Thread: Business English: so many books

Hi there,

I've been doing some private teaching for almost two years now and it's going very well, but I have a new group of students now that want to take a business course. I have been looking into a few websites for advice on wich books to use, but there are so many ......

Could anyone advice me on this one?

I also use Let's Talk, New Headway and Handshake for conversation and global Eng. and a lot of stuff from the internet. I found out that it is hard work to find good teaching books so any advice would be very welcome. Thx.

Erwin64
Latkrabang :chug:

I incorporate business writing into most of my courses. I'm fortunate in that I had a business background before going into teaching. Also, many of the courses I delivered for IT involved business correspondence.

The main areas are letter writing (the four main type of business letter - requesting, acknowledging, complaining and confirming).

Business Englishis very formal with standard phrases which are far easier for students to learn (you can literally build business letters from stock phrases a bit like Lego).

Other areas include recruitment - job description, job advert (narrative style), CV (resume), covering letter, invitation to interview, letter of appointment/rejection.

Making, changing and confirming arrangements is another and you could try some report writing with them (but try to keep the reports short, maybe two pages).

Hope that helps a little.

:smile:

Hi Welshman,

it doesn't tell me wich books to use, but it sure helps to get an idea about the content of a business course.

Could you tell me wich books you use?

Thx.

E64

Business Objectives and Market Leader can be OK.

While going through the bookshops I stumbled upon Market Leader, and it looked like a good course to me, but it turned out you can not order them anymore, nor can you find them in the new Oxford catalogue.

Business Objectives is a 1 level course (lower-intermediate). I will surely have a look at it. Thx.

Has anyone got some experience with Business Explorer (Cambridge)?

It is said to be a new 3 level business course written for learners in Asia?

Yes, I've used Business Explorer 2 & 3. It's ok but won't set the world on fire. It is aimed at Asian learners. It's American in origin. There are also a few mistakes and grey areas. It has a good mix of language (grammar exercises), communication (roleplay) and listening task.

Hi Natalie8,

both books you mentioned are on my list to check. It's nice to hear, from someone who actualy used them, that it is good material. Thanks a lot.

Erwin64

Posted after 4 minutes 7 seconds:

Thx for the tip Johnny, I also just found out that they are rather expensive.

Market Leader is good for general biz stuff.

Let's Talk difficult to use outside the US ? Why's that? I'm using it for quit some time now. I am not wild about it, but it has some interesting subjects and some of the pair exercises are realy good to get your students talking.

i made my own compiled and adapted from different materials including much of my own

but then i used to do stuff like presentation skills, describing trends (absloute mare that is), telephone skills etc

or if you wanna use materials then

business basics
business objectives
business opportunities

there used to be a high level business book complete with 'authentic' business scenarios, case studies, but what s the point in teaching some pen pusher presentation skills or negotiating skills (whatever they might be) when all he needs to know is how to gossip and ask his farang boss if he got any the night before

............

Yeah no one book is good enough really, should use bits and pieces from various books, and supplement yourself.