Resources For Business English

One of the most current resources for Business English teachers is in fact the Business Travel Logue. Nearly every day, Loguer Carrie, a business traveler herself, posts links to a plethora of business travel news in the Daily Dose post. The best part is, the Business Travel Logue is just one click away from the TEFL Logue.

I searched through a few Daily Doses for news articles which I would use in class, and my picks were 1) “Use tech, not your car” and, 2) “Idle taxis, running meters”, both from Daily Dose 10.26, 3)”KLM slammed over eco pledge” from Daily Dose 10.31, and 4) “Airline luggage curbs eased” from Daily Dose 10.30.

I chose these four because of their length (short enough to read relatively quickly but long enough to provide something worthy of summarization) and content (topics which are probably relevant to a wide array of students and on which they are likely to have or be able to form some kind of opinion on). I would stress to the group that as these come from authentic English sources, it’s alright and to be expected that they don’t understand every word; I’d say these would provide challenging material for students at Upper-Intermediate level or above, possibly for a motivated and not overly-detail-focused Intermediate group.

I might use these as a longer warmer in class; write the titles up on the board along with two vocabulary words from each – I’d try to elicit the meanings of the words from students, then ask them to predict which words came from which text. First, they’d do a jigsaw reading for gist and see if their predictions were correct, then they’d read in order to summarize their article for their partner or group that read other articles. For a longer activity, I might get each student or pair to write two or three questions about their article to ask the other students or for discussion.

For other Business English resources, try the BBC Learning English Business English section, where you can read, listen to and/or watch ten parts of a business trip, and the English Club Business English section, where you can get sample business letters or negotiation tips, including a case study.