A personal look at the history of BE right up to the present day. I use a few key coursebooks to exemplify trends, discuss current ideas such as eLearning and ELF, and finish with a 6-point overview.
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionArticles
BEhereBEthere: an Adventure in eLearning
BEhereBEthere is my new eLearning site for Business English. I’m on an adventure into the world of eLearning and eTeaching. This is ‘my story’, but the article is also fun and controversial and about eLearning in general.
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionUsing mind maps in Business English
Mind Maps are a great tool to improve fluency. They prepare and scaffold both ideas and language. You’ll find plenty of recipe-style activities in this article.
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionWhite Paper: the language of report writing
Your students want to work on Report Writing. Help! What should you teach them? This white paper suggests sixteen areas, with priorities.
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionWhat Is Business English?
Are we a big happy BE family, or are we separate tribes? This article suggests some clear differences between pre-work and in-work contexts, but draws no firm conclusion as to whether we are tribally different.
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionTwo Out Of Three
This article is a written-up version of a talk given by Michael Swan, posted here with Michael’s kind permission. It argues that a balanced language course should consist of three kinds of Input (extensive, intensive and analysed), and similarly three kinds of Output (extensive, intensive and analysed). Michael argues that too many language programs focus… Read more »
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionROLO (PDF Version)
In English language teaching, ROLO is a technique for giving feedback at the board following a speaking activity. Instead of just correcting language, ROLO involves guiding students to produce better language for themselves, and it emphasizes developing language as well as just correction. This is a PDF article. On this site there is also a… Read more »
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionCultural contrasts in business (part 2)
Cultural contrasts in business Part 2 Presentations America/N. Europe Latin America/S. and E. Europe/Middle East Japan/China/E. Asia Opening Short opening. Comments are directed to everyone. Open by appreciating hospitality. Comments are directed to senior person. Polite, thankful opening. Comments are directed to everyone. Audience expectations Americans want jokes, modernity, slogans, informality and a hard… Read more »
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionCultural contrasts in business (part 1)
Cultural contrasts in business Part 1 Introduction About ten years ago I spent some time reading various books about cultural differences in business. I cannot now remember the titles and authors. I made a lot of notes. The document that I created that summarized the books has been sitting in my files ever since then… Read more »
Click here to read more or see a bigger versionColour-coded language activities
It is very easy to colour-code words with computers using the text highlight colour function. This button, between text effects and font colour in Microsoft Word 2010, can be used to create many visually appealing teaching activities. Font colour can also be used, and the two features can be used in combination. This technique will… Read more »
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