How to Teach Business English: Tips, Techniques and Advanced Strategies

Teaching Business English is not necessarily more difficult than teaching general English – but it does require a more focused, tailored approach. Students in a business context often have specific goals, professional expectations, and, in some cases, advanced language needs that differ from what you’d see in a general English classroom.

This guide outlines practical tips for teaching Business English effectively, from needs analysis to teaching advanced lexis and idiomatic language – with techniques and examples you can use right away.

Why Business English Is Different

Business English learners usually come with clear objectives: to improve their ability to communicate professionally, write effective emails, deliver presentations, participate in meetings, and interact with colleagues and clients.

Unlike general English, they often:

• work in specialised industries with sector-specific jargon.
• need to communicate professionally and adapt their tone to different cultures.
• have to interpret idiomatic language that comes up in business media or when interacting with native speakers.

Your role as a teacher is to help bridge these gaps – by focusing on relevant skills, context-specific language, and strategies for understanding and using professional English confidently.

Start with a Needs Assessment

Before you plan any lessons, conduct a thorough needs assessment. This should ideally happen in your first lesson and can also double as a great ice-breaker. Even if this has been done for you by the language school where you work, it’s still useful to ask questions like:

• What are your main goals for this course?
• What tasks do you typically perform in English? (e.g., phone calls, emails, negotiations)
• What do you have most difficulty with?
• Do you interact more with native speakers or other non-native speakers?
• Do you need specific vocabulary related to your field? (e.g. finance, legal, IT)

The smaller the group (or if you have a one-to-one student), the more you’ll be able to tailor your lessons to each learner’s answers. But in larger group classes – especially when following a set Business English coursebook – it’s harder to address each student’s specific needs unless the whole group shares the same job role. In these cases, aim for what they have in common (like email writing, meetings, or presentations) and supplement with optional activities or individual feedback where possible.

If you have a one-to-one student, your questions can get very specific about exactly what your student needs to be able to do (more on this later).

Focus on Real-World Communication Skills

Business learners typically value practical skills they can immediately apply at work. Some areas you will commonly focus on include:

Telephone and Video Calls

Role-plays are ideal here – for example with students seated back-to-back to simulate not seeing each other. Practise leaving and taking messages, clarifying details, and handling miscommunication.

Email Writing

Teach students how to start and end emails appropriately, and practise with realistic scenarios. Focus on clarity, formality, and tone, as well as common collocations used in professional correspondence.

Meetings and Networking

Simulate business meetings where students can practise agreeing, disagreeing, presenting points, and politely interrupting. Include “small talk” practice to help them build rapport in informal situations, like at dinners or conferences.

Presentations

Help students organise their thoughts, use signposting language, and present clearly. Video recordings can be a great way for students to reflect and improve.

Cultural Awareness

Be sure to address cross-cultural differences in communication styles, politeness, and formality – particularly if students work with international clients or colleagues.

Teaching Groups vs. One-to-One in Business English

One of the unique aspects of Business English teaching is how different it feels depending on whether you’re teaching a group or working one-to-one.

Teaching Groups

In a group setting, you’ll often have to:

• Balance differing levels, goals, and needs.
• Focus on skills and language that are broadly useful – such as meeting etiquette, small talk, and more general business vocabulary.

Groups sometimes follow a set coursebook, which can make lessons feel more like general English but in a business context. This is often necessary in larger classes and when the members of the group don’t share the same role. If possible, find ways to personalise around the edges – even small tweaks to examples or role-plays can make lessons feel more relevant.

Teaching One-to-One

One-to-one teaching allows you to personalise lessons completely. You can focus intensively on what the learner needs that week, even that day. This might include:

• Preparing for a specific presentation.
• Drafting or improving an important email.
• Practising for a difficult phone call or job interview.

You can go into very specific detail with that particular need. Here’s an example of how you might do that when working on an email.

Example: Working on a Specific Email

1. Start with the email: Read the draft together and discuss its purpose, audience, and tone.
2. Break it down: Sentence by sentence, check clarity, organisation, tone, and any awkward phrasing.
3. Brainstorm alternatives: Write down more professional or natural ways to phrase key parts.
4. Integrate and rewrite: Have the learner apply improvements to create a revised version.
5. Compare drafts: Discuss what improved and why, reinforcing learning.
6. Expand the learning: Create a checklist or template the learner can reuse for similar emails.

With one-to-one teaching, it’s also important to be aware of who you’re teaching – a CEO, for example, will likely have limited time, expect the session to be highly efficient, and appreciate a teacher who gets straight to the point without unnecessary small talk or irrelevant exercises. Be prepared, and respect their schedule by focusing only on what they need most urgently that day.

Using AI in Business English Teaching

With the rise of AI tools like ChatGPT, you have powerful new ways to enhance Business English lessons. AI can’t replace you (yet) – but it can save time, inspire creative activities, and give learners more opportunities to practise outside of class.

Ways to use AI effectively include:

• Drafting and refining texts: Use AI to generate alternative phrasings for emails, presentations, or reports and discuss them critically with the learner.
• Simulating conversations: Have learners role-play business scenarios with an AI chatbot for extra speaking practice.
• Vocabulary practice: Generate example sentences, synonyms, or quizzes for business idioms or jargon.
• Homework: Set AI-based tasks, such as asking learners to draft an email and have AI review it before class.

Note: Always remind learners to evaluate AI output critically, as it can sometimes be culturally inappropriate or linguistically odd.

Teaching High-Level Business Lexis and Idiomatic Language

For more advanced students, teaching high-level vocabulary and idiomatic expressions becomes essential – particularly for those who interact with native speakers or read business media.

The business world is full of idioms. Here are just a few:

• ahead of the curve
• back to the drawing board
• the big picture
• blue-sky thinking
• by the book
• cut corners
• a game plan
• in the loop
• learn the ropes
• on the same page
• touch base
• set the bar high
• flush with cash
• trim the workforce

These are often more useful receptively than productively at first. Help students recognise and understand them without pressure to use them immediately.

Sample Lesson Framework: Teaching Business Idioms and Advanced Lexis

Here’s a basic framework for a lesson to introduce some idiomatic business language.

1. Warm-Up Discussion: Discuss the topic that’s about to be introduced in the article or video clip.
2. Authentic Material: Read or watch a short article or clip containing target idioms.
3. Gist Task: Identify main ideas of the text or clip.
4. Focused Vocabulary Task: Infer meaning of idioms in context, discuss literal/metaphorical meaning, drill pronunciation.
5. Detailed Understanding Task: Answer specific comprehension questions or complete a gapped transcript.
6. Controlled Practice: Fill-in-the-blank sentences or dialogues using idioms.
7. Freer Practice: Role-play or discussion using idioms in realistic scenarios.
8. Follow-Up / Homework: Write sentences or find real-world examples of idioms to reinforce learning.

Continuous Feedback and Progress Tracking

Business learners expect measurable progress. Schedule regular feedback sessions to review goals, identify gaps, and reinforce what has been learned.

Final Thoughts

Business English is about helping learners communicate confidently and appropriately in professional situations. By combining needs analysis, targeted skills training, and advanced lexis, you can make your lessons highly relevant and impactful.

Adjust your approach to each learner’s goals, level, and time constraints – and you’ll help them succeed in their professional lives.