Business English courses

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I teach business English, using my background as a lawyer
and experience of working with students from major companies.

 

Blue chip clients

I am happy to travel to your base, in Europe or Asia, to teach English.

I was a lawyer for 20 years, and have since spent 5 years teaching general English, academic English and business English to students from all over the world, including executives from Hitachi, Barclays, HSBC, Deloitte, General Electric, EDF, SGN-Areva, Renault and many others.

Most people who teach business English have little or no experience of using it. I have 20 years' experience, most of it at high level:

  • I have written and received tens of thousands of business emails and letters
  • I have analysed thousands of formal documents such as medical reports, technical reports on systems and engineering, and company accounts
  • I have attended many meetings
  • I have been responsible for training and/or mentoring young lawyers
  • I have done many hours of public speaking, both in court as an advocate and in lecture halls as a Continuing Professional Development trainer
  • and I wrote a textbook for lawyers on my specialist area.
  •  

    After 20 years, it was time for a change, and I've always enjoyed teaching.

     

    They say that a teacher is only as good as the range of materials he has on his desk, and that's partly true. I produce many of my own business lesson materials; click the image for an example.

    Lesson on business meetings

    Business English textbooks

    Of course, I also use textbooks. For business English, I like Market Leader from Pearson ELT and In Company from Macmillan Education.

    When I first started to teach English, I didn't see why the major business coursebooks like Market Leader and In Company started at "elementary" level. This is CEFR A1, and it seemed too soon for a student to start learning specialist vocabulary. Then I tried business materials with a group of adult elementary students from Turkey and the UAE. They had been slow to learn with General English materials. What a revelation! Suddenly they saw how the lessons were relevant to them. The working day instantly became fun for all of us, and they were soon star students, making fast progress.

    Other textbook series for IELTS and general English are always useful too; and I've adapted many ideas from the textbooks, from other teachers, from the media and from real life.

    General English textbooks

    Some research on business English has found that only 25% of misunderstandings come from incorrect vocabulary, and only 10% are from incorrect grammar. The other 65% are from incorrect pronunciation. I like to teach pronunciation, and I do it more than most teachers.

    I also use all the typical classroom activities such as "Write a semi-formal email of request/ approval/ suggestion/ agreement/ chasing/ disagreement/ complaint"; "Use pre-taught vocabulary to arrange a meeting"; "Role-play a telephone conversation or a business meeting about XYZ"; "Write a verbal presentation, and work with me to perfect the way you pronounce it"; "Prepare and deliver a PowerPoint presentation of an imaginary product"; "Edit the report in Chapter 7"; "Discuss your timeline and priorities for a dam construction project"; "Organise an eight-person debate over proposals for a new airport," etc.

    I can do this in Britain or at your base in France, Germany, Japan, etc.

    International capital cities

    If you want an English course which is personalised, customised or tailor-made for your business activity, or for one aspect of your business activity, that is 'English for Specific Purposes'. Click here to find out more.

     

    Globe of the EarthMy name is Nicholas, and I'm an independent English teacher.
    I work anywhere in the world.
    Click here to read about me.

    Click here to read about my prices and availability.

     

    " If you have no goals, you are not likely to achieve them. " - Sun Tzu