6 tips for teaching business English to low level learners

Margaret O'Keeffe
A business woman in a suit sat at a laptop

The CEFR describes A1 and A2 learners as ¡®basic users¡¯ of a language. So how can we help these students to develop their English for the workplace?

Here are our six top tips:

1. Focus on high-frequency vocabulary for work

Learning English vocabulary for work context is the top priority for many low-level learners in business English classes. It helps them to communicate their message in a simple, effective way. This makes it important to teach common words and set expressions for everyday work situations.

These include:

  • lexical sets (words related to the same topic or situation) ¨C for example, days, months, numbers, verbs to describe work routines, verbs in the past.
  • common collocations with verbs and nouns (for example, manage a team, have meetings, place an order, solve a problem).
  • functional language and fixed phrases ¨C greetings (How are you? Nice to meet you.) and offers (How can I help you? Would you like¡­?).

2. Help students with vocabulary learning

Teach vocabulary items in realistic contexts. For example, phone calls, to-do lists, short emails, text messages etc.

While it might be tempting to give students lots of vocabulary to memorize, this can cause overload, be frustrating and ultimately demotivating for learners. Instead, you should aim to present eight to ten new words in a lesson as a general rule. This is an achievable number for working memory and helps to build learners¡¯ confidence. The number of words can be a little higher if items are easy to show in images or there is repetition; for instance, the numbers 20 to 100.

Have students make simple decisions about new words, as this helps with recall later. Start with simple tasks, such as matching words and pictures or verb and noun collocations they¡¯ve seen in a short text (for example, managing a team, call customers, writing emails, etc.). Next, ask students to complete sentences using the target words and write their own sentences using these words.

Getting students to personalize new vocabulary makes it more memorable, for instance writing sentences describing their work routines. Repetition also aids long-term memory, so make sure vocabulary is recycled in the materials in later lessons.

Finally, make a list of vocabulary games to use for revision exercises, warmers and to finish classes.

3. Maximize student speaking time

Learners need to develop their English-speaking skills for work. The classroom is a safe, low-stakes environment for them to gain fluency and confidence.

Use the audio and video scripts of short dialogues or an extract from a longer script. Students read the dialogue aloud in pairs or groups. Give feedback by drilling the stress and rhythm of any words or phrases which were difficult with the whole class. Back-chaining phrases ¨C starting with the last sound and building up going backwards ¨C is an excellent way to drill. Get students to swap roles and repeat the task.

You can also use another technique called disappearing dialogue. Put a short dialogue on the board for students to practice in pairs. Then delete parts of the dialogue and ask them to repeat the task, swapping roles each time. Gradually delete more parts to increase the challenge. Students can reconstruct the dialogue as a final task.

Moreover, surveys, questionnaires, true/false games, and information-gap exercises are ways to practice speaking in English, target structures, and vocabulary.

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4. Provide support for speaking tasks

Use a model dialogue from the coursebook or one you wrote yourself. Ask students to build their own short dialogues by changing some details (such as names, dates, prices, and quantities). Or use one half of the dialogue and ask students to write the other part.

Then, have them perform their dialogues together with their script. Then, ask them to try to memorize it without the script. Finally, they should perform the dialogue for another pair or even for the whole class.

Give students a reason to listen to their partners when they are speaking. For example, a speaking task like placing an order on the phone, gives them a reason. The listening student can note the essential information and check their answers afterwards.

Repeating tasks with slight variations increases the challenge, improves fluency, helps students remember useful phrases, and builds self-confidence.

5. Practice work skills your students need

Students are much more engaged and motivated when the class content is relevant to their everyday situations.? They will want to learn English for work and skills they need to practice include telephoning, socializing and giving presentations.

Writing skills are also important. This includes formal and informal text messages, simple forms, less formal emails to colleagues (e.g. to update on work) and more formal emails to customers (e.g. replying to a simple inquiry).

At the start of the class, make it clear what students will be doing in the lesson. You can refer to the lesson outcome on the coursebook page or write the lesson outcome in your own words on the whiteboard. For instance, ¡°Today you will learn to place a simple order on the phone¡±.

At the end of the class, ask students to respond to the self-assessment statement: ¡°I can place a simple order on the phone.¡±

This is a reminder of the purpose of the lesson. It also helps the students and teachers to reflect on the progress they are making.

The grammar syllabus should also relate to English learners' communicative needs (for example, describing your company, instructions, and talking about arrangements).

6. Teach functional language phrases

Draw students¡¯ attention to useful phrases and functional language in speaking and writing. For instance, when greeting visitors (¡°Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°See you later.¡±). They can memorize these utterances and put them to immediate use outside the classroom.

Use role plays to practice work skills and functional language skills. Give learners ample time to prepare and write down what they want to say. In a phone call role play, put students back to back to increase the challenge and add an element of authenticity; even better if they can call each other on their mobile phones from separate rooms.

Similarly, with presentations (for example, introducing yourself and your company), give students time to prepare and rehearse. They can ask colleagues to video them on their mobile phones for later correction work and feedback. Or they could rehearse and film themselves at home and show the final video in the next class.

These are just a few tips and techniques for teaching corporate English to low-level learners. It¡¯s especially important for these students to start simple, recycle language often and build their confidence in their workplace English.?

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    It¡¯s more important for teachers to help students find ways to practice their English outside the classroom. The more efficient students become at autonomous learning, the better they¡¯ll be able to overcome interruptions and make up for lost time.

    It will be even more challenging if you're a self-learner as you do not have a teacher looking over you and steering your learning. But it¡¯s helpful to learn from the teaching world and pick up teacher tips that you can apply to your own studies and techniques.

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    Students learning new words in English generally progress steadily up until the pre-intermediate and intermediate levels. But after that, they start to struggle.

    This is because there¡¯s a big difference between the volume of the vocabulary that intermediate students and upper-intermediate students need to know.

    • Intermediate (B1/B2 level) students need to know about 2,500 words
    • upper-intermediate (B2/C1 level) students need to know about 7,500-9,000 words.

    That¡¯s a big jump in numbers. But the real challenge is that those 5,000+ new words are not very frequent. Consequently, students don¡¯t encounter them very often, making it difficult to recall them and leap from one level to the next.

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    1. Focus on the most important words:?Always teach appropriate words for the levels your students are currently at.
    2. Provide memorable first encounters:?You never get a second chance to make a first impression. So, ensure your student's first encounter with a new word is as memorable as possible.
    3. Teach effective word-learning strategies:?Provide your students with valuable tools, tactics and resources so that they can learn new words outside the classroom, too.
    4. Organize repeat encounters:?Vocabulary works on a ¡°use it or lose it¡± basis, so ensure your students encounter the vocabulary you want them to learn repeatedly.

    How to teach effective word-learning strategies

    There are three steps to teach students how to learn new words effectively:

    1. Help learners maximize their exposure to English and find opportunities to use English outside the classroom

    Thanks to the internet and technology, there are many ways that students can engage with the English language outside the classroom.

    However, simple exposure to a new language is not enough ¨C it takes much longer and is less effective than active learning. When students do something with the language they¡¯re exposed to; it is far more memorable.

    That¡¯s why it¡¯s crucial for teachers to help their students seek out English in their own time and use the language, turning passive exposure into active learning.

    • Encourage students to read, listen and view things that they¡¯re interested in or passionate about in English. For example, introduce them to new blogs, podcasts, YouTube videos, or TV series that fit their interests ¨C since personalization leads to more effective learning.
    • Help students find ways to use English in different ways. For example, they can start a learning diary, make to-do lists in English, write social media posts, and create word cards to practice their writing. For speaking, they can record voice memos or video stories, take part in Zoom discussions, or participate in speaking projects and live classes.

    2. Provide ways for students to discover the meaning of new words

    It¡¯s crucial to help students improve their guesswork. Instead of asking online translators to translate every time they encounter a new word, they should be able to guess the meaning of new vocabulary differently.

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    • Explore ¡°true friends¡± or words that are similar in English and your student's native language.
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    Lastly, it¡¯s important to teach students memory tricks or mnemonics so they can retain the new words they encounter.