How to write up details of the critically important Business English and ESP classes, including three real-life examples.
It is quite easy to imagine what could go wrong if you have to step into a kids’ class that you know nothing about – the word “riot” springs instantly to mind. At least as scary, though, is to walk into a classroom full of smartly-dressed, high-powered business people and try to improvise your way through a lesson. If anything, the latter situation is more critical, as a riot with no parents watching might be forgiven but even thirty minutes of no learning could conceivably lead to a cancelled business contract, and you can’t just take in loads of business idioms just in case because other in-company classes are just as likely to be switched off by anything even slightly boring.
Handover and cover notes are, therefore, incredibly important in Business English and ESP situations.
Things you might want to include or ask teachers to include:
- How to get there, including local landmarks to look out for
-Time of the lesson, including whether students turn up on time or early and whether you can get into the classroom before the set time to get ready
- Procedure of what to do when you get there
- Contact information of the teacher being covered, the contact in the school office and the contact in the company where the class is
- Total class numbers and usual class numbers
- Individual student profiles, including interests, level, strengths and weaknesses, language learning priorities
- Materials the students have, and what they have already covered in it, including which parts need more practice
- The classroom- location, temperature, size, types of tables, ability to move things around, technology (CD player etc), availability of board pens, etc.
Examples of Business English classes cover notes
Example 1
????? Biosciences cover notes
???? Station
Tuesday 1000-1130
Alex Case
The company
????? Biosciences is a part of ?????? Healthcare which is, of course, a part of the huge American company ?????. Most of ?????? Biosciences is what was ??????? Biosciences, based near ???????? in the UK, which was merged with a smaller ????? department when ????? took them over. ????? Biosciences Japan is responsible for distributing equipment in Japan, as well as (I think) after sales service. Young foreign trainee managers occasionally do placements there, but otherwise the staff is entirely Japanese. Being very competent in English, if not bilingual, is highly rated in this company. Staff there have to deal often with staff in the UK, US and Europe.
The students
This class consists of 4 of the very top managers of ????? Biosciences Japan, including the president. As such, all the students use English often and can communicate well, but have little time for studying and therefore lack grammatical accuracy and knowledge of idiomatic language etc. The main need is for listening and speaking skills to understand and produce fluent speech (especially in telephone and video conference calls). Important speaking strategies include interrupting and confirming information, and for listening they need understanding of linked speech and short forms, and picking out important information. Activities on cultural differences are also useful and appreciated.
Since the classes reformed with me as the teacher after a break, I have never had all the students together so I am not sure about class dynamics etc. In the 90 minutes of classes I’ve had, about 60 minutes have been spent with the company president on his own. Apparently this is often the case. He is incredibly relaxed for someone in such a high position in such a high stress company only a short time after switching from British to American ownership. He is somewhere between Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate level, but can communicate well and is very interesting. He quite often asks about things he has brought in to the lesson or that occurs to him, so be prepared to improvise. Although he seems happy to chat, I get the feeling he does like to get down to something a bit weightier fairly early on in the lesson. There is always the chance, though, that it will be any combination of the other students below instead:
The other students are:
Mr ????????- Marketing Director
Mr ????????- Marketing Director
Ms ?????????- Vice President- higher level than the others, was in fact studying in a higher class than the others before the classes merged.
Materials covered
In the two lessons I’ve had, I did a lesson on cultural differences in body language with a functions review and a lesson on apologizing (cultural differences and functional language). Before that they had been doing more stuff on idiomatic language and speaking skills, I believe. Two students have copies of Market Leader Upper and three have copies of Market Leader Int, but I haven’t used these. The previous teacher jumped around the book a little. I think I saw that ????? had a note of what units they have and haven’t covered in the file, but I don’t have a copy of this.
Cover Lesson
More speaking functional stuff would be good and/ or speaking strategies. Telephoning language might go down well, for example ending conversations.
Getting There and Away
It’s a bit tricky, so I would ask for a copy of the map to be faxed. From ????? station (??????? line) take the North exit and turn right and follow ?????street. Quite close to the station, maybe the second turning, turn left down what looks like a little suburban housing street between a tobacco shop and what my map tells me is a supermarket. Follow this tiny street as it twists its way past a tennis court, cross one larger road and carry straight on past a research department of the a museum, then the building with ???? in is on the left. They told me to go straight up to the 2nd floor, but the security guard wanted me to speak to someone first, that being Mr ????????’s secretary. The classroom is up the stairs to the second floor, past the toilets and through the door, turn left and down the corridor, then second door on your left. The opposite way down the corridor there are free vending machines.
The classroom
Couldn’t see a CD player, but apparently there is one.
Example 2
?????? Pharmaceutical Cover Notes
Friday 6-8 pm
Intro
This is one of my favourite lessons of the week; the students are smart, interested and studious but like fun stuff too.
Getting there and away
Easiest thing in the world. Take ????????? line to ??????? station and take exit 8 (up the middle staircase from the platform). This basically puts you right in the basement of the building you need. If you can see a doughnuts place (recommended!) you are in the right place. Take the escalator up to the ground floor (which doubles as reception for the ??????? Hotel) and one more escalator up the office lobby, then turn sharp right through the glass doors to the office lifts. Take one of the closer lifts up to the 15th floor, and you can see ????? as you come out of the lift. Tell the receptionists that you have an English lesson with ????? san and they will point you to your classroom.
The lesson is also easily walkable from ??????? or Shin-????????? stations.
The room
The actual room changes sometimes, but they are all similar- a bit big for 5 people, but with a nice big whiteboard and pens in there. The light switch is a little difficult to find- it’s a tiny white push button near the door. The temperature is not controllable and it can get a bit hot. There is no CD player, as far as I know, but you could ask.
The students
You have 5 young students who work in different departments but know each other well because they all had new recruit training together last April. They rarely use English now, but are likely to in the future. Present needs are for emailing and answering the telephone (especially redirecting calls). I’m guessing they will need to go to presentations and conferences in the future. They all have good passive knowledge, especially of stuff related to their studies and industry, but make some simple mistakes when speaking and occasionally struggle for vocab. Their fluency isn’t bad, though. They all studied statistics or science at university, so they are good at analyzing language but not so hot on imaginative ideas or controversial topics. They seem to be comfortable addressing each other with first names.
??????? is the most travelled of the lot, and says she would like to live in the USA some time. She picks language up a little slower than the others. Is a self-confessed Hello Kitty freak, but you wouldn’t think so. Clinical Researcher.
???????? often looks tired, and sometimes misses lessons when he has been up all night working. Tries hard though. He lived in Germany when he was a kid. Statistician.
??????? is the keenest of the lot, but can get a bit confused in her overkeeness. Reads English documents everyday at work.
???????? is the most serious of the bunch, and is probably a high flyer as he gets sent around Japan on business trips. Very smart guy, but his attention can (understandably) wander. Working on Osteoporosis. TOEIC 710. Wants to attend presentations, conferences etc. in English.
?????????????? seems to use English in the office more than the others. Likes to joke around, in a slightly geeky way. Quite competitive, so likes games with points. Good knowledge of grammar.
Language covered
I have chosen not to use a book yet, and have been choosing and writing materials based mainly on their present needs. We have done lots and lots of numbers language, including questions such as How many, How heavy etc. Most of the rest has been functional stuff- emailing to make arrangements, formal and informal styles, answering the telephone and getting through to people, general functions review (thanking, apologizing etc.) and one lesson of Travel English. All apart from Travel English were mentioned by the company as things that needed to be covered. Each has been one lesson only, so more stuff on any of these would be good. The last homework was writing out an airport conversation, but I want to use this to lead into my next lesson so please don’t check this. Other things that would be useful include Past Simple/ Past Continuous practice, and talking about graphs etc.
Cover lesson
Anything at all would be fine, the only difficulty being that the lesson is two hours with no break. I tend to think of the class as 15 minutes of warming up (chat and/ or warmer speaking game), plus three separate topics, maybe one being revision or tied to the homework. I try to make at least one part of each of those three sections something a bit fun or interesting- games, trivia, roleplays, problem solving etc- and to use as many skills as possible.
Contact Information
Address: ??????????
Phone: +81-????????????
Fax: +81-???????????
Example 3
Wednesday 12 to 1 pm
Level: Low level Elem
Book: Language to Go Elementary
Usual teacher: Alex Case (?????@hotmail.com, 080 ????????)
You can get there from ????????, or ???????????? stations. The easiest one to navigate is ???????. Take the ????? exit and you will come out on the corner of a huge tower block with ??????? in it. Cut across the front of the building, past Excelsior café, until you come to a crossroads. You will see the ?????? Air building and the ?????? shrine on your right. You should also be able to see a Denny’s further up on your left. You need that building. Cross over the crossroads diagonally (not literally, will need to cross twice) and go into that building and up to the 8th floor. Pick up the white phone at the entrance and dial the first number on the list (Eigyo) and tell them that you are the English teacher for the lesson at 12. They will then accompany you down to the 4th floor and open the conference room for you. You can sometimes come early and get yourself set up, but sometimes they will sit you down to wait until a previous meetings finishes at 12ish.
The students will start drifting in about 12. They are all quite low level, but keen and not too shy. The main thing to note is that there is one blind student. The others help him out a lot, but if you are doing a reading you will need to read the text out slowly as they read etc. We play a lot of simple speaking games at the beginning and end of the lesson with some quick bookwork in the middle.
Last lesson: Job interviews role plays (Can), Can you swap jobs with your partner, Reading Lang to Go Elem U16.
Next lesson suggestions: Speaking game with can (Find something you can do and no one else in class can etc.) for revision, warmer for past tenses, U17 with game to finish. Set homework.
