Teaching Business English

The Business English Teachers' Course is a 36-hour teacher development course designed to increase the competence and confidence of teachers working in the area of Business English teaching.

Launched in 1987 and continuously developed, the course has a strong practical and participatory bias and has been run with success in Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom. Within Spain it is run regularly both in Barcelona and Madrid.

The course has been designed for qualified and practising teachers who are either already working in this field or else are interested in doing so.

Course Contents

Contents will be drawn from the checklist below:

• An introduction to ESP
• Business vs General English
• The design and administration of needs analysis
• Course design & extended simulations
• A review and evaluation of published materials
• Published & authentic video material for Business English
• Sourcing material from the Internet
• Approaches and techniques for teaching one to one
• The use of case studies and simulations
• Teaching lexis for Business English
• Using the telephone in a business context
• Delivering oral presentations
• Error analysis: working from students' mistakes
• Participating in meetings, negotiations and discussions
• Language analysis, the nature of certain types of business discourse
• Working from authentic materials
• Learner feedback: listening to your students.

Sessions may also be offered on:

• Cuisenaire rods in business classes

Dates and times 2009

• July 6th—10th
  Mon to Thurs 10.30—14.00 & Fri 10.30—14.30
  

Fees

Total course fee: €450

Numbers and requirements

The maximum number of participants is 12. If there are less than 6, the course may be cancelled and all fees refunded.

Participants will ideally have the Cambridge CELTA (or equivalent) and at least one year's teaching experience.

Certification

Candidates will be awarded an International House Teacher Training Certificate at the end of the course.

Comments from recent course participants

• "Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you on the organisation of the extremely useful and interesting course on teaching Business English which I have just attended."
• "I enjoyed the atmosphere, the teachers and the whole course in general. The most useful aspect of the course was the great amount of practical ideas that we got out of it."
• "The tutors have designed a course which is 100% relevant to what we need, but implemented in an informal way."
• "The course was extremely informative, never dull and very enjoyable. I have been able to see (already) a great improvement in my teaching."
• "The course was interesting, useful, thought-provoking and enjoyable."

Enrolment

All applicants should complete an application form.

For payment details, please see separate page.

Cancellations

Refunds can only be made at the management's discretion. No refunds will be made when insufficient notice of cancellation leads to another person being unable to join the course.

Pre-course reading

Probably the most useful general background reading would be one or both of:

• Dudley-Evans & St John: Developments in English for Specific Purposes (CUP 1998)
• Ellis & Johnson: Teaching Business English (CUP 1994)
• Frendo, Evan: How to Teach Business English (Longman 2005)

We would also recommend these:

• Council of Europe: Common European Framework of References for Language (CUP/Council of Europe 2001)
• Mckay, Sandra Lee: Teaching English as an International Language (OUP 2002)
• Wilberg, Peter: One to One: A Teacher's Handbook (LTP, 1987)