During the Course

• You will attend and participate in 30 input sessions of around one hour each.

• Prior to each session, you will be given a text to read. It is essential you read this before the session as the session itself will revise and extend on the contents.

• After each session, you will have a homework task to complete; this could be reading or action research.


What's in it for you?


• A recognised qualification which is valued throughout the industry.

• A good awareness of business terminology along with appropriate means of course and lesson delivery.

• Confidence to go and experiment for yourself in the business classroom.

Basic Business Awareness


This strand aims to demystify the world of business and the language which often serves to complicate quite straightforward concepts. It is designed to give teachers confidence in their business knowledge and a context within which they can discuss the issues in the other two strands. The reading tasks have 2 aims:

• To consolidate and expand on the knowledge gained in the sessions.
• To familiarise teachers with sources for learning about business.

Topics include; Business Speaking Skills, Business Writing Skills, Corporate Structure, Marketing, Sales, Accountancy, Banking, Markets, Human Resources Management, Product Development and Production, Continuing your Business Education.


Professional Skills


This strand concentrates on the different mind-set that teachers need to bring to business English teaching. This includes how to treat the students as clients and how to meet the (higher/different) expectations of business students.

Topics include; Needs Analysis, Syllabus Design, Principles of Lesson Planning, "The Client Approach" to Teaching Executives, Feedback.


Time Commitment

• Pre-session reading (of between 2 and 12 pages).
• 30 hours of input.
• 20 hours of homework / action research tasks.
• Writing a 1500 word post-course reflective assignment.


Methodology and Materials


This strand brings everything together. It discusses how to teach the language looked at in the Basic Business Awareness sessions in the context examined in the Professional Skills sessions.

Topics include; Introduction to Learner-Centred Approaches, Approaches to Classroom Practice, The Lexical Approach, Practising Oral Skills, Writing Skills, Using Authentic Materials, Adapting Published Materials (Print), Adapting Materials from Video and Radio, The Numerical-Graphical Approach, Business Games, Creating your own Materials.

• Each session has some pre-session reading; this is normally printed text although there are some web-based references for you to follow up and occasionally pre-session tasks.

• There will also be a number of handouts given during the sessions which will add on to the pre-session notes. It is therefore essential you organise your notes efficiently in a ring-binder.

• Web-based articles as part of pre-session or homework tasks.

• Recommended or compulsory reading provided by the tutors as part of post-session tasks.