WHO’S AFRAID OF BUSINESS ENGLISH?

1. WHO’S AFRAID OFBUSINESS ENGLISH? Preparing Students for the International World of Business

2. WHAT IS BUSINESS ENGLISH? A set of skills used to: • Prepare people for careers • Promote oral communication • Develop professional writing • Facilitate negotiating • Enhance teamwork & networking

3. WHY TEACH BUSINESS ENGLISH? To meet today’s challenges: • Technology and industry • Academia • Global economics • Travel • Self-improvement

4. WHO NEEDS BUSINESS ENGLISH? Most employees in the following sectors: • International trade & tourism • Academia • Industry and finance • High-tech … and more

5. WHAT SHOULD A CURRICULUM INCLUDE? The four basics, tailored specifically: • listening • speaking • reading • writing

6. PREPARING to TEACH View Business English as a PROCESS COURSE • Begin easy  progress to more advanced material • Provide feedback • Plan to hold 1-on-1 tutorials

7. DEVELOPING LISTENING Begin each lesson with pair-work. Distribute provocative sentences: • How true do you think the following statement is: “You should work to live, not live to work”? • Is it better to marry someone of the same cultural background? Why? • Do you share goals and plans with others so that they will help you maintain your motivation and drive?

8. FOLLOW-UP After 5-10 minutes, during which you circulate and listen, ask several students to relate what their partners said.

9. ENCOURAGING SPEAKING 1. Begin by having students talk with a partner, then with a small group. 2. Next, have each get up before the class and talk for 30 seconds on short topics, such as news items: How does “Re-Walk” revolutionize movement for people who are partially paralyzed?

10. FACILITATING READING • Do not crowd the board; erase frequently. • Prepare worksheets using large, easy-to-read fonts, such as Tahoma, Comic Sans, and Ariel. • Leave space between lines. • Number items, for easy referral.

11. 5. Assign a variety of texts for reading. 6. Check comprehension by holding group discussions. 7. Each group appoints a “Speaker” who reports back to the class

12. TEACHING WRITING • Review the purpose and form of each type of writing: email letter, cover letter, agenda, request, apology, thank you, position paper, etc. • Prepare TEMPLATES or samples for each writing assignment.

13. AGENDA SIMULATION Sample Agenda: “Let's Promote Product X!“ Objective: Brainstorm a marketing campaign for our newest product Attendees: The Creative Department Date, Time and Duration: Monday, May 17th from 3:00–4:00 PM Location: Main Boardroom What to Bring: Your creative thinking caps and anything else that gives you creative inspiration Times, Agenda Items and Presenters: 3:00-3:15 Julie will remind us of key features of our product and the latest market research 3:15-3:50 Jim will lead the brainstorming session 3:50-4:00 Tanya and Nancy will summarize our progress

14. Group simulation: each group receives a challenge and has to create an Agenda, based on the sample.

15. PROFESSIONAL WRITING: The One-Pager • Profile your company/product/service • Distribute or display as a handout or “leave behind” at conferences, conventions, study days, etc. • “Zero in” on your essence: your concept, your proposal or offering • State your “added value” or benefits • Use active voice, color and pictures • Catch attention quickly • Include contact information

17. HOW TO ASSESS Use RUBRICS • Prepare students: let them know the expectations of each assignment. • Decide what is the optimum level and give that the highest point value

18. 3. Scale down, by adjusting the words you use, to deal with lower levels Example: • HIGHEST LEVEL: “Well-prepared and researched” • MODERATE LEVEL: “Mostly well-prepared, with evidence of research” • LOWEST LEVEL: “Little evidence of preparation or research”

19. ASSESSING WRITTEN WORK • Pay attention to all aspects you have taught. • Decide the weight of each criterion • See the sample below:

21. ASSESSING ORAL PRESENTATIONS • Model through your teaching how students should give presentations. • Tell them what you are doing, giving explanations where necessary. • See the sample:

23. UTILIZE THE MEDIA • LISTENING: YouTube, Macmillan, TED and BBC for video clips and texts of authentic conversations • SPEAKING: Use authentic conversations for practice – e.g. telephoning back-to-back

25. READING: texts from Time, MIT Technology Review, BBC • WRITING: provide samples, templates and outlines from owl.purdue, Oxford UP, Macmillan

26. Dear Janet: Here is my market report; I know it is a bit late, and I apologize. I hope you notice that I am using many of the terms that I heard at the recent Trade Conference in Tokyo – they are the latest trend in the field. I didn’t see any good reason to include the data that I usually submit: I think everyone on the team is aware of it. If you have any comments or suggestions, let me know. Regards, Jackson Jackson Mahler

27. WHAT ABOUT GRAMMAR? Consider major issues: • Tenses: active, passive & MODALS • Punctuation & capital letters • Sentence and paragraph structure • Parallelism, run-ons, prepositions DEVOTE TIME EACH LESSON TO GRAMMAR

28. EXERCISE, BRIEFLY Nothing is more embarassing than making a writing mistake? Of course, we all think its funny when we spot a mispelled word in magazine ads or on billboards. If one of your employee’s are making the the mistakes, it can be disasterous. And if you have a typo in a memoo to the boss; how do you think they will view your professionalism? These kind of mistakes can be prevented, irregardless of the persons job title. The people that make the mistakes can seriously effect how other’s view you’re company.

29. V.A.T. Cultural know-how: • Make students aware of cultural differences, using English as “an intrinsic part of communication in multinational settings” • Use Kiss, Bow, and Shake Hands as the text for this unit

30. UNIT ON MULTICULTURAL BUSINESS PRACTICES Consider: • Welcoming and introductions • Settling in and using small talk • Planning for the visit and setting preliminaries • Beginning discussions & negotiations • Following-up

31. CHOOSE GROUPS & COUNTRIES • Allow 30-40 minutes for organization. The rest must be done out of class. • Email Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands • Students prepare an 8-10 minute oral presentation dealing with key issues (using PowerPoint)

32. BEGINNINGS • Grow and develop with your students. • Ask for feedback after every activity. • Innovate. • Seek out new materials. • At the end of the course, ask them: what should I KEEP, DISCARD, and CHANGE. • Then DO exactly that!

33. TRUST YOUR STUDENTS & TRUST YOURSELF

34. CONTACT ME! Judy Siegel Henn, Ph.D. Division of Humanities The Technion henn_judy@yahoo.com 052-8714283

35. REFERENCES • “English as a Lingua Franca in International Business Contexts.” Editorial. English for Specific Purposes 24 (2005):367-80. • http://pbp.typepad.com/nobull/2010/01/how-many-writing-mistakes-can-you-find.html • Morrison, Terri and Wayne A. Conaway (1995, 2006). Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More Than 60 Countries. Avon, MA: Adams Media.