Teaching English online: 7 tips to get started 3

Are you ready to master your business English? Students worldwide learn Business English, and the reasons are obvious. In today’s globalized world, knowing English is a competitive advantage which can increase your chances of success in the tough job market.

Today, we’re going to show you 10 practical Business English activities. Whether you’re a student, who strives to enhance your language skills, or a teacher, who is looking to make your lessons more productive, keep on reading as you’ll surely like our list.

What is business English?

In general, Business English is a special type of English relating to business contexts and is used in business correspondence, reports, meetings, presentations, etc. Every year, more and more students opt for Business English courses to obtain the necessary skills and expand their vocabulary.

If you already have a good level of general English, you might be wondering why it’d be useful to learn Business English. Whether you seek better job opportunities or need English for business communication with foreign partners, it’s a good time to start improving your Business English skills.

And what can be better than studying with native English tutors? Here at Preply, we offer ESL Business English lessons with certified teachers. A chosen expert will customize a Business English course up to your needs and language goals. All lessons are provided 1-on-1 via the special video chat on our website. No extra downloads or third-party services. Just enter the private chat with your tutor and start learning.

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Now, let’s get to the top 10 activities that can help you polish
your Business English skills.

Speaking activities

The best way to master your Business English speaking skills is through role-plays. This method works great when it comes to improving speaking skills, learning situation-specific vocabulary, and finding out more about cultural behaviors. Just place yourself in a real-life situation and role. You can play role-play games with your friends or ask your personal tutors to add some of the following activities to your business English lessons. No doubt, you’ll have a lot of fun whether you’re playing a script or acting on an impromptu basis. Just try it out for yourself!

• Job interview
  • First of all, prepare a list of the most common interview questions. Here are some examples to consider:– Can you tell me a little about yourself?
    – What are your greatest strengths?
    – What are your biggest weaknesses?
    – Why should we hire you? Find a job vacancy that you find interesting and ask your teacher or friend to play the role of a potential employer. Find out more information about the company and analyze the job description to answer the questions based on gathered data.
• Company rundown
  • For this activity, you need to talk about some of your company’s products or services, using original materials (leaflets, brochures, or any other type of promotional materials) as a starting point. You can also print web pages that describe the company’s services/products. If you’re not working yet, get a range of sales literature of the brand you like, and play the role of the company’s representative. Ask your teacher or friend to act as a visitor to the company who seek detailed data about offered products or services. Using sales copy for inspiration or information, you should think about different ways in which to present them and answer all visitor’s questions. For example, you can start with the general description of the company:
    “We’re an award-winning creative design agency with a focus on branding and UX design”.
• Talking about commuting and lifestyle
  • Spending hours commuting, working at the office, holding several business meetings per day — all these and many more activities have significantly become integrated into our daily routine. They have such a considerable impact on our lifestyle that they can’t be ignored. Especially when it comes to picking a topic for a discussion on the Business English lesson.