Libro reseñado: How to teach business English
Autor: Evan Frendo
Editorial: Pearson
Año: 2012
Este libro esta dirigido a todas las personas inmersas en la enseñanza del Inglés de negocios, proporciona una visión general de los factores relacionados con proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje, evaluación de necesidades del grupo, diseño y desarrollo de materiales, como enseñar las habilidades oral y escrita enfocadas a los negocios, como se puede enseñar a distancia, entrenamiento intercultural y la evaluación del curso mismo.
Palabras clave: Enseñanza, aprendizaje, negocios, habilidad oral, habilidad escrita, capacitación, evaluación.
This book is focused in people who are involved in the business English teaching. It gives a general vision of the factors which are related with the teaching – learning process as assessment of the group needs, design and development of materials, how to speak and write business English, how to teach at a distance, intercultural training, and the assessment of the course.
Keywords: Teaching, learning, business, speaking, writing, training, assessment.
This book was made to help teachers or anyone involved in business English teaching offering practical advice or acting as a guide to choose materials in a wide range of contexts in areas which the business English teacher needs to deal with.
It is a very interesting book where you can find a platform to start giving disciplinary business subjects in English, through a classification of the student’s characteristics or needs.
Chapter 1 What is special about business English?
This Chapter is about the business English learner, it is very important to classify students in order to take decisions about the teaching – learning process, these can be classified by their experience, their level in the organization´s hierarchy, their national culture, their needs or their language level.
Other factor that is shown in this chapter is about the business English teaching context, these contexts are divided in Education institute, Private language school, In-company or 1 to 1 (private lessons one teacher one student).
Other aspect is about the business English teacher and the different roles that they can have in the classroom for example as trainer, coach or consultant.
Another angle is the language in context, we are going to use every day English but it is going to be focused in the business context which could be described as general business English, the students will develop their business communication skills too.
The last regard of this chapter is about the teacher business communication which is considering the communicative competence, the linguistic competence, the discourse competence, the intercultural competence and the communicative language teaching.
Chapter 2 Assessing needs and preferences
This chapter is focused in the needs of the group, first we are going to talk about the analysis of them, we need to do a language audit to collect and examine the current situation and the target situation.
Other point talks about the communication needs, we must know if they will deal with visitors, understand presentations, give presentations, take part in meetings, chair meetings, read reports, write reports, deal with e-mails, speak on the phone, socialize with business partners or customers, deal with suppliers or customers., It is important to analyze the communicative competence too using a diagnostic test.
A different angle is the pedagogic needs, those which result of the teaching context, the teacher´s needs, the learning needs and styles, the means analysis (training environment) and the business needs.
Chapter 3 Designing a course
This chapter shows some necessary steps to design a course as first point we have to set objectives (language objectives and business objectives) after that we can find how a syllabus must contain and how it is organized.
Other regard in this chapter talks about the importance of the syllabus negotiation, we need to show the plan to the students, and they need to say what they want, and taking this as a breakpoint we must refine the objectives.
Other important point is how to manage the logistics that means the pre-course joining instructions, the training room, the venue and the contingency plans.
Chapter 4 Selecting and developing materials
This chapter was written in order to guide how to choose the best resources for the course, it talks about six different resources, first the course book and other ready – made materials, these are recommended for inexpert teachers or teachers who are under time pressure. The tailor – made materials which are made by Institutions or teachers because they have specific needs, we can find some tips to make this kind of materials. The learner as a resource talks about how to build a productive approach using the learners themselves as a resource for example when we have job – experienced learners, using the background and role plays. The framework materials which are designed to help teachers and learners to focus language produced in the classroom, this material could be a diagram or an outline and it generates relevant language. The authentic materials are real commercial documents, newspaper articles or recordings made in a work place they provide excellent opportunities to focus on the specific language. Finally we can find the role plays, simulations and case studies which are effective business materials that allow students to produce the language that they need in their workplace.
Chapter 5 Teaching business speaking skills
The speaking skills are very important when doing business, the first example given in this chapter is socializing, this is a relevant skill, most business – related interaction is done in public places as restaurants, airports. This could be practiced using role plays, simulation and storytelling.
Small talk is a skill which can be called upon at any point during the day and involves talking about subjects that have little to do with business for example while waiting at the photocopier, or just before a meeting is to start. Other angle is speaking on the telephone, a phone call must be managed in order to achieve the business aim, so some standard lexical phrases and survival strategies will be shown in this chapter.
The presentations are another regard in this chapter where we are going to find the importance of the context, the structure of the presentation, the correct language, the use of the voice and the use of similar tools as in real life. When we are talking of meetings in this chapter we can find the difference between a formal or informal meeting, the language that must be used and the purpose of the meeting.
Negotiating is the last point of the chapter, negotiation is about bargaining with another party to get something we want. We are going to find the different parts of negotiation, the stages of itself and the language that must be used.
Chapter 6 Teaching business writing skills
Writing in business is a key part in the day – to – day activities and it is used in a vast range of different situations, allows communication across time and space storages records and other information, this chapter shows some tips about how to write correspondence ( writing letters e-mail mobile phone text messages and faxes), contracts which aim to lessen misunderstanding and provide a formal record for reference, reports which offer the reader the results of an enquiry of some sort or an account of some event, CV´s or resumes (we can find some tips to write one in a correct way), agendas which are lists of items that will be discussed in a meeting, minutes which are the written record of a meeting finally we will find some tips of writing for the internet.
Chapter 7 How to teach business English at a distance
This chapter was written to provide some ideas about the distance learning when the teacher and the learner are physically separated. Media could be used in these cases according with the kind of communication, the communication could be synchronous or asynchronous, and another aspect is the open learning. We will find some advantages and disadvantages of this English learning process, the role of the teacher and the materials that could be used, and how to give feedback in this situation.
Other point in this chapter is teaching by telephone which provides direct contact between the teacher and the learner. Other aspect is the e-learning possibilities which take place with electronic media as CD-ROM, internet, intranet, software, webcasts, discussion boards or learning platforms as well as the use of the internet.
Chapter 8 How to include intercultural training
This chapter teaches us how to help people to interact successfully with people from other cultures, one point is using cultural dimensions, these dimensions analyze and describe what is happening which allows us to measure and compare certain attributes of different cultures. Another regard is how to make learners increase their awareness of culture in a more affective or experimental way they work. That is not enough because learners need to be able to cope with the differences so they need practice, the best way is living there, but it is not always practical so we need case studies or critical incidents in order to present problems that need to be solved.
Chapter 9 Evaluating and assessing
This chapter is about the importance of assessment in supporting and shaping how teaching is done. Testing is probably the most common way of checking whether participants on a course have reaching development standards in a midterm or at the end of the course. Another way of evaluation that is shown in this chapter is using feedback and observation which give us quantitative results to record manipulate and compare.
The reflective practitioner is another method of evaluation which promotes discussion with colleagues, attends workshops and conferences. So far the most important evaluation is the learner and teacher perspective as it is shown in the last regard of the book called the customer´s perspective.
Harmer, J. (2012). How to teach business english. Great Britain: Pearson.
[a]Profesora del Instituto de Ciencias Económico Administrativas, UAEH.