TBE Teaching Business English 3-day extension course.


A practical course focusing on areas of teaching Business English such as needs analysis, using technology, blended learning and teaching presentations. This course is suitable for recently graduated teachers with up to 2 years´ experience in General English or Business English teaching.

Teaching English to company employees can require different approaches and skills to teaching "general English", groups are often much smaller and usually have specific requirements relating to the contexts they will need to use English in. The aim of the course is to further your knowledge and expertise in teaching in the Business English environment.

Duration	Fees**	Starting dates	Apply now
3-day intensive on-site*	€ 225	click here	Application form online
3-week on-line	€ 225	23rd November 2009 8th February / 7th June 30th August / 22nd November 2010	Application form online

* 14 hours tutor plus 6 hours group work.
** € 175 for OxfordTEFL graduates.



Course Overview, Aims of the Course, Course Content
Why a TBE Course?
How to Apply, Assessment, Course Timetable
The Trainers, Course Testimonials
What is an On-line Course Like?

Aims of the Course

By the end of the course you will have a greater understanding of how to approach teaching in companies. The aim of the course is to further your knowledge and expertise in teaching in the Business English environment. The content is practical and will include ideas and material you can take and use in your classes.

Course Content

Input sessions

The input sessions will be with tutors who are experienced Business English teachers, with a strong emphasis on group participation. The following areas are covered.

• Needs analysis, setting objectives and giving feedback


• Using course books
  
• Authentic materials
  
• Teaching one-to-one
  
• Authentic tasks and role/real plays
  
• Presentations
  
• Technology
  
• Blended learning
  
• Making the most of your environment
  
  

As well as this there are self-study or group-work tasks. These differ for the on-line and face-to-face course.

Face-to-face: 3 group work tasks which focus on different areas of the course. They involve looking at a case study group and planning lessons and activities for them using a range of materials from Business English language teaching sources and business sources. Peer teaching will be done in some of the tasks. The groupwork is an important part of the course and to receive your certificate you will have to fulfil the requirements of the tasks to a satisfactory standard.

On-line: The course is divided into three weeks and for each week there are three sessions. For each session there are a range of tasks to choose from that will suit your situation. For example, if you are a new teacher and are already teaching,u can choose tasks that involve trying out activities in your classes and reporting back on their success. If you haven't started teaching yet, you can choose tasks which involve evaluating material, and making lesson plans or outlining activities for a given student group. For both of the courses you will receive feedback from an experienced tutor on your work.

- Teaching practice / Observation
As part of the course you will have the opportunity to shadow an experienced teacher in a Business English class. You will be able to participate in the class and talk about the experience afterwards.

Why a TBE Course?

Many people think teaching Business English requires a specialist knowledge or experience in business. While this may be an advantage, it is by no means a prerequisite. Actually, you find you learn about business on the job. What a Business English teacher does need to know is what makes a person a successful communicator in English. This course will help you to make the most of your classes and ensure you are meeting the needs of your students, whatever their situation.

How to apply

If you are registering for a CertTESOL course with us simply indicate on the application form which course you wish to attend. You will receive a discount of € 50.

If you have already completed a CertTESOL course with us, e mail us to let us know which course you would like to do. You will receive a discount of € 50

If you have not completed a course with us, please complete the On-line Application Form

Assessment

To pass the course and receive the certificate you will have to:

· attend 100% of the course

· complete the assessed tasks mentioned above to a satisfactory standard

Certificate

The OxfordTEFL Business English Certificate will state that you have passed the course, outline the components of the course in detail and state the length of the course.

Course timetable

The face-to-face course runs for three days from 9.30am. to 5.30pm.
The on-line course is over three weeks and you will have about 7 hours of work per week. There are three sessions per week each with their own input and tasks. You will be required to do a variety of tasks and will be given a selection of tasks to choose from to suit your experience and current situation.

The trainers

Our team of trainers have specialist experience in teaching Business English and teacher training. They have all worked with OxfordTEFL for at least five years and, as well as being tutors on this course, participate on the TESOL Certificate courses and the Diploma course we run at the school.

Course Testimonials

• "Although, the entire course has been helpful, there are definitely two things that I can say I am happy to be taking away from this course and that I feel can make me a better teacher in the future. Firstly, I am able to better see the differences and similarities between business and non-business classes. This has given me confidence as I hope to make a transition to teaching business English. Secondly, it has been almost six years since my certification and it has been great to be a student teacher again who will be taking away a long list of new ideas. It has been nice to also get extensions on some of my ideas and even to see that other people use some of the same activities that I have been using. Personally, this course is useful for me both as I consider making the transition to teaching Business English and as I continue to teach in a language school where some of my classes have become a little flat. "



• "I have definitely enjoyed this course. It has been easy to follow and gives good opportunity to be creative.
"


• "As others have said, I can't believe that we have nearly finished and I too have thoroughly enjoyed the course. I have found it stimulating and interesting and all of the subjects very relevant. Whilst I am not involved with teaching business English at the moment, this course has given me confidence to approach this area of work and I now feel well equipped to teach English to students in a business environment. I do, however, teach students on an individual basis and a lot of the course has helped me think about my teaching and how it could be improved. "
  
  
• "I'm really glad I've signed up to do this course. I've never done an on-line course and used to be quite sceptical about the quality of such courses. I'm very happy to be proved wrong. I've learnt a lot and picked up some great ideas on the content of Business English courses, use and adaptation of materials and lots more. If I had to single out one part of the course that I liked most it would probably be Authentic Materials. It gave tons of good suggestions and made me less scared of using technology for my teaching.
I think doing this on-line course is a very good option if you work and don´t have time to do the intensive three-day course. Also you can participate from anywhere in the world. I found the materials and texts used very interesting and useful. "

Recommended reading

Teach Business English by Silvie Donna - Published by Cambridge
This book provides a practical introduction to Business English for new and experienced teachers, and deals with a range of issues from needs analysis and course planning to testing and evaluation.

How to Teach Business English by Ivan Frendo - Published by Longman
The How to…series offers practical teaching ideas within a clear, theoretical framework. Each title includes a photocopiable 'Task File' of training and reflection activities to reinforce the theories and practical ideas presented.

The following websites also offer useful material and articles.

Onestopenglish.com
Besig.org




About on-line learning with OxfordTEFL

We believe that distance learning works best when it captures, as far as possible, the dynamics of face-to-face learning, even when that means less flexibility (see below). A sense of isolation can cause people to drop out of distance learning courses. Our Distance/On-line Teaching Business English Courses have the following key features, which ensure motivation remains high:

Variety of ways of learning
Through our virtual learning environment you will use the internet to communicate with tutors and fellow course members, access materials and complete learning tasks.

Interaction
Our virtual learning environment (VLE) allows you to communicate individually and collectively with tutors and other course members, both for social and study purposes. You will be assigned individual, group and pair tasks, as in a "real" classroom with the difference that, instead of all working at the same time (synchronised) you can log on and off and contribute at times which are convenient to you. You may, on a few occasions, be required to log on at the same time as other course members for "lessons", "conferences" or "chats" in the virtual classroom.

A real class of fellow students
In many distance courses, learners start and finish courses at any time of the year and join an infinite number of other distance learners at various stages of their course. Our courses have start and finish dates and a defined group of participants, just like our face-to-face courses. You will have tasks and deadlines to keep and be expected to maintain an appropriate rhythm (see above). In other words, flexibility is limited in order to maintain motivation.



Learning how to learn on-line
As well as learning about teaching and language you will have the opportunity to experience and reflect on the nature of on-line learning itself.

Ease of use
You will find it easy to use the virtual learning environment, even if you are relatively unfamiliar with this kind of learning and there will be plenty of support and guidance from tutors to deal with any queries and make sure you are on track.

We use “Moodle”, a “virtual learning environment” (VLE), which allows you to:

• upload and download course information and material
• access materials on and off-line
• participate in live and non-synchronised discussions
• send work to tutors and receive feedback
• communicate with tutors and other members of the class individually and as a group
• interact in ways similar to a real classroom with the advantage of being able to access it at times convenient to you
We use Skype/Messenger or telephone for personal tutorials.



You will need to have regular access to a computer with internet connection, but won’t need to spend huge amounts of time actually on line.

We recommend you install Skype if you don't have it already to take advantage of cost-free calls to tutors. www.skype.com