Business English Communication

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The role of the business English ESL teacher has been augmented. Business English ESL teachers are now communication coaches. This aspect of business English takes ESL teachers to another level and raises the bar for what is to be expected of a business English ESL teacher. The work of ESL teachers certainly takes on another dimension when they are spoken of as "business English coaches" or "business English communication coaches". Let's talk about what it means to be a business English communication coach or a communication coach.

What do you think? What are your ideas? What do you think it means to be a communication coach in the context of ESL or EFL?

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A business communication coach could be inclined to say the following:

I think you should speak with more volume, and by the way, using correct intonation patterns is not enough. Think about the words that you think are important and give them some added stress or added volume. This helps your audience to remain focused on your presentation. Speaking in a monotone at a low volume is not going to make what you have to say at a meeting or at a presentation convincing and will not effectively convey your message.

English language speakers are very much in the habit of using emphatic stress, contrastive stress, and new information stress. This keeps listeners focused on the speaker. Added expression is imporant. It goes hand in hand with the content. Added expression helps you say what you want to say, it gets your point across more effectively, and most important of all, it keeps the listeners interested in you and your message.

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When you speak, make eye contact. No eye contact at all could be interpreted as a sign of insincerity. It could appear to be weak to some people. If you're speaking to one person, you don't have to maintain constant eye contact, but no eye contact at all is not good. If you are speaking to group of people at a presentation or at a meeting, be sure to look around and make eye contact with each person from time to time. Don't look down at your notes or stare at the table. Look up at people. This shows confidence and sincerity.

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The next time you go to a customer's location with the sales rep, be sure to tell him that you want to tell the receptionist who you are and say why the two of you are there. Tell Mike you need more practice speaking up in English. I'm sure he'll understand.

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Hi, I'm Taro from EJ Engineering, and this is Mike. We have a ten o'clock appointment with Roy.

When you say this, speak up and look at the receptionist.

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Business English Communication Coach

What does this mean to you?

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A business English communication coach guides ESL speakers to function better in these circumstances:

• meetings
• presentations
• speaking to clients
• speaking to business associates
• communicating well with managers
• improving written language skills
• understanding formal and informal registers
• speaking on the telephone

A business communication coach helps students feel confident that they are using English correctly and effectively.

A business communication assists students in becoming more competent when using English for professional purposes.

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If grammar is not challenging enough for ESL students, then there's something else that could be even more challenging: speaking and writing English that sounds natural to native speakers of English.

I ask students to write dialogs in which they have to set up an appointment or a time to do something with two other people. The catch is that the other two people do not immediately agree on a date and time. This requires the student to write at least three dialogs, as there will surely be at least three phone conversations.

I correct the errors in the dialogs, and revise some of the language to make it sound like more natural English, or English that native speakers are more accustomed to hearing.

We use the dialogs as a text for pronunciation lessons.

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Supplementing business English communication courses with material from sites such as the ones listed below can be helpful. However, there's a lot to choose from, so selecting the material that is just right for the situation is very important. You can't just bring anything to a class or a lesson. Customization is the key. You have to customize English language lessons and English language courses.

Business English Podcasts

• business english pod
• ESL Pod Business English
• English Pod Business

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It is essential that ESL business communication coaches learn as much about their students' work as possible. If teachers are to assist students in bringing their English skills to the next level, then learning about their students' work and the language they use for work is crucial.

Knowing about my students' work and how they use English at work provides me the opportunity to be not only an English language teacher, but to also be an English language consultant and a business English communication coach.

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