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.

Get in touch about our business English courses

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.?

Explore our range of language courses

More blogs from ÃÛÌÒapp

  • A young girl working at a desk, there are others working in the background

    5 academic skills for primary students

    By Carol Higho

    In an ever-changing jobs market, the skills we all need to use have developed beyond numeracy and literacy ¨C and part of our jobs as teachers is to give students the skills they¡¯ll need in their future careers.

    Primary students preparing to go to secondary school (and then university) will need academic skills too. While there are lots of courses offering to teach these skills to older learners, we can give our younger learners a head start in the classroom.

    A breakdown of academic skills

    There are a number of important academic skills that can be carried into many different areas of students¡¯ lives. These include:

    • time management
    • prioritization
    • cooperative learning and delegation
    • research
    • analysis.

    Each skill will help students manage their workloads and work effectively and efficiently, whether working in an office, studying for a degree, or being self-employed.

    Activities to develop an awareness of academic skills

    Here are a few ideas for use with students of all ages, to develop students¡¯ awareness and understanding of these skills.

    Time management

    For much of the school day, children are told where to be and what to do. However, knowing how to tell the time is not the same as managing time.

    Some students underestimate how long an activity will take and then feel cheated or ¡®behind¡¯ when their work takes longer (especially fast finishers). Others overestimate the time needed, feel overwhelmed, and want to give up before getting started.

    Helping each student understand what each activity involves will help them to plan and manage their time. It will also encourage them to recognize everyone has differing abilities and works at a different pace.

    Give each student sticky notes representing 10 minute blocks of time (6 pieces if your classes are in 1 hour segments).

    Explain an activity:

    • You will read a story, and they will need to listen for key information and make notes.
    • After that, they will work in groups to make a Venn diagram.

    Next, have the students think about how much time each part of the lesson will take using sticky notes. If they think making the diagram will take 20 minutes, they should put two sticky notes on top of each other.

    Have students share what they think the time allocation should be, taking into account how long your lesson is. Did any ¡®run out of time¡¯ or have time ¡®left over¡¯?

    After the activity, ask students how accurate their predictions were and if there was any time wasting.

    Let students practice using this type of task analysis throughout the week for different activities, so they begin to see which activities they work quickly through and which they find more time-consuming. This will help students plan and manage their time better.

    Also, involve the parents by sharing what has been done in class. Get students to manage the time allocation:

    • from waking up to getting to school (getting washed and dressed, having breakfast, the journey to school),
    • from arriving home to going to bed (homework, evening meal, any cores, time for watching TV or playing games, getting ready for bed).

    How does their time management change at weekends/in the holidays?

    Prioritization

    Prioritization is another big part of time management. Task analysis helps students recognize what they must do and how they must do it in order to get a good grade. It also helps them understand the things they will most enjoy about an activity.

    To teach prioritization, it should become a regular part of the class. At the start of each week list (approximately five) class objectives to be achieved:

    • Ask each student to number these objectives - 1 being their top priority, 5 being their lowest. Make a note of which students prioritize the same tasks in the same order to help with grouping.
    • Next, ask them if any of the objectives will need planning or preparation (for example; growing cress for a science experiment) ¨C and if so, should that be started earlier in the week?
    • At the end of each day, review how the students are doing in reaching the objectives and if they need to reprioritize.
    • As the week progresses, add additional items that are not priorities. For example, clean out your school locker/sharpen all the pencils, as well as other new real priorities: revise for the quiz on Friday. This will give students an understanding of how priorities can change.

    Collaborative learning and delegation

    Delegation and collaborative working are both essential academic and life skills. Thankfully they are already quite familiar topics for students. Students often delegate roles and characters in their everyday play ¨C ¡®You be Spiderman, I¡¯ll chase you¡¯, etc.

    It¡¯s helpful to encourage this behavior in the classroom too. It can help students (of all ages) to recognize what they can achieve through cooperation and delegation because of their different skills.

    Explain that a group project (e.g. a group play) will require students to share information and to work together. Make it clear there are rules to follow:

    • Everyone must take part in the performance.
    • The play must be at least one minute long.
    • The group needs to write a script and create some props.
    • As a team, all are accountable/responsible to each other (as well as to you).
    • The activity will only be classed as a pass/success if everyone takes part.

    There is a finite goal ¨C the play will be performed at the end of next week to the Year 2 classes.

    Suggest that the group meets and plans together (reading corner, at lunchtime, etc.). As they prepare, ask for updates on who is doing which tasks and why. Also encourage the group to determine whether something could be done differently/better by sharing the jobs.

    Listen in to see how objections are handled (recognize some of this discussion may be in the students¡¯ first language).

    At the end of the project ask each student to list what they enjoyed the most and what they found most challenging. Ask them what skills they would like to develop for the next project.

    Research and analysis

    This can sound daunting for Primary students, but laying the foundations for academic research is easier than you might think.

    Big questions are a gateway to developing research and analysis skills. Two examples are, 'Why are plants and animals important in our world?' Or 'What can you do to help people in need?'.

    Providing students with a way to remember the important steps in any kind of research makes this type of activity less daunting.

    'Hands On¡¯ is a five point guide that can be demonstrated by drawing a hand with five fingers:

    • Hypothesis
    • Research
    • Gather data
    • Create a report
    • Present evidence
    • Research and analysis (written on the palm).

    Following the five point guide students must:

    • give their thoughts and ideas on possible answers (create a hypothesis)
    • use books, the world around them and the internet to find information (research)
    • learn how to recognize what is fact and what is opinion (gather data)
    • review the data and summarize the main points (create a report)
    • use examples from their research to support their argument (present evidence).

    Any research needs to be methodical; using the five points above helps students build a clear structure that can become more detailed and complex as they advance through school.