In a series of short articles, Cathy Bright offers some useful tips to teachers of Business English

While in-company teaching is often very rewarding, it can also be problematic. Here are a few suggestions to help deal with some of the most common issues an in-company language teacher has to face.

Q1. My students are enthusiastic but attendance is very irregular which makes it difficult to plan lessons. Someone always arrives late, too.

A1. Recycling is the only solution here, on both a lesson and course basis. The first activity of the class should always recycle the essential elements of the lesson before, or at least fill students in on what they've missed so they don't feel left out and de-motivated. The e-mail writing activity described in this section is an effective way of doing this. Another idea is to always write down the lesson aims on the board at the beginning and to provide a class summary at the end in written or oral form. You could also get your students to do this for you.

Q2. My lower intermediate business students say they're having lessons to practise speaking. It's really difficult to get them to study grammar, or anything really for that matter.

A2. Well, there are various approaches possible here. It really depends on the students. One idea is to make sure you do a thorough initial needs analysis and negotiate a syllabus based on the students' needs and wants … not forgetting to take into account the company in question's vision. A mid - course review and regular informal counselling will also help you keep your finger on the pulse. Personally, I would also integrate a regular error-analysis into the course, of both speaking and writing. The e-mail activity described here serves this purpose. Use of video and student - student correction activities may also help.

Q3. I've been asked to teach business English in a company to a small group of students who have lots of different kinds of jobs. I'm a bit worried about this as I feel my knowledge of business is limited.

A3. This may or may not be a problem. It all depends on the company and students' expectations, needs and wants. Companies often want their students to study general English, or general business English. There are lots of good published materials on the market these days to help you, although I think it really is a good idea to try to keep up with the news, especially regarding what's happening in the business world. You could also bear in mind that students often don't know much about each other's specific roles, too. It's the students' general need for the language of business communication which is important rather than very specific topic vocabulary requiring a specialised background. Personally, I don't think it is advisable to agree to teach a more specialised ESP course such as financial English for which you don't feel properly equipped, from both the students' point of view and your own.

Cathy Bright