Learning anything will be more effective if it is supported by appropriate media. It is the same case if we want to learn business English. Moreover, if you join an English course whose students are competent and ambitious, you need to be more diligent. You can study by utilizing any media to support your learning process.
Then, what if you are the teacher who should teach your students with different personalities and capabilities? If you are the teacher and you are supposed to teach business English to your competent students, you need to provide any interesting media. You can also introduce the media to your students so that they can utilize the media when learning independently outdoors. Then, if you are confused about what media you should use, you can see the discussion below.
Some Learning Media for Business English That You Can Use
If your profession is being a business English teacher, mastering general lessons about business is not enough. Of course, you also need to be more creative and innovative in conducting your class so that the learning activities will be more interesting for students.
One of the things you can do is provide interesting media for learning business. Let’s see the media below!
1. Business Podcast
Nowadays, podcasts become effective media for sharing useful information, or for entertaining people, or for providing various knowledge. Of course, you can utilize the media for teaching business English effectively and efficiently. It can help your students train their listening comprehension, and they can also enrich vocabulary from this activity.
Some of the applications that you can download for your teaching activities are Google Play Music, Apple Podcast, or CastBox. If you have downloaded the applications, you can just search for what you need, for example by using the keyword ‘Business English’ or ‘Business Podcast’.
In the classroom, you can introduce this media to your students, then give them some assignments about business cases. Ask them to listen to a certain podcast and then they have to answer the questions you share. They can do the assignment individually or cooperatively, depending on the type of the assignments.
2. TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design)
TED is one of learning references that provide a collection of conversations from experts, business leaders, artists, or other influencers. TED’s mission is sharing ideas to all people around the world and providing the media for discussion of particular issues or topics. There are a lot of videos you can watch there, and some of those have duration within eighteen minutes, so it won’t be boring to watch.
In that media, there are many options of translation that are free to access. Therefore, you can find any videos that you or your students need in the classroom.
Then how to use this medium? See the list below to know the ways to use TED as a medium for learning or teaching business English.
- Search for relevant videos for your teaching or based on students’ needs.
- If the duration of the video is too long, you can focus on the important one, and skip other parts which are unnecessary.
- Download video transcripts in TED, then focus on important vocabularies and structures that are considered unfamiliar for students.
- Show the video in your classroom, then ask your students to give some questions about the topic discussed in the video.
- Share transcripts to the students so that they can find the vocabularies which they haven’t known before.
- Continue the discussion till the students can make a brief presentation about the topic.
3. Twitter
Twitter is a popular medium that is commonly used by young people. Besides, we can use it for entertaining or sharing information or communicating with other people online. We can also share photos, news, or ideas in a short post (tweet). For your information, Twitter can be said as a well-organized medium because you can know a viral topic only by seeing hashtags (#). Of course, it can help you to provide the updated topics for your students. Because the discussion about business can be so large, your students should always upgrade their knowledge by following the latest topics about the business world.
Then, how to use this medium for your teaching? You can see the steps below:
- Ask your students to search for an article that is related to business topics. Then, ask them to summarize the content of the article by using their own words. After that, they can share what they have found to other students in the classroom activities.
- You can also search for a certain article independently, then use it for the teaching medium. Write the main idea of the text and your interpretation towards it, so you can understand what it is about, then you can share your understanding to your students easily.
- Discuss the article you have provided or your students have looked for, then guide your students to draw a conclusion from each article.
- Ask the students to write a tweet about the article points in their Twitter account. From this activity, they will learn how to write and to share opinions online with people around the world.
4. Business News Website
There are a lot of business news or report websites that you can utilize for teaching or learning media. Of course, sometimes you need to discuss some cases happening nowadays, and using this medium is a very good way. You can invite your students to read the news together, then guide them to take the main points from the article.
In classroom activities, if you use this medium for teaching, make sure that you don’t select sensitive topics like religion or politics. If the aim of using this medium is for learning business, then pick business topics that are relevant with the subject your students are learning.
Those are the media that you can use for teaching business English to your students. If you may be in the position of a student when reading this article, you can also utilize those media to learn independently at home. There are a lot of benefits you can gain after using those media, especially for improving your business English skills.
Tips to Master Business English Fast
Sometimes, a person wants to master business English fast because of particular reasons, probably for working or anything else. However, if you have never learned this subject before, you will be confused about how to start learning. Then, knowing some tips to learn this subject fast is the best thing you can do.
Here are some tips that guide you to learn business English fast. For your information, these following tips can be used for both teachers and students. If you’re currently teaching this subject, you can introduce these tips to your students so that they can be more excited during their learning process. However, if you’re currently a student who has just started learning business English, then you can follow these tips to learn this subject fast by implementing every single tip written on the following points.
1. Be Diligent to Read Newspapers or Websites about Business
Newspapers can be used for learning business English fast. If you rarely find this in your country, then visiting websites containing business news is the best solution. Nowadays, people can access anything online, especially recent information about business. Of course, it will be so useful for business English learners. They can try to comprehend the article they have read, then draw the conclusion to know the main points of the text.
You can read the news articles on websites once or twice in a week. Make sure that you always note the new vocabularies you have never heard before. The more vocabulary you memorize, the better your speaking and writing skills are. Then, what sites can you visit for learning business? One of the popular sites is BBC Business News or Business Week.
2. Watch Business and Finance Report on TV
Some people have difficulty in learning business through websites because of internet data or connection. If you are one of those people, you can turn to other solutions. You can still watch business and finance reports on TV. Sometimes TV stations will invite a successful businessman to share anything about their business. So, you can at least take fifteen to thirty minutes to watch the report every week or every day. From this activity, you will get a lot of insight and new vocabularies about business that can help you improve your skills.
3. Watch TV Series or Movies
Watching TV or movies is also the best way to improve your English. You can gain a lot of new vocabulary from this activity. You can also train your listening, so you will be more accustomed to listening to English words. While watching movies, note some expressions or phrases that you can use in your business conversation.
If you face difficulty in understanding the movies, then activate the subtitles, so you will know what the actors exactly say. Some movies recommended for you are The West Wing, Wall Street, Wolf of Wall Street, and Mad Men.
4. Set Your Goals
Setting the goals you want to achieve will help you to learn business English fast. Make sure that you have known what your purposes of learning this subject are. The vivid purposes will influence how serious you are in the learning process. If you have known your learning purposes, then you can make small targets in your daily activities, such as memorizing five new vocabularies, or listening to the news for fifteen minutes, or other targets. If you have set your targets, then you have to be consistent every day.
5. Study Diligently
There will never be smart and competent people without studying hard. If you want to focus on learning business, then you have to be diligent in your studies. You can train your speaking or writing skills at home constantly. Practice what you have learned and never be insecure with your ability. If you want to train your speaking, then speak loudly in your practice. By speaking loudly, your muscles will be more relaxed when you are speaking English. Your brain will also record what you have spoken. Of course, this activity will be very beneficial for you. The more you do this activity, the better your speaking is.
6. Surround with Business English Learners by Taking a Course
If you want to be fast in speaking English, especially for business purposes, then you need to surround yourself with people who are learning this subject too, or who are passionate about it. How to find a situation that offers effective learning with the same visionary learners? You can have this experience by joining a business English course. This way will help you to surround yourself with people who have the same learning visions. You can gain new knowledge from them as well as sharing any ideas about the business world. Of course, it is also possible to have English conversations with them because they themselves also want to master business English fast for particular purposes. Isn’t this situation more exciting for you?
7. Review the Lessons Before Sleeping
Before sleeping, make sure that you take your time for memorizing new vocabularies or reviewing the lessons you have learned before. This activity will help you to recall anything you have learned because learning something needs repetition, so it cannot be done once or twice. Therefore, reviewing the lessons is also useful to make you master this subject fast.
Those were the effective media you can use for learning or teaching business English. You can also implement the learning tips recommended in this article that can help you to master this subject fast. Select the best media and tips based on your learning styles from now on!
