If you have already taught English business skills in your country, you know that there is a lot more to it than just learning grammar and vocabulary. In order to give students the tools they need to succeed, teachers need to encourage them by using interesting, but practical activities to learn English skills in a good way.
Business English Class
Student discussion board While the field of Business English is still relatively new in North America and has garnered some mixed reactions among ESL students, how well it translates to an English class setting can be debated. Classroom or student activities that focus on acquiring general business knowledge and language skills are not effective when trying to drive transferable skills into their daily learning environment. This includes activities such as meeting specific deadlines for producing university portfolios (in former places like your personal office), conducting meetings via Skype (sound quality varies and both the parties are often recording their own files), or toying with Microsoft Word spreadsheets.
9 essential skills for business students
Being able to function in social situations is a key part of life. We are taught how to behave at school, but you need to know almost all business schools do not provide students with HOW TO BE SOCIAL while they attend their classes and work on projects outside of the classroom as teamwork. Therefore, teachers need to make extensive use of activities that teach learners how to be socially efficient between themselves as well as with different groups within their system or country. Business students often have to communicate with people from different cultures, who speak very differently from them.
1. Listening actively
This is not being a passive listener. Active Listening means that you can:
- Follow the instructions given to you, without interrupting and ignoring or asking questions (even though those are harder listening skills).
- Ask for clarification of what was said in order to obtain more information from someone else who may be having difficulties understanding it. (Giving too much detail on something could communicate with your answer worse than just stating ‘I don’t really understand’ or, worse still, ‘I haven’t got any idea; leave it out).
- Summarise a conversation that you have participated in and what the noises were each time (this is not so tricky but can teach the importance of structure).
2. Giving feedback
This might seem like common sense: ‘Do your best, but few students are actually encouraged to take this part into consideration while they practice their other skills above. The 5/10ths trick is all very well and a great way of slightly improving everything, but it is unrealistic if you want to learn how to be social without any real help. Moreover, there are instances when partially failing could actually give you the greatest learning benefit while only giving partial results.
3. Influencing others
Because they are being taught how to do things, 10 students acting individually in the hope of getting different results is not going to work. The way you should be expressing your ideas/desires is far more effective by giving it credibility and therefore bringing about change for yourself and others faster. Here are a few ways that could help:
- Get someone else who agrees with them (even if this person dares speak up).
- Being convincing implies you clearly identify your aims and what is at stake: that makes it much easier to involve other people’s skills.
- Encourage each member of the class/team (or get involved in conversations in the English course) by using repeated phrases such as ‘Ok, let’s see if we can…’, or words they could repeat themselves with while asserting their effectivity.
- Using various methods although convincing means only I can do it rather than just me saying so ( one voice type can’t always be as persuasive and convincing as many of it).
4. Negotiating successfully
This is a skill one must develop better. A career as an auto mechanic does not enable you to negotiate for any repair despite the provider whether he accepts or opposes your conditions, and vice versa. If several people work together in an order-book system at bookstores each customer has his own bookshelves…if there are only three of them all 3 have the same shelf but if they want another book now it’s difficult because they cannot agree on which one is going to have the book.
5. Dealing with different communication styles
This is the least useful part they help students a lot whether it’s in the business or HR field these are often confused with argumentative skills. Arguing isn’t necessary until one side wins and that can be detrimental to both parties with legal consequences if it gets out of hand. Plus very few people create campaigns for any cause unless carrying something positive before getting there.
Many communication strategies, including role play and simulation games, have been used by psychology practitioners as a means of helping employees develop and refine their social skills.
6. Creating a positive impression
To be understood easily and respected by others of high ability. See 1- – “1”. Notice how this engages the listener’s natural self-interest that one must have in such tasks: it is not just an achievement for the individual but rather a demonstration of his/her commitment, concern, and ‘performative’ nature he has been practicing from early ages.”
7. Speaking clearly and concisely
Students need to learn to express their ideas very clearly and precisely in a way that leaves little room for misunderstanding. However, studying communication skills can be hard if you do not have the necessary experience to learn as most of the books on communication concepts are reading or theoretical material aimed at higher education students who are well skilled in the English language but need practice using it for professional purposes.
8. Auxiliary Skills in language learning
I know no one wants an auxiliary skill because theoretically, you don’t need it. I say that because it’s a hidden skill, something we’ve all had to learn and use in the face of new challenges (as any person will) or confidence problems they can’t seem to overcome which is why good auxiliary skills are often underestimated when someone tries standing out/getting attention among people in general.
The auxiliary skill is to make yourself available for someone else both emotionally and/or physically according to the situation without being told, a simple example would be when you are invited by your friend’s wife on a date or meeting her family of two years old.
9. Defining your tasks
This can become hard when trying to answer a general question in critical thinking in which you have very large responsibilities on your hands and therefore should know how things will pan out after answering such questions like: ‘what do u want me to achieve with this leadership internship’ or the situation gets even closer with potential customers meaning “who are they?”, it may be hard sometimes remembering what the exact impression you intend to give off through our actions, moreover we might come across as cold at first ( not sure but that’s a possibility)
All in all, these are just some of the questions that come to mind when you’re trying to think of what your strengths and weaknesses are. It is always good to be self-aware and learn from past mistakes as a good learner, as we grow older it becomes more important than ever. We have been given the chance to experience many things in our lives, this means that we can use those experiences to make ourselves better people or help others grow too.