Caireen Sever - Exchanging ideas | Delta Publishing

Exchanging ideas

Monday 31 January 2011

We have already mentioned how exciting it is to work as a business English teacher: there are always new business areas and new skills to learn. However, business English teaching can be a lonely profession- even if you work for an organisation you may be a long way from your school and only get to see your colleagues every now and again. As a freelancer you often work alone.

In our final posting, we’d like to look at how to exchange ideas with other business English teachers in order to find out new things, push yourself out of your comfort zone and reduce any feeling of isolation. We’d also like to encourage you to continue progressing in your career as a business English teacher, which is the focus of part C of the Business English Teacher.

If you don’t have regular contact with colleagues or work as a freelancer, what can you do? Well, if you live in a larger city, there may be an English teachers group you can join, or you could start one up. Alternatively, you may need to travel to a larger city every now and again to meet other business English teachers. Events such as training days and book launches can be a good place to start. The biggest event in Europe is the annual BESIG conference (see www.besig.org) which offers not only a way of making contacts but of finding out the latest developments in business English.

As you are reading this blog, it is probably safe to say that you are already used to using the internet as a way to exchange ideas. Blogging is one effective way, setting up groups on social networking sites such as Facebook or LinkedIn is another. There are also discussion forums on many websites such as onestopenglish.com. You could set up a Wiki (www.wikispaces.com) which is a great way to exchange ideas and even lesson materials with other members. Again, on the BESIG website, there is a section called “community” where you can get in touch with other people, including a link to the You Tube channel where you can watch presentations from the latest BESIG event.

You probably know many more. How have you managed to get in touch with other business English teachers out there and what benefits did it bring to you?

We look forward to hearing from you.

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Hania Kryszewska & Paul Davis (April to June 2012)
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