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

Have you ever looked askance at a colleague on the way to class struggling under the weight of a large pile of newspapers, and muttered under your breath "you didn't think very hard about your classes today, did you?"Or felt guilty because you only spent ten or fifteen minutes preparing a lesson because you were tired? If you have, then take a step back and ask yourself the following question. Are, let's describe them as "easy preparation lessons", something to have pangs of guilt about?

The answer to this question has to be a resounding "no". Of course not. With the one very important proviso that they have been well thought-out. Minimal preparation time does not necessarily reflect minimal thought, which can at best be classified as minimal professionalism. The best analogy I can think of to illustrate this point is that of a meal. Here is the best piece of advice I have ever received. Consider a good lesson plan to be like a good meal. It should have a main course, in other words, the main aims(s), a couple of interesting side-dishes, which we may take to be sub-aims, and possibly a bit of sauce or pudding - something which it makes it special. There must be a good reason for everything on the plate being there. Of course, it must be the right kind of meal for the eater. That is to say, we as teachers must choose material which is appropriate for our students in terms of both level and interest. And a well-planned dinner doesn't have to take all day to get ready.

Admittedly, it is usually easier for a more experienced teacher to prepare a wholesome fast-food dish for his or her students, but there is absolutely nothing to stop teachers with less experience from doing the same. Here are a few ideas to bear in mind when preparing a lesson in a hurry.

• do write your plan down, even in brief note form
• do make sure you know what the main aim of the lesson is. What are your students having for dinner today?
• do make a note of the rationale behind each stage of your lesson and ensure they have a clear relationship with the main course. And don't give your students the same thing to eat the every day
• do work out approximate timings for your stages, and tell your students if, for example, it affects the kind of skill they are practising. For example, if you ask students to scan a written text for information, give them, say, five minutes or less depending on the text and level, and impose it. If they have longer they won't be practising the correct skill
• do include contingency plans in case of late arrivals or dubious attendance, frequent occurrences in the business English classroom
• do tell your students why they are doing what they're doing, again very important if you are using seemingly nil-preparation materials such as a pile of newspapers
• do remember that a lesson's quality is dependent on thought and presentation rather than on length of preparation

Cathy Bright