interchange (as I already have lesson plans for that :P )

I'll take both of those book suggestions with me to my meeting tomorrow. The classes are already in progress and I assume they're using something now.

I'm hoping to make a lot of my own resources but since they took up my very last open time slot (my free time,) I'm not sure I can really do much.

Thanks again and any more suggestions are welcomed.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

Ahh, the dreaded first day with students. I see this really as an opportunity for them introduce themselves and for you to find out what they really want out of the English Classes. There are several options available for you to do:

1. Find out the strengths/weaknesses with the students.
2. The type of curriculum they wish to follow: Business English or normal English.
3. Style of teaching preferred: Teacher or student centred.
4. Schedule of classes: Book classes or teacher prepared material.

Let us know how you get on.

For some ideas, please look here

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

Wow! :eek: I see we're not at a loss for business English books.

Thanks!

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

I'd recommend In company (Macmillan), Market Leader (Longman) or International Express (Oxford University Press)

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

I forgot about Market Leader! Do you think that it's a good book Susan? I think that it's ok but a bit boring in my opinion.

So how are the classes going mark?

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

Well, I start this Friday.

I got them to accept using Interchange for now and supplementing with different things. I ordered a couple of the suggestions above and should have them in my hands this week.

I'm going to use Intro for the beginner class and it turns out the second class is for an intermediate group. So, with them I'm going to use Book 1.

The first class will be light with introductions and a bit about what they are expected to do. Also, I want to get a feel for what they actually need to do in English. Basically, do some encouraging, layout my goals for them, see what it is they want from the class and have some fun to set the ground work for an exciting class.

The class will be held in their confrence room and it is AWESOME! I've got a lap-top right there, wired to the sound system, hooked-up to the internet, with 3 more networked computers on the wing.

The white board is printable. I can print-out everything that I write on the white board and distribute it to the students. Maybe, this is no big surprise to a lot of people but I'm used to working with chalk.

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions and I'm sure I'll be needing more. Luckily, I'm in a slight lull and have a lot of time to prepare for these lessons.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

You can get a whiteboard that is printable? So it prints out exactly what you have written on the board?

Sounds good. Good luck with your lessons Mesmark!

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

One of the perks of teaching Business English in-house.

You've been using chalk? I'm going to sound like a snob here, but I haven't messed with that stuff for years; I thought it had been phased out!

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

[quote=livinginkorea]I forgot about Market Leader! Do you think that it's a good book Susan? I think that it's ok but a bit boring in my opinion.
QUOTE]

I think it's excellent in terms of the overall approach, the syllabus, the activities and so on. Whether or not it's boring depends a bit who the students are. One of the problems with it is that, as with many business courses, each unit tends to be theme based and go into depth on that one theme. If you were teaching business students, who need to know a bit about marketing, a bit about HRD, a bit about finance and so on, that approach is fine. But if you're teaching in-company, then students often only want their own speciality - marketing for the members of the marketing dept, finance for the finance dept and so on. When the books "spread the content around" the units - so that there's something for everyone in each unit, in my opinion it works much better.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

I'm using Business Start-Up 1 with my business group and it's quite good.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

Yeah! but I have to watch my spelling :bolt:

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

I bought a few books and they're all good. However, like most of the post said, without the CDs, they're not very usable.

Re: books for teaching business classes?
 

You are right!