International TEFL InstituteEnglish Communication in Business
In today’s business climate and with the advent of globalisation, communicating well in English means gaining a competitive advantage in ever-changing and expanding world markets. Offering high-quality courses to individuals seeking to get ahead in their careers is an important and expanding market area. Business success rests to a large extent on the ability of individuals to communicate effectively in English. Business writing skills and communication will help students to understand the changing nature of business communication and pinpoint and eliminate errors in their Business Strategies.
Business Communication Courses may be offered at Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate levels and should provide a balance of English for Business and General English. The courses should further aim to improve and expand students’ vocabulary, increase their grasp of Business phrases and functions whilst giving them a good grasp of grammar, writing and vocabulary.
In addition to offering Business Communication Courses, a school can also provide one-day Business Communication Workshops. These workshops are aimed at getting students up to speed with the English skills required to perform at the highest levels in their careers. The workshops may cover a range of topics and skills for business people from negotiation skills, to effective presentations, to customer relations. These workshops could include:
- Business Writing Essentials
- Successful and Effective Business Presentations
- Managing Your Time Effectively (Time Management)
- Telephoning Skills for Reception and Front Line Staff
- Success: For Secretaries and Administration Professionals
- Communicating with Confidence
- Writing and Preparing Effective Business Reports
- Customer Care Essentials
- Business Writing for Managers
- Holding Effective Meetings and Discussions
Ideas for the Classroom
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Business Letter Writing:
For this activity, you will need a book of model business letters in English. These are often available on the internet. Make one copy of 10 different letters (depending on the number of students in your class). Make enough so that each pair has one. You may wish to concentrate on a specific type of letter, such as cover letters or letters of complaint, or else mix the different types of letters.
One student can look at the letter, the other cannot. The student with the letter reads it to the other student, who takes dictation. The reading student should not look at the writing student’s written work. In the end, have the student compare his or her written work to the original, looking for mistakes and correcting them. This can be a good lead-in to writing business letters and is a nice way of including dictation without them always doing dictation from the teacher or a tape.
- Crazy Resume:
For this activity bring a resume to class, and discuss resumes for a few minutes. Ask the students what goes on a resume. Next, have all students quickly (10 minutes) write a resume in English. Encourage exaggeration. Next, have them work with partners taking turns interviewing each other for jobs. Choose the jobs: possible (fun) choices are McDonald’s, KFC, Gas station attendant, NASA Astronaut, CIA spy, Military General, Model etc. Review frequently asked interview questions beforehand (the students will know the questions in their native language for the most part). After everyone has been interviewed and been the interviewer, query the class on their success: did the applicant get the job? How did they do?
- Telephone Phrases:
There are many phrases and idioms used when talking on the telephone. Print a number of these on blank business cards, such as: “Please hold and I will ring Mr Bizet’s office”, and “I’m sorry, but Ms Albina is not in her office right now. Would you like to leave a message?” The students are then grouped into pairs. Each student gets about five cards depending on the size of the class and the number of cards printed. In turn, they turn over the top card and have to initiate a telephone conversation with their partner, somehow and somewhere working in the idiom/phrase on their card. The partner does not see the phrase. This means they have to think of a situation and steer the conversation in such a way as to be able to slip in the idiom/phrase. The first team to use up all their cards is the winner.
You will have already introduced telephone idioms and they will have done some conversation practise before playing the game.
- The Replacement:
Ask your students to imagine they have to interview a candidate who will do their job while they will be away on extended leave. They have to come up with a list of questions related to their job. Divide the class into two groups, the interviewers and the candidates. Each interviewer now asks his or her questions to all the candidates and has to choose which one would be able to do his or her job best. Then the interviewers become the candidates.
- Forming a Company:
For this activity, divide the students into groups of five to six. Now ask them to open their own company. They have to decide on what kind of goods or services they are going to produce or provide. The students also have to decide on the company structure and what departments are needed to run the company. Furthermore, they should outline the different duties of each department in product manufacturing and sales. After the discussion, group representatives do a presentation in class. This activity can be developed to include written work such as reports and business plans. This may well become an extended project!
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