Business English through Coaching and Conversation

Teaching English Online - Business English through Coaching and Conversation - Full Ebook - 195 pages

Are you an existing Online English Teacher with a desire to incorporate Business English into your teaching arsenal? Or, perhaps, you're planning to pursue Online Teaching as either a full-time profession or side-hustle. Whichever box you fall into, this Ebook could be for you!


As an experienced Online English Teacher with a background in HR and over 20 years of work experience, I largely specialise in Business English, teaching via the popular language-learning platform, Italki, in addition to offering private lessons on my website. The vast majority of my students are B1-C2 level ADULT PROFESSIONALS based in Russia, and across Europe. Many work in particular fields such as IT, Banking and HR.


Students such as these may be working for an international company, are relocating to an English-speaking country, or may simply want to focus on their interview technique. The issue is, however, is that much of the Business English material available to teachers has a tendency to focus on overly-formal language, outdated situations and generalised vocabulary which may not be relevant to individual students. Also, professionals may be able to describe the technical intricacies of their job role, but struggle when it comes to discussing behaviours.


2020 has also seen a change in Business English. Boardroom meetings have turned into Zoom calls, Job Interviews take place over Skype, and the use of informal language on modern communication platforms has become far more prominent.


This Ebook is split into three simple parts - WHY, HOW, AND WHAT. The 'Why' section is aimed at teachers who may have little to no experience in teaching Business English. What types of student need to improve their Business English through coaching and conversation? For what reasons? In what situations do students need to improve their Business English?


The 'How' section describes useful teaching techniques I have used, such as an adapted PPP lesson plan, methods of building writing capability, a behavioural interview focus, and much more!


Classroom lessons and textbooks for advanced students are not necessarily useful. Advanced students want to have a conversation, build their confidence and learn new, relevant vocabulary. Keeping this in mind, the 'What' section consists of over 60 behavioural, skills-based, issues-based, and industry-specific conversational lesson plans. Each lesson plan contains useful prompts for the teacher, relevant phrasal verbs, idioms, and collocations for the student to use during a lesson, in addition to pre-work/technical prompts for both the student and teacher in the industry-specific topics. These lesson plans will last you forever!!


You can also find examples of behavioural interview questions which are typically asked in modern times, particularly around failure and reflection, leadership skills and more, instead of the typical "What are your strengths and weaknesses" questions.


Overall, Business English students need support with confidence. This can only be achieved through 1-2-1 coaching and conversation.


If you are an existing, experienced teacher who would simply like to have some useful lesson plans to hand, you can purchase the lesson plans-only version from this site.


Happy Teaching!