By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: What are some good Business English materials to give Chinese co-workers?
Good Morning!
I oversee training for a US software developer in SH.
Some of our American interns will be teaching my Chinese co-workers English next month. What are some Business English textbooks you recommend?
We have previously used Market Leader and BEC English. Both were good but it would be nice to introduce something new and fresh. All suggestions are welcome.
11 years 32 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
I normally gave my employees articles from Huffington Post and then would give lessons based off of the articles.
If you are delivering business English the company sending you the students really should give you very clear and specific requirements about exactly what they want their employees to learn.
e.g. They need to learn how to make a presentation on X or They need to learn how to speak at a formal dinner. NOT, they need better English.
Be VERY wary of vague, 'Oh, just get them speaking.' BS!
Once you have the requirements from the company, then it will be much easier to focus your materials.
When I was contracting to Fortune 500 companies, they were aghast at the ideas of the Chinese chain language schools to teach "Business English". Such teaching is almost totally worthless, and rejected by organisations from outside of China.
It is better to develop your own resources on topics such as teleconferencing, formal and informal emails, working a room (social function) etc. Basically, explaining and demonstrating real skills that are really used in real situations in the real world (and the appropriate "natural" English that is used).
First, brainstorm with the company's training department or HR about what topics will be most beneficial. Then it is relatively easy to find appropriate materials with simple Google searches and applying a little editing.
Of course, you will need to have an understanding of the theories of teaching and learning, so not useful for fake teachers.
I would advise you to teach English according to their industry, so they become specialized in one area of English.
There is no point in teaching them accounting-related phraseology if they never have to deal with accounting.
Let's say that your co-workers all works in the same software development field, then it's there that you have to point out their training in English, anything related to software development and terminology. At the same time, you can extend from a specialized field to a more general business field like introducing oneself, writing email, and also introduce grammar-related topics.
That's one option.
The other option and it's more related to Chinese mentality, you can keep on with your previous books, as in China, students are used to follow a book from the first to the last page and then just go through it and remember everything in it.
Teach them the difference between half done and completing a job
