Communicative commercial English

Courses for company employees – held at the client’s venue

Concept

To increase business opportunities for companies by raising the English language skills of key employees very quickly and economically. This applies particularly to people working in any businesses who may need commercial English for import /export or travel.

How can this be done?

In the last few years. new and effective ‘Accelerated Learning’ methods mean that it is possible to learn as much practical spoken English on a short course as previously in many years of study at school with traditional methods!

Course provider: Brain-Friendly Learning (Seminars) UK in conjunction with local organisers

The initial proposal is for courses at two levels

Level 1 Essentials of English

Target group

It is expected that most participants will have some elementary knowledge of English but will need help to gain confidence in speaking.

Entry level-Elementary

Outcome level (after 20 hours) is Council of Europe ‘Waystage’-the ability to communicate reasonably fluently and accurately on topics of day-to-day interest and travel.

Level 2 Communication for Commerce and Business I

Target group

It is supposed these participants will work(or be looking for work) in companies (or in tourism-related businesses) and that improved English skills will provide better opportunities.

Entry level: Participants will be at ‘Waystage’ level but need improved confidence and accuracy to use English for work. The level 2 course takes participants to ‘Threshold’ level , that is: the ability to communicate on work related topics ; to take part in meetings; to speak on the phone; to send clear emails.

Length of Course: both courses are 20 hours.

It is supposed that this is 3 hours per evening Monday to Friday plus 5 hours on the final Saturday (other timings can be arranged)

Materials and content:

Level 1
These are specially written by the Course Director to be relevant to the particular business region and to the companies participating ad to give learners the motivation of making rapid progress.

The Course Director will liase closely with the organisers to make sure that particular needs are met.

Course content: Level 1: We concentrate on gaining the confidence to SPEAK English; on correct use of a selection of key verbs in the basic Past, Present, and Future tenses; on learning a very practical vocabulary; and on learning to use very useful ‘generative’ phrases. Help will be given with writing basic emails.

Level 2

We use a new Course ‘Enterprise Europe’ written by the Course Director and authorised as an official European Union Leonardo language project. We revise the basics and go on to: activate business vocabulary for describing products and processes, discussing terms of payment, taking part in meetings, travel and entertaining. We also introduce new grammar as appropriate.

The teaching method

We use ‘Brain-friendly’ accelerated -learning methods in a relaxed, encouraging, atmosphere. Techniques include pictures to learn grammar, mini-role-plays, memory-maps, colour-coding and other study skills.

Group size 4-12 people

Dates for 2005- Choice of weeks available

Cost of the Course

Course tuition fee £1200 (group up to 12)

Plus travel and accommodation

With some flexibility of time tabling it could be possible(and economically advantageous) to have ‘day-time’ and ‘evening’ courses running during the same week (at the same or at different levels according to demand).

Brain-Friendly Learning (Seminars)

The Director of Brain-Friendly Learning is Mark Fletcher (Master of Arts, Oxford University) who has taught Business English for thirty years and has developed many of the methods used on the Course. He is Director of Teacher Training for a major Language School, author of many teaching resources, runs courses for teachers from many countries including a number of Swiss Cantons, and is a BBC World Service speaker on the brain and learning.

Follow up

A natural extension of the programme would be for participants to attend a full ‘immersion’ course in England at the School of English Studies, Folkestone.