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Drawing up a Syllabus for Business English

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Apr 1, 2000

Language training in the business field is more pressured than general English teaching. Clients have limited time to attend courses; they want maximum results often for minimum effort -I don't mean this disparagingly - they just haven't the time to spend on studying; they are more likely to want to restrict the fields of language they practise to their own professional or commercial interests; they often like to feel more in control of the contents and methods used on the course; they will probably make swift judgements about the effectiveness of the training, based on results. The general conclusion from such observations is that business English has to be intensely client-centred. The challenge for the trainer is to be flexible enough to respond to the disparate needs of the various groups and individuals taking the course.

The Shortcomings of the Needs Analysis
It is generally held that the conducting of some form of needs analysis before the course will go most of the way to solving the problems of syllabus design. It's a nice theory, but I have to say that I have found that it seldom works in practice. This is simply because clients rarely complete the needs analysis sufficiently in advance of the course to allow any real chance of preparing material. It's the nature of the beast. As a trainer or training organisation, you may send out your forms well in advance, but the chances are that despite your deadlines, the clients will not respond until the last minute. While the needs analysis is a fine tool, as often or not it can't be used.

Suggested Solutions
Based on my experience of running 4-day intensive courses with French companies, I have come up with a syllabus menu that serves me and my clients well. I include the basic features of structure, vocabulary and pronunciation that are generally useful alongside communication skills and business activities that cover most situations clients are likely to meet. For each menu item I have practice activities, diagnostic and consolidation exercises and back-up material. We spend the first hour selecting the items that the group or individual will find most useful and so we have a client-centred approach to syllabus choice. Of course the menu needs to be constantly reviewed and updated, but I offer it here as it stands at present and would be very interested in feedback from anyone who tries using it.

A Structure, Vocabulary and Pronunciation

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